Brewing Golden Stag Summer Ale – Batch #2

Right, new brew day! I’ve been meaning to get another batch on for a while, and this weekend felt like the right time. I’m brewing the Festival Golden Stag Summer Ale again — it’s a cracking kit and last time it turned out brilliantly. This time I’ve upgraded the yeast and added some extra hops, so fingers crossed it’s even better.

The Kit

I’m using the Festival Premium Ale Kits — Golden Stag Summer Ale, which makes around 23 litres. It’s a celebration of fine British ales, promising a crisp golden ale with hints of tropical fruit, mango, passion fruit, and citrus bitterness. I’ve paired it with some extra goodies:

• Lallemand New England (American East Coast Ale) yeast — a premium dry yeast known for producing soft, hazy, juicy beers
• 100g USA Citra hop pellets — added alongside the kit’s Simcoe hops for a seriously fruity dry hop
• 24 x 500ml Brew2Bottle amber PET beer bottles and caps

Brew Day

First things first — cleaning and sanitising. Everything got a thorough scrub and a good soak in sanitiser before it went anywhere near the wort. No shortcuts here; an infection at this stage would ruin weeks of work.

I had a little helper on brew day too — always nice to have someone supervising from the step stool.

Once the equipment was sanitised, I mixed the malt extract into the fermenting bucket, added 3 litres of boiling water straight from the kettle, and gave it a good stir to dissolve everything fully. I then topped up with 25 litres of cold water to bring it to pitching temperature and volume.

Original Gravity Reading

Before pitching the yeast, I took a hydrometer reading. It came in at 1040 — right on target for this kit.

That gives a target ABV of around 4–4.5% once fermentation is complete, assuming it finishes around 1008–1010.

Pitching the Yeast

I added the yeast nutrients first, then pitched the New England American East Coast Ale yeast. I went with this over the included yeast because it’s known for producing soft, fruity esters that’ll complement the Citra and Simcoe hops beautifully — exactly the character I’m going for with this brew.

iSpindel Up and Running

I’ve charged and deployed the iSpindel — a digital hydrometer that floats in the fermenter and sends gravity and temperature readings wirelessly to my BrewSpy app.

It’s already reporting in, showing an OG of 1.043 at a fermentation temperature of 23.63°C — perfect for the New England yeast, which likes things slightly warmer to produce those fruity esters.

What’s Next

Now we wait. After a few days once primary fermentation has started to slow down, I’ll be adding the hops:

• The Simcoe hops that came with the kit
• My extra 100g of USA Citra

Dry hopping during active fermentation (biotransformation) should give the hops a chance to really integrate with the yeast character and produce maximum tropical fruit aroma. I’ll report back once they’re in and the gravity has stabilised. Brew day is done — now the waiting game begins.