Woodfordes Wherry Review

Pearlfisher said:

GJB said:

My first mistake.

I have been pouring the WW from the keg, but every night, the first pint is usually awesome, next pint cloudy...

I will now remember to undo the top of the keg slightly to stop bubbles going in through the tap and unsettling the yeast, making the brew cloudy....

I'll get my coat.

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You need to get it drunk very quickly if you've been letting air into the keg ,it won't last many more days without going off.

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Been drinking my coppers english bitter out of the KK for about five weeks or more (i've had the lid off too (dont ask!!)) and its still great.
The oxygen seems to have had no detrimental effect. :thumb:

Must have either re-carbonated itself or you've cast iron guts.

Pearlfisher said:

Must have either re-carbonated itself or you've cast iron guts.

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It got a blast of CO2 straight after and the pressure has been kept at about 6psi since, but like i say its still good!
Down to the last two pints or so now.

I find adding a jar of honey to Wherry works really well and gives a little more ABV :)

I've recently started sampling my initial Wherry, it was my first brew for about 20 years. Its bloody marvelous, nowhere near enough conditioning time but I've put a large box full of bottles away to condition properly now its all about keeping my hands off it. I was drinking it earlier in the week despite and in preference to the cans of Old Speckled Hen I had in stock. I've since fermented and bottled a Woodfordes Admirals Reserve, again filling a large box with 22 bottles, I'll try to leave that and drink the surplus before its at its best. Another Wherry already in the FV tweaked with half a kilo of soft dark brown sugar and a bag of challenger finishing hop pellets. I plan to repeat the process until I have a proper good stock of well conditioned bottles. I think they'll mainly be Wherry's with different tweaks, all in separate boxes all with differently coloured tops. So that I can judge the value of all the tweaks in full. I'm very happy with the taste of my first Wherry I'd like to try most of the other Woodfordes kits but theres an issue of economy. Wherry's the only one stocked by Wilko, priced at £18 and with my family discount coming out between £14.40 and £15.66 per kit (13/20% discount) and all other Woodfordes kits available in town at nearly £25 its a lot more for a very similar product I assume. All other kits stocked by Wilko are single can kits that I'm assuming are inferior, like what I brewed back in the day. I'm thinking Honey, Golden syrup, different hop varieties, different waters. Please please share with me any tweaks you've tried with the Wherry and how they turned out.

On the latest Wherry i mixed 250g DME with 2 litres of water and boiled 25g of East Kent Goldings in it for around 30 mins - this allowed me to do the full 23l and it gives it a much more pronounced hoppyness.

Still in the fv at the min but ready for bottling soon

I just posted a quick pic of my second dry hopped Wherry in the Beer Brewdays section, currently in secondary demijohns. I added 50g East Kent Goldings pellets. Smells superb! Like the first one, I brewed slightly short (about 21.5L) to get an OG of 1.044 and upped the yeast pitch, adding an 11g Gervin sachet to the measly 6g one in the kit, both rehydrated first.

[Edited]
Right... I opened a bottle last night, after just 16 days in the cold, though originally pitched a month and a half ago... and ....wow...really lovely beer and a very successful brew. Lots of hop bitterness, presumably from the kit itself, and great aroma from the dry hop pellets. Perhaps even too hoppy for some, but I really love it. Still a bit hazy, as others have said can be the case until maybe 6 weeks or so: I doubt that it is because of either of the tweaks (dry hops and extra yeast), though I can't be totally sure, obviously. Really pleased I put another one on straight away, because this one isn't going to sit around for too long!

Notwithstanding the remaining haze, this very, very nearly equals a particularly nice extract bitter I did when I was last brewing over a decade ago and it will only continue to improve for a while yet. Note the tweaks above though, as far as my review goes.

well iv just got my wherry out of the fridge in the shed...
i dont think it was a good idea putting it in there its slowed down the carbonation...
as it had very little hiss ...

its in my king keg and no its not leaking ....
so iv brought it up to my bedroom to warm up.. :pray: .

iv give it a blasted with a little co2 because i took the top off to see if it had cleared ...

it hadnt...
but i did dispense 4 bottles to try ...




im a bit disapointed theres 13 pages to this thread and lots of talk about this pint ...
but only 2 pics of the ale in glasses...

o well never mind ...

at least SE10PAT and Inneed ...

posted pics of there pints on here to go by...
and very nice they look aswell... :thumb:



regards mick... :hat: .

