Re: Festival Razorback IPA Review

[mastermank]

I brewed this last august. Really really good from about 4 months on, still have a couple of bottles. Give it as long as you can to wait.

 

[Beer_is_my_friend]

Just bottled the brew. Syphoned it into a bottling barrel. It's looking good. And hardly any hop gunk transferred . Here are some pics. Fv is now 1.006 so about 5.78% abv. I imagine it will go up in % in the bottle. They are now in a bath sitting at 18 deg. Going to leave them there for two weeks. It's going to be hard to resist trying one next week.

 

[Falcon7x]

Hello Everybody,

I'm from The Netherlands brewing my first beer which happen to be the Razorback IPA.

Today I did step 1 through 7 and all seems fine SG 1050, temp 20C (about 21 liters). I am worried and confused tough about Keg/Barrelling procedure.
If I read this thread it seems to me that a lot of folks are skipping this step and bottle right away and add the brewing suger whilst bottling.

Can somebody explain me the difference? I want to do step a through d in the Kegging/barrelling and bottle after that.

Well... That's it. Maybe I am missing something? ;-)

/edit
Sorry everybody.. seems to be a gap in my English.. There seems to be two options Kegging or bottling... Grrrrr it's breaking my nerves for the ast few days...

I just finished two crates of Oettinger Kellerbier so I have 40 500ml bottles. Should be sufficient.

Now Finish my Westmalle Tripel and off to bed! /edit

Thanks anyways.

Michael!

 

[Covrich]

I do not quite understand, basically do you want to drink from a keg or do you plan to bottle.

You tend to do either one or the other or a bit of both (as in keg some bottle some).

I think you are possibly confusing keg with a secondary vessel?

If it helps I leave mine in the primary fermenter for 2-3 weeks and then bottle. A lot of people do not bother with a secondary vessel anymore.

 

[GHW]

+1 for bottling straight from fv. Give it two or better three weeks in fv then bottle it. No real need to use a barrel or secondary fv, Imo, though I know some people advocate it.

 

[Falcon7x]

See the edit....

 

[sloth]

After barreling this about a month ago, it's gone! A couple weeks to carbonate, another to clear (crystal clear) and then gone! After a week of cold to clear this beer was at its best when young, after three of weeks or so the dry hop flavour became noticeably less, still nice though. Highly recommended as a summer drink, several of these were downed in the recent sun and it made them taste just a little better

 

[DRiV]

Just set the Razorback going this evening, pitched the yeast at 22-24 degs C, fermentation started about 90 mins later with the air lock giving a sudden glug. Couldn't believe my ears! Got her St on a bed of plastic sheeting just in case she's a goer! Any one else seen activity this quick?

 

[Liverpoollad]

I have bottled 2.5 litres and barrelled the rest been sat in a cupboard at 18C since May 22nd. Think this is cold enough?

 

[Sir_Tmas]

Had a batch of this on last year. Absolutely lovely stuff!

 

[N1ckW]

this one was the first brew I ever did and it was a great beer. I added a bit too much water the first time so it was only about 4.6%. I have just put another batch of this on but I steeped 500g of pale crystal in 3 litres of hot water before boiling. I added the correct amount of water this time so I am expecting about 5.6-5.8 % and hopefully more flavour with the addition of the pale crystal. This is a very drinkable brew and everyone I have given a sample to of my first batch has said how good it is. Cant wait for this next batch to be ready.

 

[SiWHU]

Started this on 5 July (OG 1050). Fermented like crazy for the first couple of days then slowed down. Krausen wasn't as large as other brews - especially not as large as the Evil Dog IIPA - and only seemed to last around 3 days. Added hops on 12 July.

Anyway, after steady 3 days at @ gravity of 1005 (- 5.9) took advice from this thread and transferred to a secondary vat on 19 July to see if it would clear. Left it alone for 5 days and then bottled on Saturday morning (25 July).

Looked a bit cloudy still (what would it have looked like if I hadn't transferred to SV, I wonder?!).

Had around 1/3 pint left at end of bottling, so had the obligatory taste test. Very bitter, as some have already noted - Had a pint of Black Sheep in my local straight after and couldn't taste it t all! - so very bitter, but still very nice.

Now the longest wait....

 

[SiWHU]

I had a few friends over and we sampled this last night.
A dry, bitter, very hop forward IPA. On of the best that I've brewed. Similar to a punk IPA in hopiness, I'd say.

 

[SiWHU]

Sooo... A few months on and I can safely say this is the best kit brews I've done. It's clear, holds its head and has a good mouth feel.



Seems to have sweetened over the last month or so, but still tastes near enough to a St Austell Proper Job that I didn't realise I was drinking homebrew when I opened one that had been bottled in an old PJ bottle.



If you're going to brew from a kit, I'd recommend this one.

 

[DeniG2]

I have this fermenting at the moment, really looking forward to it based on some of the posts here.

Lately I batch primed for the first time and have to say I prefer the carbonation from bottle priming (with dextrose). But the instructions that come with Razorback only specify batch priming. Has any one bottle primed this kit and if so what did they use (i.e. 1 tsp, 0.5 tsp etc) and what were the results?

Thanks in advance

 

[sausagefingers]

I bottle primed mine, 1 full tea spoon and it was fine. It makes a really nice pint - enjoy :drink:

 

[DeniG2]

I bottle primed mine, 1 full tea spoon and it was fine. It makes a really nice pint - enjoy :drink:

Thanks, sounds good, I'll try that

 

[DeniG2]

I added the hops last night, had a little taste and already it’s gorgeous, even better than some fully conditioned bottled kits I’ve done. It tasted quiet strong, so I did my calculations, with a SG of 1061 and now down to 1010, that should give an ABV of 6.7% (and could even be more after priming). Is there any way to “tone” this down a bit, like adding some water or would it ruin it?

 

[fourbob]

Quite surprised at your OG - did you brew short or add any other fermentables? I've done that kit several times and it always comes out at around 6%.... Mind you, I generally only bother getting the hydromerter out at the end of the ferment these days, so who knows what I've been drinking :!

Generally I find most kits are fairly close to their stated ABV unless they don't reach the final gravity, so if anything they turn out a point or two weaker than it says on the box, and the other culprits are not stirring enough or not getting the last drop of wort out of the pouch / can, which again would lead to a lower reading. But generally there's the same amount of extract in each kit, so the starting gravity shouldn't vary too much - most people on here seem to get a reading of around 1050.

That said, if I were in your shoes, I'd probably not try and water it down, just bottle it and enjoy a slightly stronger than anticipated brew. I'm not sure adding water now would do any damage - more experienced brewers than me may be able to advise - but my instinct would be to drink it slower!

 

[DeniG2]

I was surprised too considering I didn’t brew it short or add any fermantables. I’m quite frugal as well and make sure every drop of wort goes in. I’m also a bit OCD when it comes to stirring and aerating the wort. I have read on some forums where people have got different size bags in their kits so maybe the bag of dextrose that I received was slightly bigger then I should have, which may have led to the higher ABV.
I also read somewhere that watering it down afterwards can interfere with the taste so I think I’ll take your advice and drink it slower. Another bit of good advice I received was to bottle it to 330ml bottles which might slow me down also!