Muntons Santas Winter Warmer Review

[eggman]

Brewed this to 36 pints with an additional 200 grams Medium spray malt & 200 grams demerera sugar
O.G 1064 F.G 1016 ( temp corrected) = 6.7 %
Bottled this brew and primed with half a teaspoon of demerera sugar per 500ml bottle
I absolutely loved this beer, it's the best brew i've ever done :party: Very dark, malty, fruity and very strong.
Even without the additions this beer needs a long maturing period
5* Egg rating :thumb:

 

[RobWalker]

Just bottled ours. Brewed to standard kit instructions.

Yeast looks just like s-04 so I assume an english ale yeast.

On bottling, it's lovely. Lots of hops. A really noticable honey smell with toffee in there too. Colour is a deep amber with creamy, off-colour froth on bottling.

Looking forward to it! Definitely going to be a cracker (ahahah) up there with wherry etc :thumb:

 

[SloeBrewer]

I made this a while back, with the plan on drinking it for Christmas. I brewed it as per instructions to 36 pints, and put it in my brew fridge, set to 20C. After 2 weeks it was still stuck at 1.020, so I added some nutrient and gave it a stir, which didn't seem to do much, so in the end I re-pitched with Safale S-04 and this eventually got it down 1.014 after a further week.

Primed with soft brown sugar, allowed to carbonate for 2 weeks, then put in a cool place to condition. It's had a further 3 weeks to condition, and it will no doubt benefit from a few more weeks. It has a bit of a twang about it (despite using mineral water), but no doubt that will fade.

It's not particularly Christmasy, no spice, rum or toffee flavours to speak of. It's got a bold sweetness which is nicely balanced by bitterness and you can taste the strength of it (around 5.5%), and while it's a nice enough pint, it's not really very warming or festive.

Very quaffable, bot not very exciting!

 

[RobWalker]

thought I'd update...

really enjoyed it, a wonderfully smooth malty beer with lots of body and its "own taste" - ours however definitely came out above the quoted ABV because it kept getting us plastered.


enjoyable, recommended, but as SloeBrewer says not particularly christmassy, just a solid dark malty brew.

 

[MadrikXIV]

After 2 weeks it was still stuck at 1.020, so I added some nutrient and gave it a stir, which didn't seem to do much, so in the end I re-pitched with Safale S-04 and this eventually got it down 1.014 after a further week.

Got the exact same problem with this, so some multi purpose yeast and nutrient and a stir to try and give it a kick, also put it in me water bath to encourage it.

Will be checking it again soon.

 

[Marcusp]

Seems to be a very common problem with muntons kits sticking at 1020.
It's about time they did something about the poor yeast they supply and until they do I'll avoid muntons kits from now on as the response I had from them re a similar kit was very poor considering how many other people have had the same issue.

 

[SloeBrewer]

It's a bit odd really, as Muntons own the Gervin brand now, and GV 12 as well as Muntons Gold are supposedly Nottingham strain. (Some packs have NA stamped on them, which stands for Nottingham Ale).

Muntons make all the woodfordes, St Peters, Geordie, Tom caxton, Edme, Milestone and brewmaker kits (plus some others), and commercially, it makes sense to use the same yeast with all of them, although I don't know if that's what they actually do. But, if they do, and the yeast sticks, then it's potentially a problem with all of those brands, not just Muntons own brand.

 

[MadrikXIV]

Was woken by the gurgle of the air lock this morning, not too frequent, but something it's sprung back to life at least.