Woodfordes Wherry Review
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Some of you kit brewers may not have noticed that Wherry kits are currently still on offer in Wilko for £17. As many of us know they now come with two yeast packs and so the stuck fermentation problems should be a thing of the past.....I hope. Anyway with two cans and two yeast packs in the box they are ideal for splitting into two different brews which is what I will be doing since I bought one on Saturday. A few things in the store including Pale, Chocolate and Black Malts, hops including own grown First Gold to use up, and even a pot of Damson jam, so who knows what I can conjure up as additions.
parpot
Regular.
Went in today and only the Wherry in mine! I picked up a Headcracker & Nelsons Revenge from Love Brewing in Liverpool £18.99 so quite happy with that.
Same here, only Wherry in mine too - picked one up today for a quick brew.
BeerisGOD
Landlord.
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Yes ill probably to the same with the admiral Terry
No point leaving crushed malts to go stale
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The Gervin yeast that you can get from Wilko is the same strain as the kit yeast. It is a decent enough yeast, but the fact that it came with a single 6g sachet screams trouble to me.
Do us a quick favour and look at the date on the bottom of the cans ( and let us know what it says!). If it less than 3 months in date you may have issues, for instance.
Should be OK, then. As I understand from posts on the Forum, the Wherry starter kit is now for 20 pints and comes with one 1.5kg can, so you will be fine with 6g of fairly fresh yeast.
The Wherry kit makes good beer and I made lots of kit beer before going AG. It does make better beer over a longer time scale than most of them get, though. 3 months or so. Adding hops and a steeped crystal malt is a good way forward, but just do the first one, as is, with no fear!
Last edited:
coolhandluke
New Member
Yes, I've recently made a couple of the 20 pint starter kits and the single sachet worked fine here
DisrupPluck
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Have brewed this at least a dozen times and each time it has been superb. Have given up making beer from raw materials this is so much better and quicker and not much more expensive
Banbeer
Banbeer Brewing
Try the two can Wherry kit, I've made it alot and got very good reviews from friends and family. Unfortunately down to my last 11 bottles, I must go to Wilkos soon
David Marks
New Member
Just started out with homebrews. Made one batch of Wherry without accurately checking start and finish readins . It was OK but a bit weak, Followed up with a Coopers American Pale - very good ! tried another Wherry used a refractometer and Insulated , temerarture controlled fermentation chamber keeping it at precisely 21 degrees (probe was in the wort . SAbsolute disaster. Dam stuff stuck at 2025 . Got it restarted - stuck again at 2018. Have now extensivly searched the web and found this to be extremely common with Munfords denying it . If you want to play russian roulette fine, otherwise I would therefore avoid this kit like the plague - it is obviously very unreliable . I wonder how many new home brewers have just been put off and given up. What a pity these people cant get their act together
MmmBeer
Brewer
I did one Wherry kit a couple of years ago and it didn't reach the expected FG, but it was a cracking pint, probably the best kit I ever made. Many others on this forum sing the praises of the Wherry kits, however they were notorious for sticking at around 1.020, due mainly to insufficient yeast, 6 g rather than the standard 11 g used for most 5 gallon brews. This was pointed out to the manufacturers and they have responded by doubling the amount of yeast included, which I thought had cured the problem.
Assuming you brewed the two can Wherry kit how many packets of yeast did your box contain? If it was only one then it's either old stock (kits have had two 6g packets for over 12 months) or someone has 'borrowed' one. There is actually nothing wrong with the Wherry yeast provided there is enough of it. I recently bought a Wherry kit split it for separate different brews using one packet of yeast on each to brew a combined total of 27 litres of beer with FGs of 1.010 and 1.009. However, as I found out some time back, with only one packet it's hit or miss as to whether it will be enough for anything over about 21 litres.
MmmBeer
Brewer
Having re-read your post, did you use your refractometer to measure the final gravity? If you did, it will not be accurate. Refractometers are great for measuring the amount of sugar dissolved in your wort (original gravity), but when alcohol is also combined, you really need to use a hydrometer.
Just had a taster of my first brew (wherry kit, I split the kit in half), carbonation was spot on, clear beer only thing was there was a odd flavor which I cant but my finger on it. Ill have to have another one and get back to you.
At risk of others disagreeing I fear the 'odd flavour' you have noticed is called homebrew twang. On a whim I bought a Wherry kit on offer at the end of last year and split it with different modifications and noticed it in both batches. Plus in my experience other the Muntons kit I have done have it, and I think it's down to their LME. And thats why I won't make up any Muntons kits any more.
