Festival Pride of London

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noddyman

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I've just put my POL porter on in the hope of it being a splendid drink for ch*****as ( I can't type the full word, I might burn!). Just wondered if anyone has suffered any problems or has any advice. Hops going in in 5 days as instructions. Cheers in advance.
 
I've tried that kit I really liked it needs time to mellow as your brewing for December should be great I put my hops in on day ten and then the fv came back to life left in for another 7 days
 
I've tried that kit I really liked it needs time to mellow as your brewing for December should be great I put my hops in on day ten and then the fv came back to life left in for another 7 days
Day 10! Wow. Is that what you recommend me to do? Don't know if it makes a difference, but the part of the garage I've got the FV in is not short on temperature.
 
Festival kits need a longer ferment I find and if you bang the hops in too early you will drive off some of the flavour
 
I made this kit a while back. Lovely pint, will be re-visiting it when the season is more in line with darker beers.

As other have said really, don't go in too early with the hop pellets, if the fermentation is still fairly active then it will drive off the flavour. You can even go as far as letting it ferment out to near completion then lob in the hop pellets for 3-5 days before racking it off, depending as to how hoppy you want it to be, and it won't do any harm.

Be careful fermenting a too high a temperature, it can stress the yeast causing it to give off off tastes to the beer. A brew fridge is one of the best investments I made in home brewing.
 
I was day 9. Anyway, fermentation was at a standstill but the hops made it start off again for a few more days. Bottled it after 13 days from hop addition. Will let you know how it is in the Autumn but can say that the mouthful I got when bottling was certainly drinkable if not that interesting or deep.
 
Many thanks for your input. I'll leave it until 10 days and then add the hops. Had a look at the wort this morning and it has been active. Temperature has been between 23 and 25 so I'm hoping that's not to hot. As far as the "hoppiness" goes............I don't want it to hoppy!!
 
It will be too hoppy if you drink it too early but is really good when left to mature because I'm a pig and can't wait I drank half of mine too early but as with all home brew it just gets better with age
 
I normally stick to the instructions on these kits which says 5 days of dry hopping. After that and provided it has stopped fermenting / reached the target final gravity (1.009?) you are good to go with bottling.

The kit is supplied with the required quantity of priming sugar so if you want to batch prime just dissolve that in a small quantity of boiling water, cool it, add to your bottling bucket then syphon the brew out of the primary into it. The action of syphoning should mix the sugar solution in but you might want to give it a very gentle stir at this stage to ensure it is well distributed. Leave for half an hour or so with the lid on to settle and then crack on with bottling.
 
I have just tried a couple of samples of my London Porter, bottled about 4 weeks ago.

I am well chuffed with this. Although it is not the best time of year for a dark beer with a temp outside of 27C, the brew reminds me a little bit of Guinness although not as black.

I added hops after 9 days in the fv, and then put it straight into bottles after another 6 days (with a carbonation drop - because they are so simple).

A little extra brewing sugar was added, as I thought the beer could cope with it, and calculated the final strength as 6%, but given the effect that 2x500ml bottles has just had on me, I am beginning to think it may be nearer 7%.

I would love to keep this until Christmas, but I have a box of Muntons Santas Winter Warmer for that event. I must get it going soon. :grin: Hic!
 
I have just tried a couple of samples of my London Porter, bottled about 4 weeks ago.

I would love to keep this until Christmas, but I have a box of Muntons Santas Winter Warmer for that event. I must get it going soon. :grin: Hic!

Yes my plan is to keep the majority of it for ch*****as. I reckon it'll taste a lot better on a cold night in front of the log burner! Have patience my friend. :nono:
 
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