RickBuck Brewery - St Peters Golden Ale

[homebrewdave]

Well, I did it again. Did two brews leading up to Chrimbo. Chrimbo and New Year came and its all gone thanks to thirsty visitors

Saturday 26th January started with a trip to Tesco for 30ltrs of their Ashbeck water and a pitstop at The Home Brew Shop in Aldershot for fresh supplies and more. Got back home and decided to do the St Peters Golden Ale. I won't go into details regarding the brew process as nothing exciting happened above the ordinary and we all know the procedures involved. However, one thing I did do differently was rehydrate the yeast before adding to the FV. I did this for the first time over Chrimbo in Canada (see my last thread) with great results. I also referred to Graham Wheeler's book to triple check and went for it. 100ml of water boiled, left to cool to room temp, pour into sterilised glass, add yeast to surface of water, cover with clingfilm and leave for 15mins, add 100ml of wort , mix then whisk vigorously, add to FV and mix well. I then fitted my new Brew Belt chucked an airlock on it and the following day there was a nice tight foam head almost touching the top of the FV. I brewed to the recommended 36 pints (20.5ltrs?) checked the OG prior to yeast addition (1042) and its all looking good so far. I have another Woodfordes Wherry and a Midas Touch ready and waiting after I've bottled this one.

 

[homebrewdave]

All seems to be going well. The airlock has calmed down now and the foam head has subsided to maybe a couple of inches. I played with the height of the brew belt to see how it affected the yeast and it seems best around 24-26C. It's definitely nicer not having to worry about temps so the brew belt was a good purchase. The plan is to transfer to FV2 after 10 days or when the bubbles have stopped. I'll then leave in FV2 for another 4 days which will give me 14 days prior to bottling.

 

[PD]

24-26C is a little high for fermentation, your getting into hangover territory.
Although very handy the problem with heat belts is that they are hard to vary the temps with.
Try and get down to the 20c range.

 

[LeedsBrewer]

at 24C and above the yeast will be creating fusel alcohols which will cause hangovers and off flavours. You'd be better trying to get the temperature to around 20C :thumb:

 

[homebrewdave]

Hmmm interesting, I did think this last night so this morning I moved the belt up to just below the top of the liquid. According to the instructions the higher up the FV the belt is placed the lower the temp of the liquid. I'll see if the temp has dropped tonight when I get home. If it hasn't made any difference I'll remove the belt and stick to ambient room temperature. My only concern with relying on the room temp is that the heating is off overnight so it can drop to 18C but then come back up to 21 when the heating kicks in. I thought it was better to keep a constant temp than have it fluctuating too much!?!

 

[LeedsBrewer]

anywhere between 18C and 21C is ideal.

 

[jonnymorris]

I thought it was better to keep a constant temp than have it fluctuating too much!?!

Constant yes but it had to be correct as well. Sounds like you might be better off leaving it at your house temp. You might find it'll fluctuate less in a cupboard.

 

[homebrewdave]

Update - after 14 days I transfered this straight from FV1 into the keg. My SG reading was 1009 so I was pleased with that and the sample I drew off tasted amazingly good if a little bitter so it looks like the initial high temps didn't hurt the brew too much. I added the entire sachet of bittering hop powder when making up this batch so hopefully after 5 days in the dining room and then a minimum of 9 days in the cool shed/garage I'll give it a try and see if its improved. When I transfered to the keg I was still undecided how much brewing sugar/dextrose I was going to use to batch prime. I ended up adding 95g as I wanted it slightly more carbonated than my previous Wherry which I batch primed with 85g so hopefully this will be more to my liking. After kegging I decided to start another brew but I'll start another thread for that one.

 

[homebrewdave]

Update - I think its safe to assume that the initial high brewing temps experienced have created a monster! Had a sneaky test pint on Friday evening and with about an 1/8th of the pint left I could feel a headache coming on :shock: I left it for a bit but it got worse so had to take a couple of Nurofen. Needless to say I'm a little gutted as the taste is amazing and the head retention is my best to date. It's quite bitter as I used the entire sachet of bittering hops like I normally do with other kits. It's not overly offensive but If I did it again I'd only use half the sachet. Back the the headache issue, I'm wishfully thinking that it might be because it's too young and will hopefully improve given time!?! What are your guys thoughts on this?

 

[homebrewdave]

Had a couple of test pints of this last night and no headaches :thumb: The taste/flavour has improved greatly since I last tried this so I gave the keg a blast of Co2, wrapped it in an old dark towel and will leave this for as long as I can. Reason for the towel is the keg is being kept in the conservatory where it is currently VERY cold which is great but I don't want the sun getting on it.