Young's APA

Discuss making up beer kits - the simplest way to brew.
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guypettigrew
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Young's APA

Post by guypettigrew » Fri Nov 05, 2021 10:25 am

For the first time in many years I'm about to try a kit beer. Young's APA.

Do any kit brewers out there treat their water in before diluting the concentrate? My water has an alkalinity of about 200ppm. It's easy enough to drop it to wherever it needs to be but, if ordinary tap water is fine then I won't bother.

Thanks.

Guy

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cwrw gwent
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Re: Young's APA

Post by cwrw gwent » Sat Nov 06, 2021 2:16 pm

I never treat the water as my supply is reasonably soft (I think it comes from a reservoir in the Black Mountains between Brecon and Abergavenny). I understand that people who receive highly chlorinated water treat it by filling a fermentation bin with four and a half gallons and adding a Campden tablet overnight to neutralise it. I'm not an expert on such matters so it may be best to research this.
Some of course will find a cheap source of supermarket bottled water.
I recently bought a similar kit - Munton's American Pale Ale from their recently launched Flagship range.

guypettigrew
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Re: Young's APA

Post by guypettigrew » Sat Nov 06, 2021 4:41 pm

Thanks c.g.

I left the water in my HL overnight to get rid of any chlorine. But then just used it as it came out of the tap.

Bit of a pain to make up--I'd forgotten how viscous concentrated malt extracts are! If it seems like the kit's worth doing again I'll soften it up by dropping the bag of extract in hot water for 20 minutes or so.

Hoping for bubbles by tomorrow morning, if not this evening.

Guy

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Re: Young's APA

Post by WalesAles » Mon Dec 06, 2021 7:22 am

Guy,
How`s the kit brewing?
Did you get the FG?
Bottled or Kegged on day 14?
Tasting OK?
Looking OK, etc, etc.....?
Didn`t it say on the bag to put it in hot water for 30mins?

WA

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Re: Young's APA

Post by Rookie » Mon Dec 06, 2021 4:24 pm

cwrw gwent wrote:
Sat Nov 06, 2021 2:16 pm
I never treat the water as my supply is reasonably soft (I think it comes from a reservoir in the Black Mountains between Brecon and Abergavenny). I understand that people who receive highly chlorinated water treat it by filling a fermentation bin with four and a half gallons and adding a Campden tablet overnight to neutralise it. I'm not an expert on such matters so it may be best to research this.
Chlorine will dissipate on it's own overnight without campden.
Campden works in a very short time and would be used the day of brewing.
I'm just here for the beer.

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bitter_dave
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Re: Young's APA

Post by bitter_dave » Mon Dec 06, 2021 9:46 pm

One thing that kit brewers seem to use is Harris Pure Brew to treat their water. Never used it, and no I idea if it has any merit.

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Re: Young's APA

Post by guypettigrew » Sun Dec 19, 2021 8:45 am

WalesAles wrote:
Mon Dec 06, 2021 7:22 am
Guy,
How`s the kit brewing?
Did you get the FG?
Bottled or Kegged on day 14?
Tasting OK?
Looking OK, etc, etc.....?
Didn`t it say on the bag to put it in hot water for 30mins?

WA
Sorry for the late reply--been away for a couple of weeks.

Primary fermentation finished after 4 days, cooled and kegged after 8 days. Can't remember the FG and didn't bother recording it. About 1.010, I think.

very underwhelmed by the taste. The concentrate had a strong smell of liquid malt extract. I don't really know how to describe it, a sort of heavy toffee smell with a sharp edge to it. And a vague sense of it being something you might have been forced to swallow as a kid because it's 'good for you'.

The smell and associated taste followed through to the finished beer, but has lessened over the last few weeks. Now it's very bitter with no mouthfeel or complexity of taste.

It may be called a pale ale, but it's as dark as a standard English bitter.

Because of all this it's absolutely not 'moreish'! So it'll last me a long time.

Interesting experiment, but it's back to AG for me.

Guy

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Re: Young's APA

Post by WalesAles » Mon Dec 20, 2021 7:34 am

Guy,
Even with an expensive kit like this I would have put in 1Kg Light DME.
And I would have played about with Hops at the start and Dry Hopping, as you do, or as I do anyway! :D

WA

Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal.

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Re: Young's APA

Post by guypettigrew » Mon Dec 20, 2021 5:24 pm

WalesAles wrote:
Mon Dec 20, 2021 7:34 am
Guy,
Even with an expensive kit like this I would have put in 1Kg Light DME.
And I would have played about with Hops at the start and Dry Hopping, as you do, or as I do anyway! :D

WA

Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal.
Now you tell me!!!

Guy

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bitter_dave
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Re: Young's APA

Post by bitter_dave » Mon Dec 20, 2021 6:07 pm

Hi Guy, you might find it improves with a bit of ageing. When I’ve made regular gravity AG beers I’ve found them to be at their best when quite young. When I made a wherry kit a while ago it took while to reach its peak. Never made the Young’s kit though

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