First Brew - St Peter's Golden Ale

[starkid721]

Hi all,
*
First post here – I have found all the information and brewing stories on here to be really inspiring, so thanks to all the previous posters.
I’m a total novice at brewing, but very experienced at drinking! First brew details are here below.
*
Took on a St Peters Golden Ale. Took the morning off work to try and make a decent fist of it to start with. Was careful to sterilise everything with no rush. The instructions with the kit were straightforward. The two tins went in the FV, whereupon I gave it a really good stir to aerate the mix.
*
Added the packet yeast and gave it a stir - controversial I know! I decided to stir in the in yeast rather than sprinkling it on top, simply because there was an awful lot of froth on top of the wort in the FV after my initial vigorous stirring to aerate it. I was worried about the yeast just sitting on top of the froth and not doing anything. After reading all the advice and lessons learned on here, I think next time I will try rehydrating the yeast and adding it as a liquid. OG came out at 1036. Although I didn’t appreciate it at the time, this seems to have been rather lower than might normally be expected.
*
The rubber grommit that came with my airlock bubbler had perished (I had borrowed it and it was rather old), so I just put some sellotape over the hole instead, piercing it with a pin a few times. FV then went in the cupboard under the stairs, where it stayed for 11 days.
*
It’s such a learning curve! I belatedly realised that the temperature under the stairs was only around 17⁰c, so for the last 3 days I have brought it out into the kitchen where the temperature is a more constant 20⁰c. I didn’t take the temperature of the wort when I pitched the yeast, so the gravity readings may be unreliable as well! Gravity reading yesterday was 1014. It’s been in the FV for two weeks now. I’m planning to bottle it tonight, but will be using normal table sugar (next time I will use brewing sugar).
*
Lessons so far. Ensure a constant temperature in the recommended brew range. Rehydrate the yeast before pitching.
Questions (which I will search on the forum for answers). Why would my OG have been so low?
*
I will try and add some pictures and update in the next few days following the bottling. I’m excited about it all, and I get the feeling that it’ll always be exciting at this stage, waiting and wondering…!
*

 

[Big_Stu]

The St Peters golden ale was my first brew and I was very impressed by it. It gets better with age tho, the last of mine had been bottles for about 6 months before it got polished off.

I've only ever bottled with table sugar and not noticed any ill effects yet

 

[BeardySi]

*
Lessons so far. Ensure a constant temperature in the recommended brew range. Rehydrate the yeast before pitching.
Questions (which I will search on the forum for answers). Why would my OG have been so low?

*

On the OG - It's a pure guess as I've not made that kit, but how much water did you add? A common mistake is people top it up WITH 23L (or whatever the instructions say) rather than TO 23L...

As for the yeast, hydrating is always good, I've found it speeds up the start of fermentation by 12 hours or so.

 

[starkid721]

Well after a couple of planned and cancelled bottling evenings, finally bottled it on Friday 11th. By this time it had been in the FV for 17 days.

Made a complete **** of the bottling, foam and beer everywhere, but various lessons learned. It's gone into bottles, 2/3rds of the bottles with normal table sugar, 1/3rd with brewing sugar just to see what difference it makes (I used the same half a teaspoon measure for both). Was planning to keep it indoors for 3-5 days before moving out to the cold, dark shed, but what do you think? Less/more time indoors?

Enjoyed it so much I started a Muntons Continental Pilsner today. Hoorah! Will post details of that on a new thread.

 

[Robbo100]

I would give it 2 weeks in the warm and then at least a week in the cold (but not so cold that it might freeze).

From my experience, 3-5 days in the warm isn't enough to get enough CO2 out of the fermentation. They yeast are pretty sluggish now that they are surrounded by alcohol (their waste product).

 

[starkid721]

Thanks for the replies! I'm just a little too excited to wait very long! Have put 1/3rd of the bottles out in the shed today. Will put another 1/3rd out there this weekend, with the final 1/3rd the weekend after - using it as an experiment in conditioning! The final 1/3rd of the bottles will have had just over 2 weeks in the warm by that time.

 

[starkid721]

Well all the bottles have now been out on the cold shed conditioning for a couple of weeks, and I'm suffering from the homebrewers curiosity! Have sampled a number already! :drink:

It will come as no surprise to anyone other than newbies like me that the bottles that spent the longest time inside for secondary fermentation are the best tasting, and the ones that were primed with brew sugar are tasting subtly better than those made with table sugar. The ABV came out lower than expected, so I will try some tricks to raise it slightly on future brews. All in all, gently pleased with my first kit. Roll on the next one(s)!

 

[Robin54]

I would say as a complete ****** here..wait till you have a small circle of bubbles in your FV ( about 2inches from the edge)...it should be finished then.. this is all pseudo science (but works for me) unless you have a hydrometer, and then bottle..
AHHH St Peters...wot can I say.. a lovely brew... Enjoy

Just too add
I used chewing gum to get a seal on the airlock...again worked for me!

 

[starkid721]

I almost certainly shouldn't have done this, but I got a bottle of St Peter's Golden Ale from the supermarket this week and have just sat down to compare the shop version with my kit version.

As you can see, my version is a lot darker in colour and a lot maltier in taste - mine tastes ok, but the supermarket one is both lighter tasting (although it is stronger ABV than mine) and hoppier than mine.

This was my first attempt at home brewing, and I'm sure there's some really obvious stuff I could do to make it better and closer to the real thing next time. Is there anything obvious that I could do to make my next brew closer to the original? And I was doing so well in my own little head...

 

[Robin54]

Hi star kid
well done...you have got going and its worked out well
I think the st peters kits are great BUT you won't get the same colour as the bottled stuff, however hard you try
Don't forget the 2+2+2 rule, it works and its sound.. the guys on here bang on about it..they know
Its a case (for me anyway), make you're beer, and enjoy it

 

[Albion]

I did the st peters ruby red kit. It was also much sweeter and maltier than the commercial version. I really didn't rate it. But as long as its drinkable beer and youj like the taste, I wouldn't worry

 

[scoot]

My St Peter golden ale is delicious. It as my 1st attempt at homebrew and has been bottled a couple of months. Fairly clear and has a nice head. Got a batch of sundew bottled and a larger in the fv. Cider next. Let's hope for a nice summer.

 

[BeerCat]

Best of luck with your brew Starkid. I've only done that one once but was really nice especially the last one! Only ever bought 1 crate of their beers so hard for me to compare to the kits but i really like them all. On about my 6th honey porter already. The 1st kit i did i put in the airing cupboard and it fermented out in 2 days. 2 weeks later was all gone. I always brew their kits a bit short as well. If you want more hops one thing you could try is adding an extra pack of hops powder. My local HMS sells them but cant find them on ebay. They are Goldings.