Woodfordes Wherry Review

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Hello all. My first post on here ( see intro).
Had my first ever brew on since Friday, which is a wherry kit that I bunged in my suitcase and brought over to the USA. I followed the instructions and its been bubbling like a goodun since then ( had to fit a blow off tube as the foam came through the airlock). Ferm temp is 20 deg c. After reading some great stuff on here, I plan to leave it in primary for 2 weeks, or longer, then rack to polypins to mature at 13 dec c. I have an angram coming from the UK so this (and all my beer ) will be pulled from a pump. Has anyone else serve wherry in this way?
 
A word on the yeast with your Wherry, I brewed a Wherry at the end of October with two weeks in the FV using the trub from a previous brew using Mauribrew 514 and primed with a heaped 1/2tsp of sugar. After conditioning it when I opened the bottles it was fizzing up and lifting the yeast from the bottom of the bottle. I don't know if it's a case of the yeast not having finished fermenting but the Mauribrew 514 was fine after two weeks in my brews over the summer. Or if I over primed it but I've primed both my previous Wherry's with a full teaspoon of sugar and priming my previous Mauribrew brews with at least the same amount of sugar. What I've done is to loose the lid on all the bottles to release the pressure and re-tightened them and a few weeks on it seems fine and pours well. I think that from now on I'll be giving everything three weeks in the FV to ferment out properly to try and swerve this in future. It was a bit of a gutter as I was looking forward to a few Wherry's over Christmas but therein lies the lesson, always have enough back up beer to get you through, thankfully I didn't go short.
 
Slid said:
I agree, Wherry is a good kit, but it does need a LOT of patience and 3 months is the absolute minimum to get it at its best.

May be a slight over statement of its virtues to suggest it equals an AG brew? Even with a bit of encouragement (like a few steeped grains and a hop boil).

Sadly, it is many home brewers first beer and they read the box and it says 3 weeks. Very hard to get the best from a kit after 3 weeks. Never happened to me!
Click to expand...

Last night I had a Wherry that I bottled on 10 October, after 2 weeks in primary and 2 weeks in secondary FV. It also got a bit of a lift from a dry hop addition - 40g EKG and 15g Bramling X and I did use US 05 yeast.

Very nice it was, too. I would say it was comparable to the partial mash brews (half grain, half extract) I have been doing for a year or so, now.

Even so, a vote for the mighty Wherry! It really does make good beer and it is a sound base for adding hops, either dry or through hop teas.
 
I'm now drinking the last few bottles of my Wherry that I bottled on 3rd November. Over this time it has improved dramatically, so that I would say it wasn't really ready to drink until it was 8 weeks in bottle.

Apart from a maturing of flavour, the sediment has firmed up over this time so that I can pour easily to get a perfectly clear drink with just a tiny amount of beer left in the bottle.

I've also noticed an improvement in carbonation, so that I now get a decent head on my beer (it was a bit flat at first), although this might have something to do with falling temperatures in my beer store (garage).

So all in all, I agree with other posters who have said it needs a fair while in bottle to reach its best.
 
Hi,
I am about to start my Wherry kit, I have replacement yeast (GV12) Apart from replacing that naughty kit yeast , has anyone got any other recomendations / experience, i.e. brewing short, temperatures or any additions ?
Or would I be just best to brew it as per instructions !
I do have some centennial and target pellets. I have just finished a Coopers IPA which i dry hopped for 5 days with 40g of centennial pellets, hydrometer sample was very florally but i guess time will tell on that one.
 
Javalian said:
Hi,
I am about to start my Wherry kit, I have replacement yeast (GV12) Apart from replacing that naughty kit yeast , has anyone got any other recomendations / experience, i.e. brewing short, temperatures or any additions ?
Or would I be just best to brew it as per instructions !
I do have some centennial and target pellets. I have just finished a Coopers IPA which i dry hopped for 5 days with 40g of centennial pellets, hydrometer sample was very florally but i guess time will tell on that one.
Click to expand...
It's good to go as it is imo.
You could brew short if you wanted to get a higher ABV but that's your choice. Its a very malty finish so you may not want to go too short unless you like that sort of thing
If you wanted to dry hop you could try your Target hops which may suit this beer better rather than the Centennial but again thats your choice.
Otherwise 2+2+2 recommendations apply.
Your hop flavour in the IPA will diminish with time, if my experience with citrusy type hops is anything to go by.
 
terrym said:
It's good to go as it is imo.
You could brew short if you wanted to get a higher ABV but that's your choice. Its a very malty finish so you may not want to go too short unless you like that sort of thing
If you wanted to dry hop you could try your Target hops which may suit this beer better rather than the Centennial but again thats your choice.
Otherwise 2+2+2 recommendations apply.
Your hop flavour in the IPA will diminish with time, if my experience with citrusy type hops is anything to go by.
Click to expand...

