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Let the Festival Begin !!

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After what seems like an interminal wait since their launch was announced, the brand new Festival Premium Ale range from Ritchies has finally arrived in store. They have already proved so popular with the retailers that Ritchies are close to running out and have already begun producing a new batch of each. Each of the kits contains Two flexipacks of liquid malt extract, so we will never have to worry about dented tins, together with a style specific strain of yeast, a pack of hop pellets for adding to the fermenter once the initial ferment has subsided and a pre-measured pack of priming sugar. A hop straining bag has also been included to enable you to bottle or barrel your beer without transfering across any of the hop residue.

Three of the kits, the Old Suffolk Strong Ale, Pilgrims Hope and Pride of London Porter, also contain a pack of brewing sugar, pre-measured to provide the correct amount required to increase the alcohol content without altering the malt/hop balance of the beer.

I will be stopping off at my local supermarket on my way into work tomorrow morning to buy 10 bottles of their value water, and a pack of Landlords Finest Ale will be on before the shop opens....

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Comments

  1. Rob

    I agree with Andy's suggestion. Have just barrelled the Festival "Suffolk Strong Ale" and would definitely recommend the addition of beer finings as the hop pellets do cause a "Slurry" effect in the beer making it very cloudy. Don't like the malt pouches either. Makes it very hard to clean them out with hot water. Too much hot water makes them go all saggy. Leaves too much behind in the pouch.

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    Hi Rob, I know what you mean about the pouches, but I find that if you open out the base and stand them up, they will hold the hot water fairly safely and allow you to get the maximum extract out of them - but then perhaps that is just because I am pretty bloody-minded about things and don't like to lose ANY of my extract if I can help it.

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  2. Peter

    Any news on the Landlords Finest bitter yet? I have made the Golden Stag and am thinking of going for the Landlords next.

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    Hi Peter, The primary fermentation takes around 8-10 days depending upon temperature and halfway through, the hop pellets are added to increase the flavour and aroma. The Celeia and Admiral hops introduce a citrus, grapefruit like flavour which can be quite sharp initially but which quickly mellows. I only used half the pack as I don't particularly like really citrus beers and I found it was nicer after about 4 weeks. Whilst I've only served it from a keg at room temperature, I can imagine that it very refreshing served lightly chilled.

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