Another stuck Wherry...

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Phil_MG

Phil_MG

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Looks like my Wherry has got stuck.

Started off at 1038 (I probably put a litre or so too much water in to be fair), and after four days it's stopped bubbling and stayed at 1020 for two days now. I've given it a gentle stir to disturb the sediment at the bottom (I got plenty of gas released when doing so) so fingers crossed. What sort of yeast should I be looking at should I have to re-yeast it?
 
Most people will re seed with either S04 or Nottingham. When I did mine it kicked off again when stired so fingers crossed :thumb: be warned though it is not know for clearing well either but it is an acceptable drink and benefits from age so hide a few bottles :D. If it stays stuck you could just try bottling and adding a few grains of all purpose yeast and not bother priming. Oh another thought is temperature. Not sure where your fermenting but as activity drops the temp within the beer will drop as the act of fermentation generates heat so it may be it has fallen below optimum temperature as well. Hope that helps :thumb:
 
Ok Cheers for that, it's reasonably encouraging to hear that it can be re-started.

It's in a fairly cool area of the house, but I've got a brew belt on it and it's keeping it at about 22 Degrees C According to the stick on thermometer. I've also been checking the temperature with a proper glass thermometer, the extra long type which I've dipping in through the rubber grommet where the bubbler normally is.

It's been bubbling a bit more lively in the last hour or so anyway, lets hope that's done the trick!

Not to bothered about it clearing as such, I'm the only one who's going to be drinking it and I can live with it being a bit murky so long as it tastes good :)
 
Looks like it's stuck :(

It seemed to bubbling for couple of hours after stirring but it's still not doing very much in terms of gravity. Still staying at 1.019 ish. Oh well I might be taking a visit to my LHBS again after all :lol:
 
Yeah, re-pitch. I'd be inclined to go with a sachet of Nottingham yeast. Just hydrate,whack it in and give it a stir. I've no idea whether you will need to aerate - there may be others on here who could give you the pros and cons of doing that.

The number of people who have problems with Wherry amaze me. I've only ever had stuck fermentations with fruity kits (always Woodfords, I think) and one AG - and that one was when I used Windsor yeast which taste-wise gives a fruity beer anyway (like Wherry - perhaps it's the same yeast?)

What I did in all the above cases was use Nottingham yeast and it fixed the problem. I think when my Windsor brew got stuck I threw in a Belgian yeast, but can't be sure without digging out my notes or finding the thread on here.

You would think by now that Woodfords would have sorted it out, but no. It's been going on for years.
 
Had another check today and we're down to 1014 now, I'm getting a bubble every 90 seconds or so though the bubbler so I can only presume it's still going albeit much slower than I imagined. From the SG (bearing in mind I put a little bit too much water in initially) it's looking about 3.4% ABV so far. I'll give it another week, 10 days or so and see what we get to!

I've ordered the nelsons revenge kit for my next venture, along with a some sachets of S-04 so I'll try that instead of the kit yeast.

I must learn to stop pulling the top off to stick in the hydrometer as that's probably not helping one bit! I'll have to invest in a turkey baster so I can draw some out through the bubbler hole in future.

Edit :

Just noticed that on the kit box that comes with the Wherry it says it's good for 4.5% ABV, yet if you order the beer from the website, it's down as 3.8% ABV. I wonder if the figure on the kit box is a little bit optimistic?
 
Phil_MG said:
ordered the nelsons revenge kit for my next venture, along with a some sachets of S-04 so I'll try that instead of the kit yeast.

I must learn to stop pulling the top off to stick in the hydrometer as that's probably not helping one bit! I'll have to invest in a turkey baster so I can draw some out through the bubbler hole in future.

Edit :

Just noticed that on the kit box that comes with the Wherry it says it's good for 4.5% ABV, yet if you order the beer from the website, it's down as 3.8% ABV. I wonder if the figure on the kit box is a little bit optimistic?
Click to expand...

The Wherry is a good pint, mine was a little cloudy, but did clear nice and bright after I'd drunk half the brew. I was surprised how good it was when it was young, about 8 weeks after it was started = 2weeks fermenting, 1week settling, 1week priming in bottles, 2weeks clearing, 2weeks conditioning.

see if you can fit a tap to your FV, I use Hozelock style ones (a seller on ebay called the ultimate gardener has them -they are waterbutt taps, black for £1.45) and use the cheap hozelock fittings from B&Q (their cheap blue ones for a £1 with food grade hosepipe - you can use the tap to fill a trial jar hence not need to take the lid off. When I am fermenting, the lid doesn't get opened for 14days, and I can take the gravity easily through the tap.

