Geordie Yorkshire Bitter Review

[melyn]

Hi all/gyfeillion
Went to Wilkos yesterday to buy brew kit no 5 & found all 2 can kits at £22.00 with no sale offer, Woodforde Wherry at £19.00, but as I have only recently bottled my 2nd Wherry, I went for a change and came home with a Geordie Yorkshire Bitter & brewed it short to 20lts with 1kg of brewing sugar approx 100gms brew enhancer (all I had left) + a pinch of Tate & Lyle for the pot. S.G of 1050
I then came to this ere bored to look up the review, and my heart sank, not very impressed with this kit are you?
At the time, mind you, it was a toss up between this and a Wilkos Hoppy Copper, which has an even worse review.
My question is what can I add to this brew to improve it at this stage, bearing in mind I have no access to hops?
p.s just had a quick look at the F.V and it has the most explosive fermentation ever with a foam layer of around 5 inches on top.

 

[Lesinge]

"p.s just had a quick look at the F.V and it has the most explosive fermentation ever with a foam layer of around 5 inches on top."

Yes I noticed that too although I changed the yeast to Wilko Gervin as the original was so out of date.

 

[drago-mir]

It all started around 5 years ago for me. I was helping clear out stuff in my grans loft when I came across an old boots homebrew set up(Brown barrel with injector cap and a few other boots bits). As the memories started to flood back to me of what seemed a huge barrel under the stairs(I was probably around 2 or 3 at the time) I fell in love with the idea of making beer, my beer and what's more cheap beer. I rushed down to my dad and promptly told him 'I WANT', after all he hadn't used it in nearly 20 years. We'll he said yes on one condition he gets to road test the first batch with me( who could say no to that).
The next day I popped into wilko's and this is the first kit I bought( like I said cheap beer) along with a pack of beer kit enhancer. I was so excited I must of had 1 or 2 pints before it had even finished fermenting. I do remember the yeast foam being so thick it reminded me of a chocolate cake covered in chocolate icing.
Once it had stopped bubbling I transferred it to the barrel and used table sugar to prime it( there went 5 pints without thinking). It didn't even last 2 week's in the barrel. Knowing it was there I just couldn't keep my hands of it. Even before it had finished to me it was the nicest beer I had ever tasted. I was so proud of this beer I had made it may as well have been granted by god himself.
In short this kit is great for a first time brew or even a base kit to make up and experiment with different additions like the hop teabags. In fact I've just put one on this week as SWMBO found 5 of them last year for 35 quid and another fv. She has just bought me a corny for chrimbo too

Regards
Dan

 

[melyn]

hi all
tasted a bottle of this brew last night after 2 weeks in the bottle, i was not very hopeful because of the reviews & it was rather thin & tasteless at bottling so i primed with two large dollops of treacle & hoped for a result. Although it is still rather cloudy it had a nice head & tasted great. RESULT.
This will, i'm certain be a v. good drink in a few weeks. i will not hesitate before brewing this kit ( + additives) in future.
cheers all, signing off a very happy bunny:lol::lol:

 

[Rameire]

Just starting a Geordie yorkshire bitter. Was bought for me, wouldn't be a kit I would buy so I am
Adding 1.5kg of extra light spraymalt
Going to throw in some hops, not sure which ones yet.

 

[Mbanyard]

I've got one of these on the go at the moment.

Brewed with 500g dark spraymalt and 600g brewing sugar (both were all I had left for fermentables. Also brewed slightly short to 21L instead of the 23, both of which should hopefully avoid the thin issue on here.

This had a nice thick layer of yeast bubbles on top really quickly, after 1 week it's looking clear in the barrel.

My natural instinct with a lot would be to ignore the instructions and give it at least 10 days, if not a fortnight, however it looks ready to bottle now. What are peoples thoughts? Bottle it this weekend, or stick to my guns and give it a fortnight.

it's been warm here, so that'll have helped, it's kept in the cupboard under the stairs at a fairly consistent temperature.

 

[klaus]

I do this with most brews, i.e. leave it at least a fortnight, also from a practical point of view, I need to consider my work schedule.
Geordie kits don't have the best of reputations, but I think they are great for producing a reasonable "every-day" type of beer. I generally brew short to 12 litres, sometimes using treacle, brewing sugar, dry hops whatever is available at the time. Always bottle and it seems the beer does benefit from a few weeks of maturation at least, I often have bottles stored for a few months.

 

[chub1]

I do this with most brews, i.e. leave it at least a fortnight, also from a practical point of view, I need to consider my work schedule.
Geordie kits don't have the best of reputations, but I think they are great for producing a reasonable "every-day" type of beer. I generally brew short to 12 litres, sometimes using treacle, brewing sugar, dry hops whatever is available at the time. Always bottle and it seems the beer does benefit from a few weeks of maturation at least, I often have bottles stored for a few months.

You practically halve the total liquid amount, ie 23 ltr down to 12 ltr?. How does that affect the abv?
Ta

 

[Robin54]

Personally I think using a Wilko kit is like using a Tom Caxton kit from 30 yrs ago...things have moved on since then, and 2 can kits are the way forward if you want good beer without going the grain route. Just my opinion and feel free to ignore.

 

[Rameire]

forgot to update. Still have some bottles left after brewing. Surprisingly tasty. Added 10g hallertauer mitterfruh straight away. Added 14g saaz after a week. Bottled after 3 weeks from start of brew. With 125g sugar for carbing.
Came out 4.85alc vol.

 

[Mbanyard]

Bottles mine today after 10 days in the fV.

Had just dropped to bottling on the hydrometer. I was looking for something sessionable for summer so don't mind that it's not that strong - id consider brewing shorter or adding extra fermentables if your after a stronger beer though.

Bit cloudy upon bottling, but quite tasty initially on a sample with no off flavours. Looks like it'll have solid but unspectacular written all over it
I'll update after a couple of weeks conditioning.

 

[klaus]

You practically halve the total liquid amount, ie 23 ltr down to 12 ltr?. How does that affect the abv?
Ta

I don't generally take a reading for the kits. But for illustration I just done one Wherey can 1.5kg plus 440g of brewing sugar (remainder of bag) and SG came out as 1.044. Volume 13 litres. So should come out quite good.
First time I ever done the Wherey hopefully won't get stuck

 

[Mbanyard]

Three weeks of bottle conditioning on mine now, so thoughts I'd give it a try.

It's a very savoury quite bitter tasting bitter if that makes sense, decent carbonation already.

Slight homebrew twang to it, which I'm hoping will disappear with age.

 

[MattN]

Bought in the Wilko sale for £9.00. Made up to 19.5ltrs and left for about 2 weeks. FG was 1.005 then kegged just over 3 weeks ago and just poured the first pint.

Crystal clear, great head and most important of all taste's fab. Will do it again without hesitation.

Regards

Matt

 

[RichK]

I'm currently drinking a tweaked version. Can + 1kg brew enhancer + 1 lb H&B malt extract. 1 oz hop tea + 1 oz dry hop (goldings) (6 days) & brewed to about 21 L with a Wilko Gervin yeast. 1 week carb & then clear after another week in the cool at the back of the pantry. Came out about 6% and very drinkable. I'd do the same again, but go to a full 23L or reduce the additions a bit as it's slightly too "heavy" for me.