Making Woodfordes Wherry less strong

[Petefin]

Hi Guys,
I am about to start brewing the aforementioned kit. 40 pints at 4.5%.
I prefer my tipple to be around 3.5 to 3.8%.
Rather than just adding more water at the start, (how much water?) is there anything else I should add to keep the taste? Don't want to just end up with a "watery" version of the same thing, or is that the only option?

Cheers, Pete

 

[Honk]

I've never done extract brewing so can't really advise but worth doing some research into this.

I believe you could do a minimash of something like crystal malt to add more body without increasing alcohol content (there maybe other things you could minimash with that would work better)

 

[terrym]

@Petefin
Not sure where 4.5% came from but if you make your Wherry up to 23 litres using the 2 x1.5kg cans LME it will produce a beer of about 3.75%.
If you want to confirm this for yourself punch 3kg LME, 23 litres and Extract Brewing into the BF calculator here
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculatorPriming sugar will add about 0.2% as always.
And if you add crystal malt on its own in a grain steep (not a minimash) to a beer it will add fermentable sugars as well as body and flavours. So 200g crystal will add about 0.2%. A minimash is just that, a mash of small quantity of a base malt.

 

[Graz]

As above, never found Wherry to be that strong, and it's my go to kit session beer. I think the ABVs are exaggerated on a lot of kits.

 

[obscure]

Wherry tends to come out about 1.040 for me so fermenting out to 1.010 comes in just under 4%, I tend to use the markings on my fermentor as plugging the figures into a calculator I am getting the same figure as Terrym of 3.75% at 23L, so I am properly brewing slightly short that or misreading my hydrometer by a small amount.

I understand the desire for lower ABV session beers, unfortunately I can’t really think of any kits that really cater for this, have you considered either small batch all grain or extract brewing with steeping grains you can do this with minimal equipment on your stove. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful, though it makes a nice change from the oft asked how to I make the kit stronger question you see so would be interestEd myself if anyone has a solution that works.

 

[Petefin]

Hi Guys,
Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.
I think I'll go for the easy option of making the brew up to 23 litres. Anything between 3 & 4% I'll be happy with, as long as I haven't diluted the taste too much, will report back on that!
Cheers, Pete

 

[Wherrypuzzled]

My Wherry kit done recently and all others Ive done came out 3.7 to 3.8.

I cant wait to empty Barrel 1 and fill it with Nelsons Revenge thus getting 5.5 ish and a stronger tasting beer