Folks were right. Having a baby does indeed eat your time and finances, so with the aim to make a quality beer as cheap, quick and simple as possible, Finlandia kits and Brew at Home LME seemed like a winning Combo.
It's also been a while since I used Finishing Hop Bags (http://www.homebrewwest.ie/better-brew-finishing-hop-pellet-teabags-207-c.asp), and thought they'd be worth another look at.
First of all though, a big thanks to Brian at HomeBrewWest (http://www.homebrewwest.ie) for sending out all the bits and pieces. I tip my hat to you sir!
(http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt234/eoinlayton/Beer/24062013605_zpsca7df691.jpg)
The recipe I decided on is:
Finlandia Premium Lager 1.5kg kit (http://www.homebrewwest.ie/finlandia-premium-lager-15-kg-kit-1344-p.asp) = €9.86
Brew at Home LME 1.5kg (http://www.homebrewwest.ie/bh-light-lme-liquid-malt-extract-15-kg-2733-p.asp) = €6.95
Hallertauer Hersbrucker Finishing Hop Bag (http://www.homebrewwest.ie/bb-hallertauer-hersbrucker-1455-p.asp) = €2.25
250g Dextrose (http://www.homebrewwest.ie/brewing-and-winemaking-sugar-glucosedextrose-monohydrate-1-kg-256-p.asp) = €2.45 (with 750g leftovers)
Total = €21.51, with 750g Dex left over. Not bad for an almost All-Malt option.
Other 3kg kits are a lot more expensive (bulldog, st peters, woodford, milestone and muntons gold are all €27, and Brupak is €30). If you cut out the dextrose and Finishing Hops you'd clock in at just €16.81, only slightly more expensive than a 1.7kg Coopers' Kit can on its own.
This will be brewed to 23liters and end up at about 4.5% before priming. If you want to keep it All-Malt and the same strength, remove the dextrose and brew to 20liters.
The kit comes with an Ale yeast, so it's easy to brew even in summer.
The Finishing Hop teabag is added on brewday, so you can just 'set and forget'.
Cleaning:
00:00 - Sterilize everything in the FV in 20L water, 30ml thin bleach, 30ml vinegar (thanks to garry for the cheap sterilizer tip)
Rehydrate the yeast in a jar of luke warm water and a teaspoon of sugar.
Sit the kit and LME cans in hot water to soften up.
Put the kettle on.
(http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt234/eoinlayton/Beer/03072013619_zpsc4867578.jpg)
00:05 - Pour a beer and have some food while everything soaks and sterilizes.
00:20- Assemble FV and tap. leave it upside down to drip dry for a few minutes.
Brewing:
00:30 - Add 250g sugar, kit can and LME to the FV (they're both ring pulls. Bonus!). Stir and swirl until it's all disolved. Fill one can with boiling water, stir, pour into second can, stir, pour into FV. This will get all the goop stuck to the sides.
(http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt234/eoinlayton/Beer/03072013620_zps416fd7d2.jpg)
Put the Finishing Hops teabag into a cup and fill with boiling water. It'll steep for 10 minutes.
(http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt234/eoinlayton/Beer/04072013625_zps78f97b8a.jpg)
00:35 - Fill FV with cold tap water to 18L, check temperature. For the last few liters add cold/boiling water to aim for around 20-22C at 23L. Mine was tap water all the way to 23L to end up at 22C.
(http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt234/eoinlayton/Beer/04072013621_zps9e874037.jpg)
Stir vigorously to get as much air into the wort as possible.
00:40 - Take a gravity reading (1.042). Add the Cup of hop tea incuding the bag and contents. Pitch yeast.
(http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt234/eoinlayton/Beer/04072013622_zps51bb4be7.jpg)
00:45 - Move to final resting place, then add the airlock and temperature control.
The included Ale yeast might not be true to style, but it makes temperature control much easier and shouldn't affect the taste much.
The instructions say to brew in the 20-25C range, but it's probably best to stick to the lower end.
I've set up for 20C.
(http://i615.photobucket.com/albums/tt234/eoinlayton/Beer/04072013624_zpsfd1b380b.jpg)
00:50 - Open another beer and clean up or face the wrath of SWMBO.
So, in total this quality brew costs about €20 and an hour (including preparation and clean-up, with 25 minute break), to end up with what should result in a very tasty, high quality, All Malt(if you choose), lightly hopped, beer! :)
This kit smells lovel. Malty citrusy yeasty goodness spewing out of the brewfridge ;D
Boottled today and tasting quite nice.
I primed at 6grams per liter, dextrose. 1 or 1.5 carb drops per 500ml bottle would do too.
