Woodfordes Wherry Review

[danbriant]

Mine has been in the FV for 9 days so far, I plan on leaving for a full two weeks. Then racking, leaving to settle and clear slightly for a few days and then rack again but this time prime with sugar and bottle.


How much priming sugar should be used for batch priming for bottles?

 

[terrym]

danbriant
If it's any help I bottled my first Wherry 16 days ago at an FG of 1014. Because I was worried about a fermentation restart I used slightly less sugar than I would normally use, i.e. 1.75tsp per 2 litres. I use PET bottles so I can can monitor the bottle pressure and I would say that carbonation is about right, although I haven't opened any bottles yet.
The slight downside at present is that each bottle is still cloudy. I haven't got a brewfridge and was only able to put bottles in the house fridge for 24hours max to try to encourage the yeast to settle, but that made no difference to clarity.
I hope this kit is worth it. Like others I had a stuck fermentation, and now things are slow to clear. I have another Wherry in store but won't be using the kit yeast when I come around to do it.

 

[clibit]

How much priming sugar should be used for batch priming for bottles?

80 - 100g.

 

[danbriant]

Thanks for the input

 

[Slid]

Recently I have been making Partial Mashes, which is a sort of half way house between kit brewing and AG. This methodology requires very little extra equipment and makes, in general, better beer than basic kits and at much less cost, and more fun, than Premium kits.

The last kit beer I made was a Wherry, started on 15 March, swapping the much reviled kit yeast for US 05, which is the fail-safe, go-to yeast of the USA HB community, and bottling on 5 April, following a racking on the 22 March.

Had a bottle this evening and it really does stand up well against the PM brews. Except, of course, that this is 3 months from pitching, which I guess might be a bit longer than the average time that this will be allowed in practice.

It really IS possible to make really good beer from kits and this is one of the very best in terms of balancing output against cost and effort.

 

[cornyandy]

I'd agree Wherry and the Brupaks microbrewery kits are the bees knees

 

[danbriant]

Well I finally have completed my first brew :) Now I'm tired xD
So glad I racked it into a second bucket and left it for a week. The amount of extra sediment at the bottom!

I used my primary 40 brown bottles and needed extras! Total of 44 bottles!

22 Litres of beer, batch primed with 85g of sugar I dissolved in some water to ensure it was evenly dispersed in my beer, after a quick stir :)

 

[SANGER_A2]

Here is mine. It's had 2 weeks to ferment, then two weeks in the warm in the barrel and a few grolsch bottles. Then a week in the fridge for the bottle. It's still a bit cloudy so I'm gonna leave it another week. Tastes good though and it has a lovely colour. More carbonation in the bottles than canned lager! Really impressed. I'm sure the barrelled stuff won't be as fizzy though!
View attachment uploadfromtaptalk1436647054003.jpgView attachment uploadfromtaptalk1436647061435.jpg

 

[ceejam]

My first Wherry, after 10 days in the bottle.
I used a sachet of S-04 to avoid issues of stuck fermentation and did it as per instructions.
A nice pint, even this early, sure it will be great after a few weeks in the garage!

View attachment ImageUploadedByTapatalk1436985166.924180.jpg

View attachment ImageUploadedByTapatalk1436985197.708428.jpg

 

[SANGER_A2]

My first Wherry, after 10 days in the bottle.
I used a sachet of S-04 to avoid issues of stuck fermentation and did it as per instructions.
A nice pint, even this early, sure it will be great after a few weeks in the garage!

View attachment 2170

View attachment 2171

Dayumm! That is seriously clear! How did you get it to go like that?

 

[LarryF]

Finished my last Wherry a couple of weeks ago, gutted. Waiting on the Tesco sale.

 

[Arch41c]

Dayumm! That is seriously clear! How did you get it to go like that?

Patience :) I did a wherry with s-04 as well and it was crystal clear after about a month in the bottle :)

 

[ceejam]

Dayumm! That is seriously clear! How did you get it to go like that?

Thanks, quite impressed with the clarity myself.
2 week primary, racked off into 2nd FV for 3 weeks (was on holiday), racked to bottling bucket, batch primer and a week in the bottle so far.

 

[ceejam]

Dayumm! That is seriously clear! How did you get it to go like that?

Thanks, quite impressed with the clarity myself.
2 week primary, racked off into 2nd FV for 3 weeks (was on holiday), racked to bottling bucket, batch primer and a week in the bottle so far.

 

[SANGER_A2]

Thanks, quite impressed with the clarity myself.
2 week primary, racked off into 2nd FV for 3 weeks (was on holiday), racked to bottling bucket, batch primer and a week in the bottle so far.

I did primary fermentation for 2 weeks, then syphoned into the barrel and primed with sugar. It's had 4 weeks but is still cloudy. Obviously next time I need to primary ferment for 2 weeks, syphon into another fv for 2 weeks, then syphon into barrel/bottles to get it that clear. If it's still really cloudy I may putting some gelatin in for a day or two at the end of the second fermentation before syphoning into barrel/bottles to see how that affects it.

 

[Acerees]

Hi everyone so I'm doing my first ever Homebrew and everything is going well except that it seems very cloudy to me and when I have bottled it after a day there was instantly around 1 to 2 mm of sediment but still still cloudy. Is this typical of this beer? I left it in the fermentation bucket longer than the instructions said I needed to so I thought that would be fine plus I had not disturbed for a couple of days before bottling. Any advice before I start another batch? Also I am making one gallon of special brew with smoked plums in a Demi john (from this base but with extra sugar added to make it stronger) that I will let u know what I think about that when it's ready!

 

[terrym]

My experience of this kit is that it takes a long time to properly clear after bottling, a few weeks rather than days which is probably down to the yeast supplied with the kit. And when the bottles are eventually opened the yeast is disturbed very easily, so be careful when you pour. You could try cold storage after the two week conditioning period in the warm, since this may encourage the yeast to settle quicker.
If you want a kit beer that clears quickly try a Coopers kit, their yeast is reliable and packs down well.

 

[Acerees]

Thanks for the reply I choose this kit as people were generally giving the taste great reviews is the coopers kit as good? Also if it is the yeast can I just swap the yeast out for a different yeast and would this improve how quick the cloudiness clears? The idea of making another batch this weekend is so that I can be patient and won't be constantly check it 😄

 

[terrym]

Acerees

Overall the Wherry kit yeast has had a mixed reception from people on here, and that is my experience too. I have another Wherry kit in line to do but will not be using the kit yeast; I have a GV12 yeast to use, which hopefully will be better in terms of flocculation (settling/clearing) and attenuation. There are also other ale yeast strains out there to try if that's what you decide to do.
As far as the kit itself is concerned, for me it is good but not outstanding. If the GV12 yeast doesn't improve it next time, I probably won't bother with another.
My experience with Coopers kits has been good; my particular favourite is the English Bitter. The Coopers kits come as one can and will require other fermentables to be added; and if you want to, extra hops in the form of hop teas or dry hopping, although extra hops are only a nice-to-have

 

[Acerees]

Thank you pls let me know how the new yeast works out :-)