Woodfordes Admiral Reserve Review

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jobby

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just bottled this kit as i had no spare kegs, looks good and smells good so hope it tastes good :D , took 10 days to ferment out in a coolish room, racked it of into me other fv which has the tap on, added 80grams sugar the bottled, will leave it for at least 4 weeks before i try one, im led to believe its better than the wherry :cheers:
 
This was my first kit after a 20 year break. It went into a plastic keg and started drinking after a month. Very impressed with this kit, a great pint. The couple of pints that I bottled and left for 2 months were even better.
 
This was my first two can premium kit.

The fact that it comes with a packet of hop-oil infused maltodextrin to chuck in as a "dry hop" seems to make a heck of a difference to the finished product. I'm drinking mine a little on the green side at around a month and a half old but it is still a cracking pint.

Brewed totally straight, as it says on the tin. Bottle primed with 1/2 tsp dextrose. 7-10 days in bottle @ room temp until nearly clear (didn't clear as well or as quickly as some others, but did after a couple of weeks in the cold).

The acid test: Would I brew this again? Oh yes!

EDIT: Now that it's conditioned a bit longer it is an absolute corker of a pint. For once I get a decent head and it lasts most of the way down the glass. It's mellowed and rounded off a little which, to my taste at least, makes it as good as most and a hell of a lot better than a lot of commercially produced real beer.
 
Brewed it up for me dad.

Quite heavy for me, but no doubt a quality kit and definitely one for the real ale drinkers. Definitely worth the extra cash!
 
cracked open the 1st bottle today and its superb, maybe a tad fizzy for ale but still very nice, i think ill add 1/4 teaspoon of sugar next time and there will be a next time. :cheers:
 
It is on the heavy side, but very tasty. I find it's better without a second batch of sugar if you can carbonate in a cornie, and like all these kits it's best left for 6 weeks or so.

I used to get this one confused with Nelson's revenge, for obvious reasons, but that one's stronger (though not necessarily heavier).
 
Started this 2 can kit on Friday 25/05/12 the OG was 1048
Made to 32 pints/18ltr's with no added extra fermentables just the hop sachet that came with the kit.
It got off to a good start bubbling quickly and regularly within 12 hours at a temprature of 20dgr's.

Im looking forward to this one as this will be my third Woodfordes brew and the 2 previouse Woodfordes brews exeeded my expectations.

I will be checking the brews gravity after 12 days in the fermenter looking for my FG and will bottle it straight from the FV after a minimum of 14 days.

8 pints will be bottled into 500ml glass bottles with 1/2tsp of caster sugar for long term storage and the rest will be going into 500ml coopers pet bottles agin with 1/2tsp of caster sugar for normal consumption.

Andy
 
I have just put this in my FV. Followed the instructions to the letter, other than activating my yeast before hand. I found that the hop oil powder formed a couple of large clumps, despite my very vigorous stirring with a beer paddle, but as it's mixed with maltodexerin, I'm hoping the yeasties will feed on it and help break the lumps up, or they'll gradually just dissolve given time. At least my wort is well aerated - so much so I had a good frothy head before I pitched the yeast :grin:

Starting gravity is 1.048, which seems to match what others have posted, as it is a 32 pint / 18 litre kit.

I'm struggling to bring the temp down a bit though, got the window wide open and turned the heating in the room off, plus got a fan blowing across it. It's around 24 at the moment, but this should have dropped under 22 by the time the yeast really gets to work (or at least I certainly hope so).

I'm having surgery on Tuesday, so no lifting/bending for at least 2 weeks afterwards, so this is going to ferment for at least 2 and maybe even three weeks - hopefully that shouldn't do it any harm :pray: but the FV is fitted with a tap so I'll be bottling straight from the FV once I'm fit enough to do so.
 
SloeBrewer said:
I have just put this in my FV. Followed the instructions to the letter, other than activating my yeast before hand. I found that the hop oil powder formed a couple of large clumps, despite my very vigorous stirring with a beer paddle, but as it's mixed with maltodexerin, I'm hoping the yeasties will feed on it and help break the lumps up, or they'll gradually just dissolve given time. At least my wort is well aerated - so much so I had a good frothy head before I pitched the yeast :grin:

Starting gravity is 1.048, which seems to match what others have posted, as it is a 32 pint / 18 litre kit.