It's darker than I was expecting, kinda dark golden colour.
End result is 42 500ml bottles at about 4.8%
I haven't tried any of the Finlandia kits. They look like great value.
Nice fridge, I need one of them!
You bottled this after 12 days? That's fast alright. Do you cold crash in the fridge to clear it or anything?
It uses an ale yeast, so there was no need for long ferment and it was done after 5 days.
I left it another week to clean itself up, and I don't think any more time would have paid off.
It was already fairly clear and because the hop teabags go in on brewday I had no need for any more dryhopping etc.
So far so good. It looks like this will be a winner, just like the earlier Finlandia Traditional Ale :)
Ps: You can borrow that Fridge for a few months if you want. SWMBO freaked out at her curdled milk and bought a new fridge, so I'm after stealing the one from the kitchen. I won't be needing that brewridge for a few months at least.
Thanks for the write-up, I'm going to give this a try, but I'll be replacing the Finlandia Premium Lager (out of stock) with the Muntons Premium Lager.
With ground water now at 26-28C here, its looking like I'll be giving the all grain a rest until cooler temps return.
Cheers.
26-28C groundwater? how do you have a cold shower in the morning? ;D
The munton's kits are supposed to be very good, and I've been meaning to try the Bock. Maybe soon :)
I've no idea if the premium lager comes with a lager or ale yeast though..
Good catch on the yeast, never considered that. However, I do have a pack (11g) of Safale S-04 here so if the kit comes with a lager yeast I'll use the Safale instead.
Cold showers - when it's 33 in the shade, 26 is cold 8)
I emailed muntons earlier because I was curious, and they confirmed that the Premium Lager comes with an ale yeast:
"Hello Eoin, the yeast on the lager kit is a general purpose yeast for both beers and lager when fermented between 18 – 22°C. If we were to use true lager yeast then fermentation would need to be carried out between 12 – 15°C which is beyond most home brewers capabilities. Regards Graham"
Keep your S-04 for another day vonHolt ;)
Quote from: LordEoin on July 17, 2013, 11:45:13 AM
Ps: You can borrow that Fridge for a few months if you want. SWMBO freaked out at her curdled milk and bought a new fridge, so I'm after stealing the one from the kitchen. I won't be needing that brewridge for a few months at least.
Appreciate the offer Eoin. If the old fridge is surplus I don't mind giving you a few bob for it? We can talk about it in the 'Well at the coming Rebel meet. You might bring the fridge along with you? :P
Wow, thanks for checking that out...appreciate it. :)
@ garry - It's only surlplus for a while. It'll eventually become a kegerator. But at the moment I have too much on my plate, and I'll not be focusing on kegs etc for a long time.
You're more than welcome to drag it away and use it until then.
@vonHolt - no worries, I wanted to know ;)
Hi,
I've a "version" of this in the FV at the moment and due to be bottled on Friday/Saturday. What did you use for carbonation?
I'm using this info as -> http://hbd.org/brewery/library/YPrimerMH.html (http://hbd.org/brewery/library/YPrimerMH.html) a guide.
Thanks.
Eoin have you done any of the other Finlandia kits in the past and how do you rate them?
I tried a few of these last night, and they're very nice. Quite dark for a lager, but they taste really good.
They were quite Ale-y a few weeks ago, but they've really come on since.
Surprisingly well for only 2 and a half weeks in the bottle!
They're crystal clear, and would make a great session beer that everyone can enjoy.
i can't wait to try them again in a few more weeks ;D
Also it will make a great base and I'll be hacking the hell outta this kit at some stage :D
@ VonHolt - Sorry, I completely forgot about adding the priming to the thread (edited in now). I bulk primed 7grams per liter, dextrose.
End result was 42 500ml bottles at about 4.8% ABV, perfect.
If I was usig carb drops I'd go wth 1 per 500ml (works out at about 6grams per liter) or 1.5 if I wanted it very fizzy.
@ deadman - yeah, I tried the 1kg Traditional Ale kit too. It's very cheap and makes a lovely drop.
I swapped out the yeast, but after finding out about the kit yeast and using it in this brew i'd be happy to just use it in the future :)
Here's the end result of how I got on:
Quote from: LordEoin on May 17, 2013, 01:07:55 PM
It's a great kit with a bit of tweaking (probably great without tweaking too)
I did:
Kit + 1kg LME (the cheap can from HBW or HBC) + Coopers IPA yeast (had it handy and know how it works) to 20L
fermented at 18C for 2 weeks
dryhopped with 25g cascade + 25gBramling X)
It's in the bottles for just over a month and tastes great!
