Muntons connoisseur double effort

[Nicks90]

In an attempt to get a chance to build up a stockpile of beer in the cellar, I bought a couple of muntons connoisseur beer kits that were in a clearance sale.
First is the traditional bitter kit and the second is the IPA kit.

Being my usual tweaker, I couldn't help myself
Instead of brewing it straight, both have been done as follows:

750gm brew sugar
250gm light brown sugar
200gm honey
Brewed short to 20l
Safale s-04 yeast as the original was an unknown little muntons bag of pooh
Both will be dry hopped with 50gm fuggles hop pellets for 5 days before bottling


OG of both is 1050 with a hopeful target of 1015ish giving something about 4.5-5% abv
Hoping this will turn out to be a nice duo of easy drinking pleasant session beers
Temp control is a bit heath Robinson, as I only have one aquarium immersion heater. So placed it in one of the fv's and pushed the other next to it on my 6" foam slab and wrapped them both together with some industrial bubble wrap. I'm hoping that having 20l of brew at 20c will act as a kinda storage heater and make the other fv stay at a similar temp now it's all wrapped up.

 

[Drunkula]

I thought there's no way you're going to end up 1.015 with that much sugar. Plugged the figures on and it gives an estimated 1.048 start and a final gravity of 1.002 - 6%. So it'll be pokey but a little thin.

 

[Nicks90]

when i plugged the numbers in it gave 1.049 start and 1.009 finish........ but that figure will only be if its hits maximum attenuation for the yeast. it never does, hence my guess of about 1.015'ish
be interesting to see anyway

 

[Nicks90]

The bitter finished first.
FG of just under 1010 - so about 5.3% which is finf
Carb'd up for a week and a sneaky taste later, big thumbs up! It's not spectacular, but certainly quaffable!!!
Let's see how it tastes after a month of cold storage, buts it's already crystal clear.

IPA took 4 days longer to finish, which is also crystal clear at time of bottling, but resisted having a taste. Also finished just under 1010. But it smells good.

Dry hopping with fuggles has certainly given it a good aroma and it's not too grassy.
Incidentally, the fuggles I got wasn't pellets, think I ordered incorrectly.but both still got 50gms dry hop. Does it make a difference between actual hops and pellets?