Couldn't find a thread anywhere for this, so here goes.
After a few hoppy kits I fancied a few more traditional ale, and the sound of the Oaked Ale was tempting in spite of a lack of reviews and a fairly hefty price tag.
The kit comes with 2 tins of fermentables, a sachet of American Ale Yeast (but only 6g!), and a 10g sachet of lightly toasted oak chips. I weighed the tins, net weight of each was 1.84 kg, so nearly 3.7 kg.
I mixed it yesterday, 14/2, pretty much in line with instructions which are fairly standard. I did add more yeast though to the yeast provided (Wilko's gervin yeast), and rehydrated it. When pitched the yeast started working within 2 hours. You add the oak chips after pitching the yeast and stir. OG was 1050. Instructions say to get it below 1014, so its pretty much on course for 5%.
The small portion of yeast I was expecting, another minor gripe is that when I warmed the tins the paper round the tin started to break up in the water which isn't helpful.
Instructions say to prime with spray malt, but the beer is a nice dark colour at the moment so I will probably stick with brewers' sugar.
My plan is to leave in the fermenter for 2 weeks and then check gravity.
Will update as I progress.
After a few hoppy kits I fancied a few more traditional ale, and the sound of the Oaked Ale was tempting in spite of a lack of reviews and a fairly hefty price tag.
The kit comes with 2 tins of fermentables, a sachet of American Ale Yeast (but only 6g!), and a 10g sachet of lightly toasted oak chips. I weighed the tins, net weight of each was 1.84 kg, so nearly 3.7 kg.
I mixed it yesterday, 14/2, pretty much in line with instructions which are fairly standard. I did add more yeast though to the yeast provided (Wilko's gervin yeast), and rehydrated it. When pitched the yeast started working within 2 hours. You add the oak chips after pitching the yeast and stir. OG was 1050. Instructions say to get it below 1014, so its pretty much on course for 5%.
The small portion of yeast I was expecting, another minor gripe is that when I warmed the tins the paper round the tin started to break up in the water which isn't helpful.
Instructions say to prime with spray malt, but the beer is a nice dark colour at the moment so I will probably stick with brewers' sugar.
My plan is to leave in the fermenter for 2 weeks and then check gravity.
Will update as I progress.