Thanks Terry, might just brew short , 21L sound ok ?
What characteristics will the Target add ?
- With regards to bottling my IPA would I be better off using dextrose rather than the table sugar ( that i used in my first brew) if so , why ? and is it done at the same ratio ? ( I used half teaspoon for 500ml and 3/4 of teaspoon for cobra bottles which i think are 660ml )
Sorry for so many questions again :)
 
might just brew short , 21L sound ok ? = as I mentioned above its a personal choice really, mine were about 22 litres
What characteristics will the Target add ? = http://beerlegends.com/target-hops and you wont really know until you try
- With regards to bottling my IPA would I be better off using dextrose rather than the table sugar ( that i used in my first brew) if so , why ? and is it done at the same ratio ? ( I used half teaspoon for 500ml and 3/4 of teaspoon for cobra bottles which i think are 660ml ) = use this http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/ which suggests you need 10% more dextrose than table sugar; however unless you batch prime or use microscales my guess is that it would be difficult to measure the small difference when bottling at 500/660ml; I have used both and they are fine imo, although sugar is cheapest and more readily available so is my preference; I would class the IPA and the Wherry the same for priming quantities.
 
Newbie Question - Day 7 of my Wherry, I brewed short to 21.5 Litres, put on with Gervin GV12 Yeast. Temp approx 20C. OG was 1.053 SG now is 1.016 same as it was yesterday (which gives ABV of 4.86%). Still lots of bubbles and bits spinning around in FV. Is this the sort of SG this is going to finish at ? As I want to dry hop with 40grams of target hop pellets, is now the correct time to put it in or do I need to wait for SG to get down more or bubbles to die down a bit?
This is only my 3rd brew and the other brews I have done ( coopers IPA and Caxton RA) the SG got down to 1.010 & 1.008 respectively . Thanks in advance.
 
I think you have a little way to go yet especially since you say the yeast still looks active. My Wherry with a GV12 got 77% attenuation, which is about par, so based on an OG of 1.053 and 77% you should be looking at about 1.012. That's the theory anyway, the practice could be different. Suggest you leave it for at least another couple of days before you take another reading, it will do no harm. It should have died down further by then and you may be able to dry hop whether the gravity has bottomed out or not.
 
Just bottled this today got a FG of 1.012 so all looking good, put in the cold for a day before bottling to lay some more sediment down, now to be patient !!
 
I have to agree with the previous posts.
I did my first home brew for Christmas, and it was a Wherry. I don't think I got it down to quite the right gravity as I find the hydrometer so difficult to read. Also it has R/A/G bands, and I never got out of the red. The beer was also a little hazy.
Anyway, it tasted absolutely great, and was almost clear by the last pint or two. :thumb:
Now trying the Woodfordes Nog, as I like a darker beer.
I hope to get onto all-grain brewing in the near future.
 
Just as many others, Wherry was my first homebrew, and has led me into a wild world of many different brews! An excellent all round kit... I add a bag of Fuggles pellets to the FV to add a few additional hoppy notes, but this is an excellent brew. Batch 2 has gone well, although I am trying to be patient and let it condition for a good long time first!
 
Hi
I'm unsure whether to PB or bottle the wherry, what's the best temperature to serve it at, as I can't cool the PB in the summer (or anytime when things warm up), but bottles could go in the fridge...
Cheers!
 
In my experience with Wherry if you have a batch ready now it won't last until the summer! Therefore you could stick it in a PB, I serve mine at 12, from the fridge is too cold imho and I did have a pb in the garage last summer which must have been warmer that that and it was fine. Summer temps in Northumberland are never off the scale though [emoji3]


Join the BrewChat - open minds and adults only :wink: - Click here
 
That's a good solution[emoji3]. You can stick a couple of bottle away and forget about them to come back to later which is always worth doing


Join the BrewChat - open minds and adults only :wink: - Click here
 
I've picked this up as my first attempt at home-brew, I've done wine before but not any kind of beer. I've collected enough 500ml brown beer bottles (glass) so will be bottling it this time around. Are there any tips on making this into a successful brew using additions, or making slightly less to bring up the alcohol level slightly?
 

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