On the yeast, S-04 is a mighty beast, so it will do the job far better than the kit supplied stuff - the ABV is quite variable tbh, if you want it stronger just add less water, I brewed a St Peter's Ruby Red Ale 2L short, cracking beer it was :thumb: :grin:
 
Couple of things about stuck Wherrys (and other kits).

1. The supplied kit yeast is the bare minimum required to achieve a decent fermentation. If the wort is poorly oxygenated the yeast won't reproduce (for want of a better word) as well as it otherwise would.

2. Changes in fermentation temperature can stress the yeast and result in as stuck fermentation.

Some people advocate a teaspoon of yeast nutrient whereas others use a sachet of SO4 or Nottingham (this contains 11.5g of yeast, usually twice as much) but if you find ways of satisfying the above you'll usually ferment out. I once had a Wherry ferment out to 1008 in a brewfridge set to 25c, having added some yeast vit and aerated the wort with a sterilised hand blender.

Hope this helps.
 
seanipops said:
Couple of things about stuck Wherrys (and other kits).

1. The supplied kit yeast is the bare minimum required to achieve a decent fermentation. If the wort is poorly oxygenated the yeast won't reproduce (for want of a better word) as well as it otherwise would.

2. Changes in fermentation temperature can stress the yeast and result in as stuck fermentation.

Some people advocate a teaspoon of yeast nutrient whereas others use a sachet of SO4 or Nottingham (this contains 11.5g of yeast, usually twice as much) but if you find ways of satisfying the above you'll usually ferment out. I once had a Wherry ferment out to 1008 in a brewfridge set to 25c, having added some yeast vit and aerated the wort with a sterilised hand blender.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...


Cheers for the responses. Yeah I gave the wort a really good slosh around before I pitched the yeast, but like you say, I think the yeast you get with the kit is very much just the bare minimum for ideal conditions. I think what I'll do in future is use S-04 to get things going and save up the kit packets of yeast to use at a later date and double up with them. I might drop them an email and direct them to this thread, it might give them chance to re-evaluate the yeast they send with the kits. I think we'd all rather pay 50 pence more for the kit and have a decent good quality yeast with it first time round.
 
...and here's my guilty secret. After 15 years + of AG brewing, but currently struggling for free time, I dropped a Wherry kit onto the yeast pancake (S04) from my previous AG brew which I'd just moved into secondary. I was amazed at the rate the Wherry fermented - I bottled both brews at the same time. The downside, so-far, is that the Wherry tastes pretty 2-dimensional. Unless it improves in maturing, I might be looking to put more time aside to make sure I can AG.

I'm a bit disappointed really, as I'd heard some really good reports on the Wherry, but I guess it's only been in the bottle for a week. Does it change significantly?
 
battwave said:
...and here's my guilty secret. After 15 years + of AG brewing, but currently struggling for free time, I dropped a Wherry kit onto the yeast pancake (S04) from my previous AG brew which I'd just moved into secondary. I was amazed at the rate the Wherry fermented - I bottled both brews at the same time. The downside, so-far, is that the Wherry tastes pretty 2-dimensional. Unless it improves in maturing, I might be looking to put more time aside to make sure I can AG.

I'm a bit disappointed really, as I'd heard some really good reports on the Wherry, but I guess it's only been in the bottle for a week. Does it change significantly?
Click to expand...

I had a few AG brewers try my wherry before I moved to AG and they were shocked it was a kit. It wasn't as nice as some of the AG brews I've had, but for a kit it was definitely a nice pint.

It took a packet of s-04 to get it unstuck and several weeks in the bottle to get that nice.
 
Green Ninja said:
Wherry needs conditioning for a month minimum.

Then it's not a bad pint.

Too hoppy for me though.
Click to expand...

I'm drinking it again tonight and I admit it's improving, but I'm off to pick-up 25kg of Maris Otter tomorrow!

On to the HBF brew calc now to come-up with an overnight mash recipe - saturday night and sunday morning - wasn't that a film?
 
I'd agree with the 1 month conditioning on Wherry, to be fair thats true of most kits too. (and AG ..... although I have been known not to wait).
 
i have bottled 15 pints and put 25 pints in a keg, when will it be safe to put in a colder spot for e.g conserveatory. :clap:
 
You need to start the secondary fermentation off in a warm place for about a week.

Then to a cool spot (12°c) for a week for every 10 points of OG. i.e. if you made a beer which was 1050 and fermented it down to 1010 then 4 weeks minimum conditioning.

I think that's the rule.


Terry.
 
Mine stuck around 1018, I roused it and went down to 1016 near as I can make out. It's been in the FV for two weeks now at a steady temp between 18-20ºc.
So should I just bottle it at 1016, or should I re-pitch at this point, is it worth it to get to 1014 as quoted? I'm not bothered it's not too strong but I don't want gnats p1ss either...
Over to you wise members of the forum.
 

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