The tale of the Red Barron

The Red Barron (American Red IPA) had mixed fortune, from the keg it was a great success. Took it to a friends house warming (but not party!!) and it all went within a few hours. No joke! all what I had left was some slurry at the bottom of the keg. No only it seems everyone finds it remarkably cool to see a keg on the kitchen top, people also like free beer.

From the bottle it was more of a traditional english ale as I gave a 6 pack to my dad. it certainly wasn't designed to be relatively still, I had thought that it could be the case in the bottles as my sample ones were the same. So all in all I am not completely happy with the results.

There wasn't as much hop flavour as with my other batches in the past.




When I came to build and order my next recipe (Fimbulwinter Black IPA) I noticed that the hop quantities for the Barron were around the same as I have done with my 12l batches, however the Red Barron was in the region of 19l so all I can think of was that is was slightly diluted and I amended the recipe volume after I purchased the hops and forgot about it.

A shame and it didn't help also that I was adjusting to using a new brew setup (my Ace Boiler) and had a real ball ache to cool and transfer to the fermenter.  I will redo this batch in the future, I owe it to myself to do it again to make 12l to see how it turns out. I really do like the 'Seasonal' takes on IPAs so I will ear mark it for next year.

I must remember I am a 12l batch brewer!!!
I must remember I am a 12l batch brewer!!!
I must remember I am a 12l batch brewer!!!

What I have taken from this though, my keg setup works very, very well. I will utilise this going forward and will carb it in the keg and transfer enough when fully carbonated to bottles to give away.

To do this I have recently bought a growler/bottle filler to fill the bottles straight from my tap. I will also buy in the next few days a mini regulator adaptor so I can use larger co2 bottles (same as the soda stream machines) to connect a direct supply to my small keg. The mini 16g cartridges are good to transport with to parties but are not great and consistent enough to carb the keg.  I will also purchase a smaller 6l keg for kind of an overflow/bottling/testing keg before I tap my 9l keg.

If this all works out well with my Fimbulwinter Black IPA. I will get rid of my massive 30l bottling bucket.

Until next time.....Happy Brewing