Youngs American Amber Ale

[Otty81]

My siphoning skills aren't great so I sucked up tons of the hop sediment when transferring my AAA to barrel. The ale's cleared today though and it's sediment free so far, so I guess it's all on the bottom of the barrel!

I put the ORA into primary fermentation yesterday and you just pour the oak chips (dust!) in with it all. I've no idea how that's going to work... It's so fine there's a load of the dust sitting on top of the krausen!

 

[Slid]

My siphoning skills aren't great so I sucked up tons of the hop sediment when transferring my AAA to barrel. The ale's cleared today though and it's sediment free so far, so I guess it's all on the bottom of the barrel!

I put the ORA into primary fermentation yesterday and you just pour the oak chips (dust!) in with it all. I've no idea how that's going to work... It's so fine there's a load of the dust sitting on top of the krausen!

Don't fret Otty, the oak dust comes with a wine kit I've done a couple of times and it is completely unnoticable at the business end.

 

[dolby147]

I did use a 5 gallon youngs fermenter (these are obviously known to being leaky). I lifted the lid and had a peep and all looked good. The smell was amazing. I added the hops and after a week they had sunk to the bottom with a bit of greenish sludge on the surface. Reading other comments I think this is ok. I have just bottled the AAA at the weekend, It’s a bit cloudy. I assume this will clear in the bottle. The instructions say to keep the bottles in a warm environment for the next 2 weeks then in a cool dark place for a further 2. Fingers crossed its drinkable.:drink:

 

[curzie]

I'm just drinking my second bottle of AAA from the batch I bottled 20/10/14. It is very nice - very "professional" feel to it. Still the odd bits of hops in the glass, but to be fair I was a bit cavalier with the pouring. It isn't as nice as the APA though, but that might just be my personal taste. Still, by far one of the better brews I have done.

 

[Coups]

That bottle and label look really good how do you manage to do that? Is it of your own creation printed onto special labels? The AAA and the APA are on my list to do and hopefully get one bottled for quaffing at the end of Jan.
Ive got the ORA in bottles now after a 21day ferment, transferring it to 2ndary was a little awkward as if you move the rigid part alot of oak chip sediment gets sucked up, but i reduced this entering the bottling bucket by using a hop bag provided in a festival kit it worked a treat.

 

[Otty81]

How exactly did you use the hop bag? I am imagining using a rubber band to secure it around the tap end of the siphon?

Half way through my barrel of AAA now. What a great brew!!!

 

[dbg400]

The bags that come with the Festival kits have string tie on them, and are designed as a syphon filter/cover. Works well most of the time, but if there is a lot of sediment/suspended hops the bag can clog where it touches the syphon - which happened to me with Young's NWS kit. Finding something to fit inside the bag that keeps it away from the syphon holes should sort it.

 

[curzie]

Hi Coups, the labels are my own work on standard A4 (8 per page) paper. Pretty cheap to buy from Amazon. It takes a bit of trial and error to get the labels to line up with the paper, but once it's done, it's done, and you have a template for future labels. Getting them off afterwards used to be really hard, until I found that if you sterilise your bottles by heating them in an hour in your oven at 170 degrees C, they just fall off!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

That bottle and label look really good how do you manage to do that?.

Curzie designed his own (above), this site makes it easy if you don't want to do it yourself - http://www.beerlabelizer.com/

 

[dolby147]

I finally opened my first bottle of AAA this weekend. It has been in the bottle for 4 weeks. I am really over the moon with it. Perfectly clear with a really nice taste. If I can make this then anyone can. I have added a couple of photos of the result.

 

[emil]

My siphoning skills aren't great so I sucked up tons of the hop sediment when transferring my AAA to barrel. The ale's cleared today though and it's sediment free so far, so I guess it's all on the bottom of the barrel!

I put the ORA into primary fermentation yesterday and you just pour the oak chips (dust!) in with it all. I've no idea how that's going to work... It's so fine there's a load of the dust sitting on top of the krausen!

Try using this system for fermenting and bottling (no secondary). I have used this system for several years with great success.