Festival IPA underway

I asked for one of these kits for my birthday just before Xmas and have finally got it underway (had time, spare bottles and dwindling Twherry).

I cleaned the FV, spoon, thermometer and hydrometer using my normal Soda crystal solution, rinsed a few times while scrubbing and then Videne solution (7.5ml in 3 litres of water) in the FV, swished around plenty and then left it with the tools while I had dinner.
Another swish and left the FV to drain while I unpacked the kit.

This kit has the malt in pouches which is great as you can squeeze the dregs out by rolling them like toothpaste.

So, malt in, 3 litres of boiling water, several 'warm' jugs of water to rinse out the pouches and in with the kit supplied dextrose. Good stir to get the malt suspended. The smell was lovely, very smooth smell and lighter in colour of course than say a Wherry malt tin.

Added the cold water up to 23 litres and stirred a plenty. Surprisingly the temp was already down to 22c so I was able to pitch the yeast (still dry) straight off. Light stir to get the yeast covered and lid on.

I've put it in my fermentation fridge and the instructions suggest a temperature of between 20-25 which is higher than say a Wherry or Wilko kit. I've set the fridge to 22.5 to allow for inevitable fluctuations. With the warmer weather the fridge was up to this temp while I was brewing.

Looked like it was just starting this morning with a slight pressure on the lid evident.

That's it for now. I'll leave it for around 10 days and then add the supplied hop pellets. Another 5 or 6 and I'll bottle it before two more weeks back in the fridge at 20c and then two weeks at 10c.

Added the hops late on Saturday (18th) and left them to sink. Krausen still there but fermentation has died down a lot as the lid of the FV wasn't doming or hissing when pressed. I will now keep an eye to see if the hop pellets restarts fermentation, but by the look I'm on for bottling next weekend around the 26th. I may leave it into the following week as I have more time in the evenings to bottle.

Look forward to some finished product photos, "malt in pouches" is a bag of extract?

Keith said:

Look forward to some finished product photos, "malt in pouches" is a bag of extract?

Click to expand...

Will do, yes the extract comes in plastic pouches (bags) like an uncle bens rice!! :)

Managed to bottle it last night (13/5/15).

So, this was in the FV for a grand total of five weeks (4 at 22c and 1 at 12c).
It was done after 4 weeks (I had the same readings three nights in a row) but I left it for a further week and dropped the temp down to help clear it (12c).
This means the hops were in there for around three weeks total which I may regret but hey!

The FG readings were all 1004 so I'm very happy with that as even with temp' adjustment that's showing pretty much 5.5% by my reckoning which is as stated.

I bottled into 42 bottles using the priming sugar that came with the kit, but primed in the bottle as that's my preferred method.

On bottling, the beer was quite clear, the trub was well settled and undisturbed throughout so I'm hoping for a quick clear in the bottle and little sediment post conditioning.

While bottling, it tasted a bit grassy and quite sharp, but nicely citrusy and clearly a good ABV! So, I'm expecting that as it goes through secondary and conditions it will soften a bit and result in a good to very good pint.

I've now stowed the bottles back in the fridge at 21.5c and they will stay there for 2 weeks to secondary ferment and then 2 weeks cold again to help clear. After that I'll try and wait another 2 weeks before the first sample end of June - hopefully a cracking IPA for the long hot summer :p

Managed to take a photo too and upload it!