Bett-A-Brew Festival Ale Honey Mead Kit

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Canuckdownunder

Well-Known Member
Joined
20/6/13
Messages
96
Reaction score
16
Hey Everybody!
So I've had this kit sitting at my place for a couple week now and I figured that I'd give it a try. I found it at the LHBS by Southport Griffith uni, the guy nearly talked my ear off hahahahaha! But I thought to myself that I'd give honeyed "mead" ale a try since it sounded like an interesting bit of beer to brew for fun while I'm working on perfecting my pale ale. Since I haven't read much about these 3.7 kilo "all-in-one" kits I thought I'd also give a bit of a review to see how it goes and while I'm at it ask some questions if anybody has ever made a honeyed ale.

So anyways first thing I noticed when I cracked the kit open was that, even after having sat in simmering hot water for 15 minutes, the bottom of the kit os solid honey. Like this stuff didn't want to come out at all! The wort slid out as per usual but the other half of the kit was a pain in the ass.

Well with a prodigious use of hot water and my trusty wort spoon I got the stuff to finally vacate the kit and get into the fermenter. After that it was all about making sure everything was nice and dissolved. Filled it to 23l, got an SG reading of 1.057 and pitched at 25c so I'll keep you posted about how it turns out.

I have a few questions regarding fermenting a honey ale. Even though I got and SG of 1.057 the back of the kit says not to consider racking to keg until it gets below 1.005. I thought that was pretty impressive so I ran the numbers through the ABV calculator at Brewers friend and said that this beer will be at least 6.8% ABV with a 91% attenuation rate. Is that high an attenuation rate even possible?! I'm not especially sure what the yeast is; the kit says it's "Danish" but other than that it gives me no hints about what that means. Ideas?

Also, what sort of temps would you recommend for fermenting? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Wish me luck!
 
around 20 degrees should be a good temp for fermentation
*edit*
Ignore my previous comments about mead, apparently this is some sort of hybrid product
*/edit*
The attenuation rate is correct, mead and cider will usually end up a few points lower than beer (more fermentable sugars)
My meads have all finished up around the 1.006-1.004 range
 
Whoa that's gonna be one steeee-rong brew! Looking forward to that. Don't worry about the mead comment I figured it's alright :) So does that mean that most of the honey flavour will be eaten up by the yeast as well?
 
Also I'm looking to move it to a keg what's the deal on keg conditioning time wise?
 
I'm very interested in brewing with honey so this sounds pretty damn fascinating to me, Let us know how it turns out. Is it meant to be halfway between a mead and an ale?
 
I think it's supposed to be halfway between mead and ale because from what I understand the wort was hopped with Pride of Ringwood (no idea when) but then there was a helluva lot of honey in the kit as well. Can't wait for it to be done it's fermenting quite vigorously so good news :D Keep you bros posted!
 
Morning!
So I've got some sweet fermentation action probably the most vigorous I've ever experienced and I'm stoked on that!
Photo 6-07-13 12 20 46 PM.jpg

Having a bit of an issue with temps it seems to be sitting between 20-22 which is a bit high I thought I could just leave windows open since the temps on the GC are only hitting 22 during the day anyways but it should still be fine I think?
Smaller.jpg

Keeping you guys posted!!!
Photo 6-07-13 12 21 00 PM.jpg
 
AlwayzLoozeCount said:
It says on their web site that the yeast they give you is actually a lager yeast.

http://www.ibrew.com.au/products/bettabrew-festival-mead-ale

Anyway I'm interested to see what this kit turns out like.

Cheers.
Hey AlwazLoozeCount
Ya that's why I was a bit worried about the temps... I dunno if the off-flavours of a lager yeast at ale temps are all part of the recipe plan or what. Anyways I chucked a wet t shirt on the fermenter to keep it down and I was able to maintain 16-18 today so I'll probably keep doing that. Also when I rack to keg I'll probably cold crash the corny for a couple weeks before drinking. Vigerous fermentation continues!

Canuck
 
Canuckdownunder said:
Hey AlwazLoozeCount
Ya that's why I was a bit worried about the temps... I dunno if the off-flavours of a lager yeast at ale temps are all part of the recipe plan or what. Anyways I chucked a wet t shirt on the fermenter to keep it down and I was able to maintain 16-18 today so I'll probably keep doing that. Also when I rack to keg I'll probably cold crash the corny for a couple weeks before drinking. Vigerous fermentation continues!

Canuck
Yeah, lager yeast at ale temp is not a great Idea.
From experience years ago I remember strong sulphur smell and it taking months for it to dissipate in the bottle, even though I have a temp controlled fridge I'm still a bit iffy about using lager yeasts. Not that I can't get the ferment temperature right but I just drink the beer too fast so it isn't an option. :chug:
 
Alright Everybody!
Today's the day! After almost 3 weeks of wrapping soaking shirts on the fermenter & keeping the temps as low as possible (14-16) I've finally decided to keg this beast. I've got the gravity reading to 1.007 for about 3 days now so it's finally time. Any recommendations on how to keep the keg? I was thinking about dropping the temp down to like 3 for a few days just to really crash the bugger then force carb. Dunno how many weeks to let it condition...

Photos to come!
 
Photos of the triumphant kegging!


I'm gonna leave it for a couple weeks in the keg then tasting notes to follow

Photo 24-07-13 1 41 08 PM.jpg


Photo 24-07-13 1 41 15 PM.jpg


Photo 24-07-13 1 48 07 PM.jpg
 
Hey Canuck,

Glad somebody has tried this, i look forward to hearing how it turned out, cause i was looking at getting one of these kits to see what they are like!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top