Get'erBrewed Craft a Beer giveaway (Amber Malt)

Ryedale_Brassage · Oct 14, 2015

Well the kit arrived this morning, thanks to ManseMasher for sorting the giveaway (and for phoning to let me know about the rules mix up). My prize consisted of 2 cans of Muntons amber malt extract, 3 hop tea bags (Ella & Nelson Sauvin), 1 sachet of Safale US-05 yeast and a vial of liquid labelled 'Hop Bitterness 60 IBU'. There is also an instruction sheet.

Looking forward to trying this out, hopefully early next week. I will update this thread when I start brewing the kit.

Covrich · Oct 14, 2015

That is interesting they haven't given you traditional hops but what looks like some hop essence to bitter??? maybe totally wrong about that and 3 hop tea bags for flavouring??

wheazy_joe · Oct 14, 2015

Defo looks like hop essence for bitterness. Is the intention to reduce the length of the boil?

Ryedale_Brassage · Oct 14, 2015

The instructions have you making this like you would for a kit brew, but with the addition of 'Add your isomerised hop solution, this adds the hop bitterness to your malt extract'. There is no boil involved, the hop tea is added after 10 days in the fv (with a gravity reading of 1.015 or less).

Leon103 · Oct 14, 2015

What were the changes in rules

Marcarm · Oct 15, 2015

The prizes were sent out with our next order, meaning we had to order something in order to receive them. That wasn't in the original thread, but MM rang all the winners to let us know.

Bramble · Oct 15, 2015

Was there a minimum spend?

Dam I forgot to quote....I'm referring to the post above.. :doh:

Ryedale_Brassage · Oct 15, 2015

Bramble said:
Was there a minimum spend?

Dam I forgot to quote....I'm referring to the post above..

No minimum spend, but they don't appear to have reduced postage rates for small items. I wanted some more pale malt, so ordered 10kg of their Irish pale malt to try it out.

Cwrw666 · Oct 15, 2015

I was totally out of stuff for my next AG brews so ordered a bunch of American hops for what I've got planned. Their prices for American hops were actually quite a lot cheaper than other places I looked at, the difference more or less cancelling out the delivery charge. (I won the Light malt version by the way).

Ryedale_Brassage · Nov 5, 2015

Sorry for not posting sooner, actual brewday was on 23rd October. The initial brew was nearly the same as any other kit, apart from adding the isomerised hop solution (in this case 60 IBU's). I warmed the 2 cans in a pan of warm water. I also re-hydrated the yeast (Safale US-05) in some boiled and cooled water.

Then added these to boiling water in the fv, I also used some boiling water to rinse the tins to get as much of the extract out as possible.

Topped up with cold water to 23 litres as per instructions and added the hop bitterness solution. The temperature was 20 C at this point.

SG was checked and it was showing as 1.042.

The yeast was then added and I gave it a good stir for a couple of minutes to aerate the wort.

I then put the lid on and attached an airlock. The fv was then put in its usual corner, wrapped in a thick towel and a camping mat.

It had started bubbling away within a few hours, so left it to do its thing!

Ryedale_Brassage · Nov 5, 2015

Took a gravity reading yesterday and it was just below 1.015 so decided to add the hop tea as per instructions.

3 hop tea bags were supplied, they are a mix of Ella and Nelson Sauvin. It does not say what the split is between the 2 hop types.

It says to add the hop tea bags to a cup of boiling water for a few minutes. This might work if there was just one, but there was no way that 3 would fit into a normal size cup so I used a glass measuring jug.

It didn't take long for the pellets in the tea bags to soak up the water, I then added the tea bags and the little liquid that was left in the bottom of the jug to the fv.

I then sealed it up again. It will hopefully be ready to bottle by the weekend. The smell from the hop tea bags was pretty good.

I had a taste from the sample I took when measuring the gravity (unfortunately I didn't take a picture, but it looks like a nice amber coloured beer). It tastes quite bitter, which is to be expected, though not in a nasty way. At the moment it tastes like beer, without any distinctive flavour notes. It will be interesting to taste the difference when I bottle to see what the hop tea has added to it.

Bramble · Nov 6, 2015

Keep us updated will you please...:drink:

Ryedale_Brassage · Nov 9, 2015

I bottled this yesterday. The final gravity was 1.011, so I make that just over 4.1% abv. I have just under 21 litres (there are a mixture of 500ml and 330ml bottles).

I did have to empty 1 down the sink, as the neck broke on the bottle when I was capping it. That's the 1st time I can remember that happening to me.

The colour is as expected (amber)

Not as clear as it might be at the moment, but I am sure this will be sorted in the next 4 weeks.

The flavour is not too bad, strong bitter background with smell and taste of grapefruit and other citrus. Hopefully this will develop into something decent.

Ryedale_Brassage · Dec 6, 2015

This has had a couple of weeks in the house, and then a couple of weeks in the fridge since bottling. I tried it out last night and I am impressed. It has a definite grapefruit tone, with something else, slightly tropical, I would say. It is more bitter than I would usually go for, but it is not overpowering.

I like the colour, and it is beautifully clear. The wife also likes it, so I can't see this lasting long.

I have never made a premium kit, but as this had 2 cans of malt extract I would say that it is like a customised version of a premium kit. The quality is much better than your standard 1 can kit. I can imagine that this version would be a really nice refreshing beer to have in the summer. If you are a brewer who usually goes for 2 can kits, then I would suggest you give the craft-a-beer a try.

I will try and keep some back for a couple of months to see how it develops.

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