Kit Adaption Geezah Style

[Hedgerow hoarder]

Done this brew, but abit of a dilemma the FG say 1012 I think it should be 1008? Also this reading has been the same for 3 days, and when I open the rounded lid it hiss! Should I wait it's now been 11 days?

[Geezah]

I always leave my brews for 14 days, but if its been 1012 for 3 days then its ready to bottle/keg.

[Hedgerow hoarder]

Will do as soon as I can . Looking forward to this one.

[JamesA]

Double dropped mine on Friday and added the hops. Didn't have a spare bag so just lobbed them in on top. Set honey going in today and then I'll leave it till next weekend to bottle it. I'm using tap-a-draft so its going into 10 pint bottles.

[Shaun21]

Quick question about this kit, I've got all my stuff today so I'm going to get my brew on. Anyway, I've got all these ingredients and I'm not using all of it, so would boiling a second batch into 4 litres of water and then putting that into a demijohn with some yeast. Would that make an ale or is it a bit of a stupid question?

Thanks

[Geezah]

Save the rest of the hops/grain for future brews, its not worth the effort of making a DJ of crystal malt and hop beer.

[Monkeybrew]

As Geezah says, save the leftovers for another day!

Push the air out of the hop and grain packets, seal with sellotape and then freeze your hops and keep the grain somewhere cool and dry

[Shaun21]

Sweet thanks for the advice, the brew was alive last night so we're underway. Just another quick question, how do I prime with the honey, just add it to a little water and boil for a minutes? Oh and I got an OG reading of 1040 is that normal?

I'll keep you updated on how it's all coming along

[Geezah]

when I prime mine i just add the honey to a plastic cup and keep adding boiling water from the kettle until its all disolved, then add that to the keg / bottling bucket before transfering the beer.

The OG of 1040 sounds ok, mine came in at 1050 so it could be down to you not thrashing the kit together so the top of the brew is 'thinner' than the bottom??? maybe?

[Shaun21]

Right it's getting close to bottling this brew up, the smell from the fv is lovely at the moment, but I had a thought, would this brew be just as good served from a plastic pressure keg? Or is it advisable to bottle the whole lot?

I've got a few waggle dance bottles (saw the bottles in this thread so I gave them a try, wow!) so was thinking of putting the majority in the keg and then fill about 5-10 litres in bottles.

Thanks guys

[Geezah]

Yeah kegging it is fine, I actually kegged my last APA.
I just poured the last 1.5 litres out of the keg and bottled it for cooking with, time to get another on the go.

[jimmybobbird]

OK Geezah - after pratting about for a few weeks I will be doing this kit this afternoon. After analyzing the previosu comments I have the following (copy and pasted) instructions:

1. Put 200g of crystal malt in a muslin bag on a 40 minute simmer @ 65 degree's C in 4 litres of water
2. After 20 minutes I add 20 grams of Fuggles and 20 grams of EKG hops in a muslin bag to the pot and allow them to simmer for 10 minutes
3. After next 10 minutes, remove the sack of grains and let it drip, then gently squeeze the wort out of the grains.
4. Add ½ jar of honey and a final 10 minute boil with the hops still in the wort to get some extra bitters and flavours out of them then I give them a squeeze too.
5. While that’s sitting, I empty the tin of APA in to my fermenter and swill the can out with boiling water. Add the wort to the fermenter and give it a bit of a stir to get it dissolving.
6. I add 5 litres of cold water and then stir in 1 kg of light DME
7. Top the fermenter up to 21 litres and take a sample
8. Temperature is now good to pitch the yeast
9. Put the fv in the brewing cupboard for 4 days before I dry hop.
10. After 3 days, Double drop and add all but 80g of a jar of honey and use the last 80g in the jar for priming. it was time to do a dry hop and added 25g of Aurora hops in a muslin bag to the brew which will sit there for 10 days until it’s time to bottle this one up.

Hope this is basically what you do!

[cellone]

Bumped for wiredcharlie

[Bert]

I bet that tastes lovely!

[potatoes]

Thanks for the Geezah,

I have made my way back into the world of homebrew after a few years off. Now I don't have time for AG or Extract, so its adapted kit recipes all the way for me. This is a good guide to refresh my brain. I have a couple of questions:

1) How long do you need to boil steeped speciality grains?

2) Is there a limit to how much steeped grains to add? You used 100g but I was going to use 200 for a similar beer to yours.

Cheers,
Potatoes