I'm struggling to bring the temp down a bit though, got the window wide open and turned the heating in the room off, plus got a fan blowing across it. It's around 24 at the moment, but this should have dropped under 22 by the time the yeast really gets to work (or at least I certainly hope so).

I'm having surgery on Tuesday, so no lifting/bending for at least 2 weeks afterwards, so this is going to ferment for at least 2 and maybe even three weeks - hopefully that shouldn't do it any harm :pray: but the FV is fitted with a tap so I'll be bottling straight from the FV once I'm fit enough to do so.
Hi, why are having trouble keeping temperature down, are you in a warm climate?
 
bottler said:
Hi, why are having trouble keeping temperature down, are you in a warm climate?

Sadly not, I live in the UK! The reason is that the only room available in my house for brewing happens to be my office (I'm self-employed). Even though I've turned the radiator right down, the computers in the room help to keep the ambient temperature at around 22 degrees, so during the initial fermentation, the wort temp creeps up to 24ish.

I've tried opening the window, but as I sit next to it, I'm getting rather chilly :cry:

I'm on my third brew, first was a Wherry which was bottled 2 weeks ago. No off flavours from high fermentation temps as far as I can tell, but it's still a bit early to be drinking it - will see what it's like in another few weeks.
 
10 days in and this is still bubbling the airlock. I was intending to leave it in the primary for at least two weeks anyway, but decided to take a hydrometer reading to see how far it had come along. SG was 1.048 and the gravity is now 1.016, so I guess it still has a little way to go.

I did have a taste and it wasn't great, certainly nothing like the Wherry I did, straight out of the FV, but it's early days! I'll probably end up bottling this after Christmas now - just as well I've got 40 bottles of Wherry which are conditioning at the moment!
 
Worth getting it down to 1010 and 5% abv if possible. Im thinking of brewing this next, so keep us posted mate :thumb:
 
Just bottled this, FG came out at 1.012, SG was 1.050 so that works out as 5.1% after three weeks in the FV. Tasted the contents of the trial jar, and wow! Really hoppy and full of flavour. Can't wait to see what this is like in 5-6 weeks time once it's conditioned properly.
 
It's definitely one of my favourite brews. I'll be kicking off another one very shortly to drink whilst watching the 6-Nations rugby, although I may have left it a bit late. I always add a little dried malt extract and some demerera sugar to mine and, even when it was a 40 pint kit, brewed it around the 36 pint mark so the new smaller volume instructions will suit me. I've never bottled mine - always put it in a keg but never had any problems - it has always turned out fine with only a little topping up of the gas needed when it gets down to about 1/4 left.
 
Can anyone think of any reason not to add some more fermentables and make it to 40 pints? Especially as some have said it's a bit heavy.
 
I think if I do this again, I might brew it long, perhaps as you say, to 40 pints. It's a nice beer, but is pretty overpowering in the taste dept, especially on the first bottle. I wouldn't add any more fermentables, as mine came in at 5.5% as it was (after carbonation).

Mind you, I only bottled it 4 weeks ago, so it's still young - maybe time will improve the heaviness.
 
Thanks for that - interesting. I have three kits so I might try the first one long, as you say, without adding anything. At least I'll try to resist the temptation to add anything!
 
It's weird, I like full-bodied beers, and normally brew my kits short. This one I did about a litre under the instructions and was quite surprised at how heavy this turned out. Also, even though I only used 1/2 a tsp of brewing sugar per bottle, it's a little over-carbonated for an ale.
 
Just kegged this after 3 weeks in primary. Brewed as per and finished at 1010 . Sample tasted great. Full of body and flavour...pity was I have just had to endure two pints of wilko hoppy copper bitter that is ready now.

When you taste a quality kit like the reserve it makes you realise what's lacking in the 'cheaper' kits :thumb:

Can't wait for a few weeks time to see how it's turned out.
 
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