Good lasting lacing head, beautiful flavor/aroma.
These kits are €6.45 and the LME is €6.95, so apart from the hops the whole kit and fermentables cost less than most other kit cans.
I'm very surpised at this beer. What started in a lesson on cheap ingredients turned out to be a keeper.
Lessons :
finlandia 1kg kits are good
cheap LME is good
(cascade + bramling cross) = win : it's maths so it must be true!
Thx..
I've a 23L batch and also using dextrose. My calcs (based on the link I mentioned) worked out at 165g. I'll reduce that back to 160g as I think that my carb levels are a little high.
Cheers.
Your calculator said 165g? Fantastic! My guess of 7g/l at 23l works out at 161g, so we should be bang on the money :)
Excellent... It's reassuring to have a second set of data to compare against....
Well, all I got to do now is bottle and wait..
Want to swap a bottle or two to compare when they are ready?
Cheers.
I'll dive on any opportunity to try someone else's brew ;)
Cool, I'll drop you a PM in a few weeks, after I bottle this lot up over the weekend..
Cheers.
Just an update on my copy of this...
Bottled yesterday.. but the FG was 1.014 :-(
It tasted ok, but 'light'.
Same OG of 1.042,
so by my calculations...
(1042 - 1014) = 28
28 * 131 = 3668
3668 / 1000 = 3.668
or
1.042 - 1.014
----------------- * 100 = 3.73
0.75
that works out at 3.7ish
have I just made budweiser clone?
Did you prime your bottles?
Add .5%
Yep... 160g of dextrose into the bottling bucket
Ok... so that will bring it up to an approximate ABV of 4.2 ... now that's looking better :)
Cheers...
a fine respectable level for a session beer! :)
;D
Is 4 weeks enough time for this to bottle condition or is a 3-4 month period more realistic?
4 weeks will have it carbonated and clear. it'll probably continue to improve to about 3 months but not as noticably.
A strongly hopped beer will fade with time, a very bitter/roasted beer will mellow with time, but this one does not need considerable conditioning.
I brought this over to a friend's house and it went down really well with everyone.
Personally, I found it a bit sweet, but they all loved it.
That was great for me as I got to keep all my hopped up IPA to myself while they boozed away into the Finlandia Lager :)
LordEoin gave me a couple of bottles of this during the weekend. Thanks :)
The beer got a fair bit of shaking on the way home so I should have left it in the fridge to settle for a few days. I didn't and cracked one open Saturday night. I poured it into a Coors light glass, one of the ones with the shot blasted type bases. I was surprised at how clear it was after all the shaking. It poured a nice orange lucozade colour. Not much aroma but you'd expect that from a kit lager. Taste was sweet, malty and very refreshingly carbonated. Head retention was spot on, 2 finger head all the way down although I did drink it quite fast!
I tried the second one last night. I was using a plain pint glass this time and the head retention wasn't so good. It had disappeared completely before I'd finished. Still a good beer though. It did seem to taste sweeter without the head. Reminded me of lucozade but that could have been the colour tricking my palette.
If brewing this myself I would maybe add some carapils or some wheat malt to help the head retention. Or else shake the bejayus out of it before pouring into a Coors light glass.
It would also benefit from a bit of dryhopping.
Overall a good quality beer especially for the price. It would be worth doing a batch for my normal beer drinking buddies.
Going into my 4th kit now ;D. First two brewed over the warmer than usual summer and they were shocks to my system as they turned out fecken brill. 3rd one on at the moment and fingers crossed it comes good as I get the feeling I am living off beginners luck. If anyone is interested, the kits I had success with and tasted monumental are Tom Caxtons Dark Real Ale and Four Finger Jack (although this one is more expensive it was money well spent). Looking for a cheaper one to brew and this looks and sounds a good one to try.
I have one question though to the wise - Temps are dropping now and I'm a stingy bastard when it comes to putting on the heating, therefore the brew room will drop quite easily to about 16 to 18 degrees (more when the mother-in-law stays in it) during the wee hours of the morning over the coming weeks (Oct/Nov). Would that kaput the process for this kit? and sure while I am at it - anyone recommend a kit for these expected lower temperatures or am I really showing my inexperience?
The most important thing is to keep the temperature fairly constant.
Will you be fermenting at 16 or at 18?
considered a brewbelt?
I have not but I shall look into that one today when ordering a new kit...decisions decisions.
That's a great thread, thanks for the effort. I'm gonna do a muntons imperial Russian stout in the next week with some added ingredients so will do a review as best I can for anyone that's interested
grand job. I look forward to it :)