An experiment with Festival Old Suffolk Strong Ale

[StFlipper]

I made a batch of Festival Old Suffolk Strong Ale a few months ago, which I think is intended to come out similar to Adnams Broadside at an estimated ABV of 6%. For me the FG didn't go low enough for that, ending at 1.014, from a SG of 1.054, so about 5.3%, which seems to be par for the course from other reviews of this kit. Nothing wrong with that ABV, but just a bit sweet for my taste. The manufacturers (Ritchies) say they may adjust the kit in future, adding more dextrose to push the SG up a bit, but I suspect the FG will still end up at around 1.014 so could still be on the sweet side.

In the meantime I decided to experiment with the existing kit formulation. Ritchies commented that the kit yeast has a moderate attentuation, leaving more unfermented sugars than is the case with many of the American style kits. For example Youngs New World Saison usually gets down to something like 1.006-1.008 and Festival Razorback IPA to 1.005-1.006. My experiment was to switch yeast to Wyeast Belgian Ardennes (3522), which I've never used before but from the description thought was likely to be similar to a Saison in terms of attenuation, but without the full Saison esthery taste.

My experiment went as follows:

• Day 1: started the kit as per instructions, but replacing the kit yeast with Wyeast Belgian Ardennes.
  Starting gravity = 1.054
  Heat belt took the temperature to around 22C.
• Day 7: Measured gravity at 1.020.
  This was a surprise as it's higher than the standard kit, which on the previous run had reached 1.016 by day 5.
  Thinking that maybe the Belgian Ardennes yeast was struggling to ferment a different mix of sugars I added half of the standard kit yeast.
• Day 10: Measured gravity at 1.015.
  Added kit hops (Boadicea).
• Day 14: Measured gravity at 1.010.
  Primed and bottled.

So the combination of the two yeasts did successfully bring the FG down quite a bit, giving an ABV of around 5.8%, but maybe it would have been more successful with a better choice of single yeast. Neverthless the result is more to my taste than the standard kit, not as sweet and with a definite "hint of Belgium".

Has anyone else tried any variations or experiments on this kit, and if so what was the result?

 

[ACBEV]

I really like Belgian Ardennes, but in my experience its a bit lazy after awhile and need a kick in the bum, to wake it up. So, after 7 days I tip the brew into another FV and leave for another 7 days.