Brewer's Best Summer Ale with some additions

[nikhutchison]

Hey guys, I am going to start my Summer Ale this Friday. I got the Brewer's Best extract kit. This is only my second batch of home brew (I was very pleasantly surprised with how well my IPA turned out). I really want to take this recipe and kick it up a notch. I am a chef, so I love to play with flavors. I think I am going to keep it pretty tame and true to the style of beer as this is only my 2nd batch. I would like to add 8-12 ounces of honey - from what I've read, I think this will help bring out the citrus and possibly kick up ABV a tiny bit. I was also thinking about dry hopping with 1 oz of Citra (the kit comes with 1 oz Cascade to add to the boil) and possibly some orange or grapefruit peels. I don't think what I'm doing is too off the path at all, but I wanted to see if anyone had experience with something similar. Thanks for any feedback! Love this new hobby, and you guys rock!

 

[JKaranka]

I would get into honey next time and in this batch go for citra and citrus peel. That way you get to know more about each ingredient.

 

[Rhaop]

That kit was my first ever beer and i enjoyed it, i always wanted to rebrew now that i've been brewing 6 years, you can't go wrong with adding hops or you could also throw in some extra orange peel, i thought my kit had a blend of orange and lemon peel but i could be wrong

 

[Gravity]

I would wait untill you have more brews under your belt to start experimenting with honey, especially if its your 2nd batch. The orange peel etc, is a good call

I'm about to add passion fruit to my summer wheat - exciting

 

[Lefou]

I guarantee you will like this kit if things go well. Was going to ask what yeast was being used, then researched it myself.
S-05 will eat this right up, especially if you add up to 8-12oz. of extra clover honey. If you're using pasteurized honey, it's best to add into warm wort so it will dissolve - but don't boil.
You can add the pasteurized honey straight to the primary, but it's dense and tends not to mix well.
I brewed a similar all-grain ale in March using White Labs WLP001 California ale yeast. The starting gravity was almost exactly the same - 1.046 - but with a little higher fermentation temperature than my usual 60-65F, my ale finished near 1.004.
Don't be surprised if the S-05 performs this way and dries your beer, especially with the honey addition.
My bittering hop was Cascade with a light dose of Citra finishing hop. My ale has an IBU rating just under a pilsner, a slight fruit essence, and nice foam stand.
Hope your version ends up just as nice.

 

[nikhutchison]

I posted this on another thread that I started, but I wanted to add it here since we talked about this brew before I started it:

Hey guys, I am brewing a summer ale kit by Brewer's Best. Added 1 oz of Citra hops and At the end of the boil I added Orange blossom pure clove honey (12 oz), then I also added 32 oz of blood orange juice. I had a pretty active fermentation for a couple of days. The krausen had dropped shortly after the first round of fermentation and I moved my beer to the secondary at day 14. I added my dry hop to the beer once it was in the secondary fermenter, which was last week (It's been roughly 9 days). A few days ago I added grapefruit peel/zest/a little bit of flesh (which was soaking in vodka) to the secondary. Now it looks to me like there is another round of fermentation. This is my first time adding any fruit at the end of the process and was wondering if this is normal. It looks to me like there is a thinner krausen forming and the airlock is bubbling. I wanted to bottle, but I didn't really want to touch it when it seems like there is some activity going on. Any input would be appreciated. Thank you all!