Kit 'O Beer #23 - Muntons Bitter IPA

[Glass]

I thought I would try another kit for a change. Some mixed reviews on Muntons kits in general but I heard this one was ok. It is supposed to be a premium kit. I did not notice it says Bitter IPA when I bought it. It is a dark malty extract.

The recipe:
1 x 1.8kg Muntons Bitter IPA
1.25 kg Brew Booster - from the preferred LHBS
1 x 11gms Danstar West Coast Ale yeast
30gms Cascade pellet hops dry hopped
30gms Galaxy pellet hops dry hopped

Changes:
Cascade hops.
Galaxy hops.

OG 1.046
Volume: 23L
Fermenter: Coopers

Brew temp: 26C - ambient
Pitch temp: 22C
Current temp: 20C

A few mishaps along the way this this beer. First one was the spigot being open. It's a picnic tap so it snaps on or off and its bleedingly obvious when it is open. I missed it. Did not lose much malt BUT man what a mess a pint of sugar syrup can make when your standing in it trying to finish the brew.

Also the clean up was a pain because I couldn't get my feet clean to walk through the house to the laundry for the cleaning gear..... which I had put away to make room for the brewing.

So anyway the floor is still sticky in patches. I've noticed that beer sticky is pretty hard to clean up 100%. There's always some small patch of tacky.

Next problem was the yeast. I rehydrated it in 200ml of boiled water left to 28C. I did not pitch for a couple hours. By morning it was mostly sunk to the bottom. So I pitched some more coopers dry yeast. To me there did not seem to be 7gms in the packet. It looked like less than half that. So there was not much dry yeast floating on top. I guess we wait and see.

I am not so about hopping this one. I listed the two most likely candidates. I will make a choice when it's finished fermenting.

[Glass]

some yeast action going on now. Probably another day before it's fully going. I think the wort temps got a bit low.

[Glass]

ok Just racked this one. Been ready since Monday.

26gms Cascade - all I had left
44gms Galaxy - making up the difference.

Very dark ale-ish looking beer. Smooth molasses flavour. lost a litre with a spill. no biggie. more sticky floor.

[Glass]

bottled this one today. About 60 bottles.

Bulk primed 180 ish grams. spilled some, topped it up but might have been down on original measure of 185gms.

This could be a dark horse beer. It smells and tastes fantastic. It smells of passionfruit and pineapple. The flavour is melon or something, and faint pine apple. The colour is mid amber.

I am pretty keen to try this.

[Glass]

tasty beer. It is young and has changed quite a bit in a couple days. This is a rich amber caramel colored beer. It is nicely carbonated already offering up a soft off white 1 finger head. Consistent carbonation gives a thin cap. Nice lacing.

Aroma is light floral with the hops. Hard to pick what they are. Smells good though. It has toffee caramel aroma and taste. It is sweet tasting on the front but clears to a nice clean light bitterness on the finish.

At the moment this is surprisingly good. The caramel flavour is less strong now, I thought it might be that butter scotch problem but it's clearing nicely. Will do again.

[BrewTech]

Cascade and galaxy should give you really good flavors, especially with that yeast. Hope it's as good as it sounds!