Woodfordes Wherry Review

[Dicko]

Nice one, didn't notice this offer. I'd given up with wilkos as they'd put this kit up to 24 quid and stoped selling the pet caps.

It's not just the wherry either, admirals reserve and the sundew all £18. They've been on offer for at least 2 months now.:

 

[Gunge]

The Canadian blonde I really enjoyed.

Are we still talking about beer? Whatever - my Wherry review goes like this: "Wherry, meet plughole. Plughole, meet Wherry. Hope you get along".

 

[Saisonator]

Are we still talking about beer? Whatever - my Wherry review goes like this: "Wherry, meet plughole. Plughole, meet Wherry. Hope you get along".

My two got on like a house on fire.

 

[Gunge]

My two got on like a house on fire.

Mine got 'stuck' halfway down, so in the absence of any restart yeast I had to get the plunger out.

 

[BeerisGOD]

Mine got 'stuck' halfway down, so in the absence of any restart yeast I had to get the plunger out.

Ah but you prob brewed it to 23litres. It prob did deserve the sink.
A novice error

 

[coolhandluke]

This was my first homebrew kit (well after making a couple of kits over 35 years ago, it counts as starting new), and I was extremely pleased with the result. This was the 20 pint complete kit version, and I brewed it almost exactly to the recipe. That is, I used 20 pints of water on top of the provided tin of LME - (never sure with some of these kit instructions whether I am supposed to top up to 20pints INCLUDING ingredients or EXCLUDING them - so far Tom Caxton seems to be the only one that explains that clearly).
OG was 1040 and it dropped to 1007 over the next week or so. I also transferred it to a second bucket to try and make it as bit-free as possible, and bottled it after 2 weeks. Managed to resist trying it for another two weeks, and I was very impressed, even more so after 8 weeks.

I bought the exact same kit again & made a second batch to make sure I could get consistent results with this one, and also to provide me with another bucket and more bottles. This time I stopped at 19 pints of water. OG 1042 & FG 1009. Same result (maybe a tiny bit tastier).

Will definitely make more of these, I hope I am right in assuming the 40 pint kit uses exactly the same malt recipe, just double the quantity i.e not watered down in any way. No reason to think they would be, it's just something I wondered after reading some of the less favourable reviews.
Anyway, this one is a definite repeat prescription for me. :Cheers:

 

[Dicko]

Hi luke welcome to the forum.
Yeah the kit is exactly the same but you get 2 cans of malt extract, the result should be the same though. Good luck

Dicko

 

[LarryF]

This was my first homebrew kit (well after making a couple of kits over 35 years ago, it counts as starting new), and I was extremely pleased with the result. This was the 20 pint complete kit version, and I brewed it almost exactly to the recipe. That is, I used 20 pints of water on top of the provided tin of LME - (never sure with some of these kit instructions whether I am supposed to top up to 20pints INCLUDING ingredients or EXCLUDING them - so far Tom Caxton seems to be the only one that explains that clearly).
OG was 1040 and it dropped to 1007 over the next week or so. I also transferred it to a second bucket to try and make it as bit-free as possible, and bottled it after 2 weeks. Managed to resist trying it for another two weeks, and I was very impressed, even more so after 8 weeks.

I bought the exact same kit again & made a second batch to make sure I could get consistent results with this one, and also to provide me with another bucket and more bottles. This time I stopped at 19 pints of water. OG 1042 & FG 1009. Same result (maybe a tiny bit tastier).

Will definitely make more of these, I hope I am right in assuming the 40 pint kit uses exactly the same malt recipe, just double the quantity i.e not watered down in any way. No reason to think they would be, it's just something I wondered after reading some of the less favourable reviews.
Anyway, this one is a definite repeat prescription for me. :Cheers:

Beware the yeast that comes with the Wherry it's notorious for sticking at 1020. If you're getting your Wherry at Wilko split a pack of their Gervin yeast and use half the pack per individual tin or the whole pack for both tins. It's an excellent Nottingham yeast for £1.75 and it's never ever stuck on me.

 

[coolhandluke]

Thanks LarryF, I've stocked up a few sachets of that already for future use, so I'll bear that in mind :)

 

[Dicko]

Woodfordes kits now have 12g yeast sachets so shouldn't be a problem, but its always a good plan to have a few spares and the Wilko yeast is a good standby.

Dicko

 

[coolhandluke]

Woodfordes kits now have 12g yeast sachets so shouldn't be a problem, but its always a good plan to have a few spares and the Wilko yeast is a good standby.

Dicko

Thanks that's good to know, I wonder if they did that in response to the stuck ferments. When I read all the previous posts about Wherry, the ones mentioning stuck ferments seem to be several months old, so hopefully it's no longer a common problem. My first two certainly bubbled away pretty rapidly :)

 

[Dicko]

Yeah they did.
I can' quite remember who it was that wrot to them, (chippy tea possibly) but it certainly did the trick. Originally it came with a 6g sachet of yeast and in response they said they would add a extra 6g sachet to those that were already on the shelf and subsequent kits would contain a 11/12g. Result!

Dicko

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Yeah they did.
I can' quite remember who it was that wrot to them, (chippy tea possibly) but it certainly did the trick.
Dicko

I emailed them as stuck Wherry had become a regular topic here and as far as I knew no one had contacted them, the thread is here -

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/the-last-stuck-woodfordes-kit-thread.74911/


.

 

[coolhandluke]

Wow, that was a great result, and really nice to see that Muntons were receptive & willing to make the change.

 

[Saisonator]

Thanks that's good to know, I wonder if they did that in response to the stuck ferments. When I read all the previous posts about Wherry, the ones mentioning stuck ferments seem to be several months old, so hopefully it's no longer a common problem. My first two certainly bubbled away pretty rapidly :)

I think the posts on Wherry stuck ferments etc dried up because someone kicked up about having to read two posts a week about it and asking why people don't use the search facility.

 

[Bobzee]

Just purchased a wherry kit from Wilko, only has a 6g yeast pack.

 

[Dicko]

I pick one up for a friend from Wilkos a couple of weeks ago and that only had a 6g sachet. Don't know why coz the ones in my lhbs have 2 6g sachets.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Just purchased a wherry kit from Wilko, only has a 6g yeast pack.

They recently started to add the extra yeast so it must be either a mistake or old kit.

Have a look at this https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/the-last-stuck-woodfordes-kit-thread.74911/

 

[Bobzee]

I e mail Muntons, they are going to send me an extra pack of 6g of yeast. Can’t argue with that.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Great result.