Youngs Harvest Yorkshire Bitter Kit

[Damofto]

I am in the middle of a house purchase so have to take a break from all-grain brewing for a while.  I decided to take the opportunity to use up some kits that I had and also to show my dad how to brew at the same time.

I'd forgotten how convenient brewing with kits was, we knocked out 3 kits in around 2 hours.

The Kits that we brewed were 1. Youngs Harvest Bitter Kit
                                             2. Finlandia Traditional Ale Kit
                                             3. New Craft Range lager kit from Homebrew West

This guide is for the Harvest bitter kit, I will post the Finlandia one soon and the Craft range lager has already been reviewed so I won't do a write up for that one.

I've had this kit for around a year from when Tesco were selling off all their stuff but it should still be good.  They are a 1.5kg kit a bit less than the standard kits such as Coopers which are 1.7kg. 

Because the kit is so old I discarded the yeast and replaced with a Gervin GV12 Ale yeast (AKA Nottingham),  available from Homebrew west for €1.26 per packet.  I prefer to use the commercial yeasts over the kit yeasts anyway as they tend to be of better quality and you get more in a packet - usually 11g compared to 7g in a kit.


Rather than use a 1kg addition of Dextrose as prescribed in the kit, I decided to use a 1.5kg can of LME from the Homebrew Company at €5.95 per can, this will hopefully give a maltier taste and better bodied beer.


My process is as follows:

1. Sanitise everything that will come into contact with your beer - fermenter, Airlock, scissors etc.  I use a solution of thin Bleach and Vinegar, 30ml each in 20 litres of water - IMPORTANT DO NOT MIX THE BLEACH AND VINEGAR DIRECTLY TOGETHER OR YOU WILL MAKE CHLORINE GAS WHICH IS POISONOUS.



2. Place both cans - the LME and Bitter Kit in a saucepan of boiling water for 10 minutes or so to soften the extract.



3. Empty contents of each can into your fermenter, rinse each out with boiling water to make sure that you that get all of the extract in there.



4. Instructions are to top up to 23 litres, but I prefer to short fill kits for better body and taste so I topped up to 20 litres.

5. Check that your wort is in the prescribed temperature range of between 18 and 24 degrees, you can achieve this by using combinations of hot and cold water while you are topping up to your target volume.   



6. Stir vigorously to make sure that you have a good mix but also to add oxygen to your wort.  The more oxygen that you can introduce at this stage the better as it helps the yeast to do their business.  I usually stir until I have a thick foamy head, this helps to re-hydrate the yeast too.

7. Once you're happy with your mix and temperature, take a gravity reading with your hydrometer.  The gravity (OG) in this case is 1.042, this should produce a beer around the 4% mark.  The wort is a nice copper brown colour, I thought it may have turned out darker because the kit was so old but it looked perfect.



8. Sprinkle your yeast on top of the wort.



9. Put your lid and fit the airlock.



10. Ferment for approx 10 days at between 18 and 24 degrees, I tend to try aim for around 20 degrees.  The most important thing is to keep the temperature consistent during this time.

11. Check your final gravity to ensure that fermentation has completed, ideally I will be hoping for a final gravity of 1.010 but it may stop around 1.012/1.014.  If you're unsure if fermentation has finished check your gravity a couple of days in a row, if you get consistent readings then fermentation has stopped.

Once fermentation is complete I will probably rack this to a secondary fermenter for another 2 weeks, this helps clear out the beer.  Depending on the taste I may dry hop with some Fuggles or similar at this time.
When this is finished I will transfer this to Corny keg and force carbonate, so hopefully I will have a nice Bitter on draft in about 4 weeks time.  I will report back then with a final verdict. 

[LordEoin]

I'd dry hop it for sure. Might as well get the most out of it, especially as your dad will be judging it