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[Review] Festival Razorback IPA Kit

Started by benji, January 27, 2014, 07:41:18 PM

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benji

A bit of an update on these beer, Its really come along brilliantly.
I brought a some bottles to a friends house last night and 4 of my mates tasted it and the all loved, none of these blokes drink craft beer and this was their first time drinking an IPA and they all had a bottle each and would have drank more if I had some more with me.
BTW the head retention on this beer is excellent, lasting all the way to the end of the glass, I'll defiantly be buying more of this stuff.
Tapped: Brown Porter, Dortmunder, Rye IPA
Bottled: Barrel RIS, Barrel Red Flanders, Oatmeal Stout
Fermenting: Barrel triple, NEIPA
Planned: Pilsner, Hazy Pale Ale, something Belgian

Qs

I have this kit ready to brew but after doing the Golden Stag Summer Ale from Festival I was considering doing a hop tea with some Centennial for the first 3 litres to add a bit more bitterness/flavouring (theres clearly loads there for the dry hopping). Would this be overkill or do you think it will improve the beer?

LordEoin

its not going to add bitterness unless you give it a boil for a while, but it will add to the flavor and aroma alright.
If you like centennial, then go for it ;)

Qs

Any advice on how long to boil it? Its in 3 litres, I was thinking 25 minutes-ish?

LordEoin



Qs

Good man. I had skim read that before but I'd forgotten about the chart. Dead handy. Think I'll go 20 minutes then and try to get as much extra flavour as possible. I do love a bit of Centennial and the pellets provided for the dry hop have a lot of it so it shouldn't muddle the flavours too much.   :)

Qs

Quote from: benji on February 27, 2014, 10:21:42 PM
although this ended up at 6.4% the alcohol taste is nicely balanced.

Just took a reading on mine around 1.001/2 which gives me around 6.3/6.4 abv too. I didn't brew short either.

Tasted the sample and it seemed nicely balanced (I did slightly hack mine by making a hop tea for the 3 litre of boiling water addition). Seemed quite light and easy to drink, not as bitter as I'd like an IPA but we'll see if a bit of bottle conditioning helps.

Qs

Ok after I bottled conditioned this stuff it now has a bit of spicey sort of flavour. Could that be related to the final gravity ending up lower than it should have or was there an infection? And is this off flavour likely to settle out over time?

LordEoin

might just be the hops, if so it'll mellow out

Qs

I thought that at first but the more I taste it the more I think its the yeast, has a sort of hefeweizen flavour to it.

LordEoin


Qs

Not sure I'll have to drink some more to try and narrow it down  :P

LordEoin


Qs

I'm not entirely sure how to describe it. The taste reminds me of a Belgian blonde a bit. There was a 75g dry hop addition that just can't be tasted too. I'm thinking its estery maybe.