Could I Pick Your Brains Please?

[parkerwitton]

Keep popping in to the H&G JP.....I bottled my 'Eastern Honey' last Wednesday....just like the first Eastern it tends to clear slowly...nee bother the first brew tastes wonderful. Might just have a sip out of my trial bottle of Eastern Honey this weekend...I will keep you informed.

[J_P]

ParkerWitton - The Great Eastern is in the fermenter as of yesterday and the East Kent Goldings are on standby and will be added once the main ferment has died down. I replaced the yeast with a sachet of Safale S-04 to avoid the unreliable Woodefords yeast (I'll use it in a turbo cider or something!)

Quick Question:- do you reckon I'd be alright using a jam bag to suspend the hops in provided I sanitised it?

[J_P]

That's magic I'll dig it out and sterilise it, it's been a while since it was used (crab apple jelly if I recall correctly it's fantastic on warm scones!)

It's going to be a good summer!

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Now the only thing that is missing is that Summer Lightning is a stronger beer - 5.0 ABV whereas Great Eastern is nominally 4.5 ABV - can anyone give me a rough idea how much sugar to add to bring up the ABV? Also, would I be better using a light spray malt?

For spray malt or brewers sugar use about 300g. For household sugar use about about 150g. Without knowing the recipe for GE I'd err on the side of caution and use spraymalt.

[AlexCricket]

Has anyone tried dry "hopping" with a mixture of Goldings and Dried Elderflowers.

[joel_m]

I've done a Great eastern with which i made an Elderflower tea in a cafetier 40g Dried elderflowers and 1lt of boiling water then left it to steep for an hour and a half then pushed the plunger down and threw the liqour in the fermenter (thanks Brysie for the advice on the easy way to do it!).
Worked really well I got a great eastern up around 5% (maybe just over) with a fantastic floral aroma to it. It does take a while to condition though as the floral intial hit is quite strong at first but after 2 to 3 weeks in the keg mellows so you get a good floral hit up front giving way to a really nice malt and hops flavour.

Would definately recommend this for a summer brew if you like floral beers. The Recipe is in my signature below.

[StrangeBrew]

Hi folks. Long time lurker here. On my 5th brew now, so still finding my feet. I'm sure you'll be gentle with me!

I'm keen as well to do a brew which would be not entirely unlike Summer Lightning.

So far my "recipe" looks like this:

Brew 5 gal Great Eastern - leave it in the fermenter for an extra 1 week during time suspend 20g of hops in a muslin bag. (East Kent Goldings or perhaps Bramling?)
I'll then keg half and bottle half with the usual priming sugar.

Now the only thing that is missing is that Summer Lightning is a stronger beer - 5.0 ABV whereas Great Eastern is nominally 4.5 ABV - can anyone give me a rough idea how much sugar to add to bring up the ABV? Also, would I be better using a light spray malt?

Cheers and Beers,
Rob

Hi robb,

these Woodforde/Muntons kits are known to shy on the ABV so when making up to volume take the hydrometer reading at around 30 pints or until you get in the ball park of 1050, they normally (and I say normally very loosely) finish somewhere between 1012 and 1016 if they don't get stuck at about 1020. Hopefully this should give you the alcohol strength you're looking for. Although you'll end up with less beer, it's better this way than adding too much extra sugar possibly causing the end product to be thin and un-balanced. Good luck!

[joel_m]

Thats good advice from strangebrew i usually make mine up a few pints short for that very reason. If it says 23lt you'll find somewhere around 21 will give you a good OG.