The Range IPA

[alikav]

Two weeks in fv, last 7 days dry hopped with apollo that came with kit, and 25g amarillo. Been in the bottle only one week and looking good! Tasting really good too! Very clear clean and slightly hoppy! Imagine it will improve in the beer shed over the next few weeks! Hail to the hop!

 

[Slid]

Two weeks in fv, last 7 days dry hopped with apollo that came with kit, and 25g amarillo. Been in the bottle only one week and looking good! Tasting really good too! Very clear clean and slightly hoppy! Imagine it will improve in the beer shed over the next few weeks! Hail to the hop!

Looks great to me for 3 weeks in. Beer does improve with some ageing, though Very hard to wait on a first brew, though!

 

[rbgd99]

This is a nice kit, I've made a few of them. I find it needs to mature for at least 3 weeks to get the best out of it, but I recently found one of these beers at the back of a cupboard that I bottled about 6 months before and forgot about. It was really good, it had aged nicely! But probably not worth intentionally laying these down for that long.

It also makes a good base for experimenting adding other things to it. I made a 23l batch and then filled a few of the 5l water bottles from Tesco and added various things to it to try lots of small batch experiments.

 

[alikav]

I think my next batch of this , i will try a grapefruit/ vodka infusion. Any thoughts?

 

[rbgd99]

I think my next batch of this , i will try a grapefruit/ vodka infusion. Any thoughts?

Not done a vodka infusion myself, but I've made a few fruit infusions. What I've done is let the beer ferment out for about a week, then freeze the fruit overnight and add directly into the FV, or the Tesco water bottle secondary if you want to try a smaller batch, and leave it for another week. Make sure you fit an airlock though as you'll get some secondary fermentation from the sugars in the fruit. Or you can add the fruit earlier in fermentation, about day4 and just let it ferment out together with the fruit. I've done both with no notable difference.

The reason for freezing the fruit is that it ruptures the cell walls of the fruit, allowing more flavour to be imparted into the beer. It also helps with sanitation, it won't kill any bacteria, but it will put it to sleep. But if you add it once fermentation has started (i.e. about day 4) or after fermentation has completed, the beer will be alcoholic enough to protect itself from any bacteria that may be there. If you are really worried about bacteria, you could also stew the fruit by boiling it up to make a puree and then add that to the FV, but this may lose the "fresh" taste of the fruit.

Although not having done it myself, with the vodka you could make up a liqueur by steeping pineapple in vodka for some time (maybe 3 weeks) to infuse the flavour and then add the liquid straight into the FV or bottling bucket right before bottling. You could also add the alcohol infused fruit to the FV too and let it steep for a few more days, or just add the liqueur and use the fruit to make a boozy dessert.

I hope this helps

 

[alikav]

Not done a vodka infusion myself, but I've made a few fruit infusions. What I've done is let the beer ferment out for about a week, then freeze the fruit overnight and add directly into the FV, or the Tesco water bottle secondary if you want to try a smaller batch, and leave it for another week. Make sure you fit an airlock though as you'll get some secondary fermentation from the sugars in the fruit. Or you can add the fruit earlier in fermentation, about day4 and just let it ferment out together with the fruit. I've done both with no notable difference.

The reason for freezing the fruit is that it ruptures the cell walls of the fruit, allowing more flavour to be imparted into the beer. It also helps with sanitation, it won't kill any bacteria, but it will put it to sleep. But if you add it once fermentation has started (i.e. about day 4) or after fermentation has completed, the beer will be alcoholic enough to protect itself from bacteria.

Although not having done it myself, with the vodka you could make up a liqueur by steeping pineapple in vodka for some time (maybe 3 weeks) to infuse the flavour and then add the liquid straight into the FV or bottling bucket right before bottling. You could also add the alcohol infused fruit to the FV too and let it steep for a few more days, or just add the liqueur and use the fruit to make a boozy dessert.

I hope this helps

Thankyou thats given me a couple of options to think about, like the idea of the last option!