My first batch of Wherry is ready to drink. Tried a couple last night and its good stuff. Really impressed. Has a good head on it and tastes good. Although when fermenting did have a large number of bits in it so filtered through filter paper when bottling.

ok so i think its ready now it tastes great it looks great ...
but its just very frothy to get out of the keg...

so takes some time to settle before i fill the glass .. :pray: .

but hay heres a pic to see what you think...

if you think its not how it should be ...

just say so .. :thumb: .

as iv not done this kit before ...



regards mick... :hat: .

looks good to me mick :
why dont you try putting the first 6 or so pints into a jug then pour into your pint glass. ive the same trouble with the first few out the keg but decanting it into the jug does the job fine. you can pour normally after the initial presser is down a little

mtt

mickthetrick said:

looks good to me mick :
why dont you try putting the first 6 or so pints into a jug then pour into your pint glass. ive the same trouble with the first few out the keg but decanting it into the jug does the job fine. you can pour normally after the initial presser is down a little

mtt

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thanks mickthetrick ill do that :thumb: ...

just remembered as well there didn't seem to be any co2 coming up from the bottom of the glass...

yet there were tiny bubbles stuck to the glass ...

and the head stayed all the way till the end of pint ...

is yours the same or is mine lacking something .. :whistle: .

regards mick... :hat: .

mick may said:

mickthetrick said:

looks good to me mick :
why dont you try putting the first 6 or so pints into a jug then pour into your pint glass. ive the same trouble with the first few out the keg but decanting it into the jug does the job fine. you can pour normally after the initial presser is down a little

mtt

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thanks mickthetrick ill do that :thumb: ...

just remembered as well there didn't seem to be any co2 coming up from the bottom of the glass...

yet there were tiny bubbles stuck to the glass ...

and the head stayed all the way till the end of pint ...

is yours the same or is mine lacking something .. :whistle: .

regards mick... :hat: .

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Mine had little fizz in the keg - the bottles I've done of the same batch had far more. lots of pressure in the keg - no leaks, and a good head. Just very little fizz in the drink. It was suggested that I should try to make a beer line, basically some tube from the tap to the glass. I haven't got any to fit yet.

i think maybe your trouble is that the keg needs be be chilled i little to absorb some of the Co2.
must say i don't chill mine. just like it they way it comes out the keg.

morethanworts said:

mick may said:

mickthetrick said:

looks good to me mick :
why dont you try putting the first 6 or so pints into a jug then pour into your pint glass. ive the same trouble with the first few out the keg but decanting it into the jug does the job fine. you can pour normally after the initial presser is down a little

mtt

Click to expand...

thanks mickthetrick ill do that :thumb: ...

just remembered as well there didn't seem to be any co2 coming up from the bottom of the glass...

yet there were tiny bubbles stuck to the glass ...

and the head stayed all the way till the end of pint ...

is yours the same or is mine lacking something .. :whistle: .

regards mick... :hat: .

Click to expand...

Mine had little fizz in the keg - the bottles I've done of the same batch had far more. lots of pressure in the keg - no leaks, and a good head. Just very little fizz in the drink. It was suggested that I should try to make a beer line, basically some tube from the tap to the glass. I haven't got any to fit yet.

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thanks morethanworts.. :thumb: .
i cant see that a beer line would help as its just as small a opening as the tap ...
but i supose if i had a length i could try it .. .

regards mick... :hat: .

mickthetrick said:

i think maybe your trouble is that the keg needs be be chilled i little to absorb some of the Co2.
must say i don't chill mine. just like it they way it comes out the keg.

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ill see what its like after a few more pints...
mabe it will settle down froth wise and to be honist i dont need it to be to carbonated...

i do like it at room temp so chilling is out...

plus...

thinking back to some real ales iv tryed in the pubs..
they didnt have much carbonation eather .. :nono: .
so mabe thats how its ment to be ...

regards mick..

Just tried to order some Wherry from wilco.
"Sorry Woodfordes Wherry is now out of stock and no longer available" So I ordered the British IPA which came in at half price! £11 for a 3kg kit. I amended my order to two. Could be they'll be no longer available too. I ordered them for delivery into store at no extra charge. Happy Daze. :

Hi,
Further to the clearing problem on the Wherry, I put a book under the front of my barrel if it will not clear.
That way, because it clears from the top down, everything gets pushed to the back which allows whats at the top to drop down.
Just a thought.

Please see a picture of my first ever brew - made the Wherry around 5 weeks ago - 7 days in FV- added 85 grams brewing sugar, put in barrel and left in warm for 2 days - then put in garage to clear.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/63224629@N06/9009501005/
It's a lovely drink tasty and clear, and I picked up another kit at half price from Wilko on Sunday - I'm impressed with it

Mothy1965 said:

Please see a picture of my first ever brew - made the Wherry around 5 weeks ago - 7 days in FV- added 85 grams brewing sugar, put in barrel and left in warm for 2 days - then put in garage to clear.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/63224629@N06/9009501005/
It's a lovely drink tasty and clear, and I picked up another kit at half price from Wilko on Sunday - I'm impressed with it

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make the most of your stock...
there not going to stock woodfords wherry any more ....

regards mick... :hat: