Sticking Munton's (Woodfordes) Kits - Information and offer

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The question was 'If you have brewed a Muntons/Woodforde's kit, did it drop to the advertised final gravity'?

Yes
98
38%
No
161
62%
 
Total votes: 259

bevanjon74

Post by bevanjon74 » Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:37 am

my next brew up is a wherry... so its heartening to hear that things have been improving of late with the kits on here.... I'll keep you up to date with developments..

Damfoose

Post by Damfoose » Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:46 pm

Wherry hit 1012 and I had no further action from the bubbler so its now in the keg with some beerbrite and brewers suggar.

bevanjon74

Re: Sticking Munton's (Woodfordes) Kits - Information and offer

Post by bevanjon74 » Thu Oct 09, 2008 10:06 am

Hi guys, thought I would report on the Wherry, OG 1040. Bubbled like a demon down to 1010 in about 5 days.... seems my fears were unfounded.. and the small sample in the jar tasted rather nice actually.. I can tell its going to be a cracker! Going to bottle on Sat..
So far so good... looks like I have avoided the dreaded sticking..

quinny

Re: Sticking Munton's (Woodfordes) Kits - Information and offer

Post by quinny » Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:43 pm

Hi Guys,

I've just bought my first Woodfordes wherry kit at nearly £20. I've brewed 2 1.5kg over the past month and a half and employed the same approach for the Woodefords. I put it on 2 days ago, using closed fermentation bin with air lock and not a bubble has past through the airlock. It's sitting on a heat mat and the temp is 24c - both the other kits took off like rockets. I'm now concerned that I have this stuck fermentation but in my case it's like it never started in the first place. Th SG was 1040.

I'm really surprised the producers haven't commented on these issues and are prepared to risk their reputation with a constant customer base rather than passing trade?

Anyway - has anyone got any suggestions to help me save my most expensive brew yet? I can't pour tweny quid down the swanny...

Cheers :D

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jubby
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Re: Sticking Munton's (Woodfordes) Kits - Information and offer

Post by jubby » Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:52 pm

You are going to have to add another yeast Quinny. I had this with one of my Woodforde's kits. It's a good idea to rehydrate the yeast also, see the links at the top of the page.

Would not bother with the heater pad, thats a bit warm. Every yeast has an acceptable temperature range, but generally, 18 to 23 degrees is good.

It's good that you have it under airlock, give it a sniff, if it's ok, re-pitch.
Last edited by jubby on Thu Oct 09, 2008 9:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Mr Nick's Brewhouse.

Thermopot HLT Conversion

Drinking: Mr Nick's East India IPA v3 First Gold & Citra quaffing ale
Conditioning:
FV:
Planned: Some other stuff.
Ageing:

sparky Paul

Re: Sticking Munton's (Woodfordes) Kits - Information and offer

Post by sparky Paul » Thu Oct 09, 2008 7:28 pm

If it's not got going after two days, it does sound more like a duff yeast than a stuck ferment.

I agree with jubby, get another sachet of yeast in asap.

Blinky

Re: Sticking Munton's (Woodfordes) Kits - Information and offer

Post by Blinky » Thu Oct 09, 2008 7:57 pm

quinny wrote:Hi Guys,

I've just bought my first Woodfordes wherry kit at nearly £20. I've brewed 2 1.5kg over the past month and a half and employed the same approach for the Woodefords. I put it on 2 days ago, using closed fermentation bin with air lock and not a bubble has past through the airlock. It's sitting on a heat mat and the temp is 24c - both the other kits took off like rockets. I'm now concerned that I have this stuck fermentation but in my case it's like it never started in the first place. Th SG was 1040.

I'm really surprised the producers haven't commented on these issues and are prepared to risk their reputation with a constant customer base rather than passing trade?

Anyway - has anyone got any suggestions to help me save my most expensive brew yet? I can't pour tweny quid down the swanny...

Cheers :D
Quinny -
this may sound daft!
before you re-pitch, make sure your FV is airlocked properly if you are seeing no bubbles- I fell for this when I bought some new FVs a while back and a grommet was leaking air!
Press a side/ lid and see if the water level in the airlock is constant for about 15 seconds.

quinny

Re: Sticking Munton's (Woodfordes) Kits - Information and offer

Post by quinny » Thu Oct 09, 2008 10:58 pm

There's foam on top of the wort - just nothing coming through the airlock - will take it off the heat pad though - thought it was a bit warm myself. Appreciate the steer will check that the bin is sealed and if no action by sat will repitch. Brew smells ok as well. Cheers guys.

Shadoxhurst

Re: Sticking Munton's (Woodfordes) Kits - Information and offer

Post by Shadoxhurst » Fri Oct 10, 2008 9:07 pm

I am new to home brewing and have been collecting some kit over the past few weeks, including a wherry from wilkinsons before I started to read this forum. I definatly want my brew to be between 4% and 5.5 % and am worried about it ending up too weak after reading about so many brews that have not reached the desired final gravit.... so should I make les than 40 pints worth, and if so what would you recommend?

thanks.

sparky Paul

Re: Sticking Munton's (Woodfordes) Kits - Information and offer

Post by sparky Paul » Fri Oct 10, 2008 10:06 pm

Welcome to the forum! 8)

To be honest, I wouldn't worry too much about the ABV initially, you need to be concentrating on getting your technique sorted before you start worrying about tweaking kits. The Wherry kits seem to be fermenting down to 1010 for most without any difficulty, and with an SG of 1040-ish that should give you around 4.3% after taking alcohol from the priming sugars into account.

It's easy to bump up the ABV, you can always chuck in extra fermentables, but you'll throw out the character of the beer... unless you know how to correct this, you may end up being disappointed with the taste of your brew, and the Wherry is excellent. Brewing the same kit kit to a shorter length is probably a better option, but I reckon I would still prefer making a kit which is intended to be made to a higher strength - the hop balance is more likely to turn out correct.

ABV isn't everything. After all, there's a lot of quality in some of the commercial milds at 3-3.5%. :beer:

quinny

Re: Sticking Munton's (Woodfordes) Kits - Information and offer

Post by quinny » Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:07 pm

Hi Guys,

I did a hydrometer reading and my brew has dropped from 1040 to 1020. Before I repitch (Ritchies brewers yeast) can I give it a stir and add some yeast nutrient? The nutrient I've got is Young's - it says it can be used for any yeast culture but does state that it's for fermentation of wine - will that be ok?

Or do I forget about the nutrient and just repitch straight away?

So many questions I know...

Any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

Mark.

Blinky

Re: Sticking Munton's (Woodfordes) Kits - Information and offer

Post by Blinky » Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:45 pm

quinny wrote:Hi Guys,

I did a hydrometer reading and my brew has dropped from 1040 to 1020. Before I repitch (Ritchies brewers yeast) can I give it a stir and add some yeast nutrient? The nutrient I've got is Young's - it says it can be used for any yeast culture but does state that it's for fermentation of wine - will that be ok?

Or do I forget about the nutrient and just repitch straight away?

So many questions I know...

Any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

Mark.
Hiya Mark

Reading the posts, it was only started last Tuesday, so I would give it least a week.

looking at some of my old notes, it can drop like a stone in a matter of couple of days i.e 1020 to 1013 in 24hours.

TBH, I wouldnt repitch if it's going, but keg/bottle and be dammed if the SG is still the same after Tuesday, as there's probably no fermentables left.

did you keep the box?
do you know the BBD on it?

quinny

Re: Sticking Munton's (Woodfordes) Kits - Information and offer

Post by quinny » Sat Oct 11, 2008 10:12 pm

Thanks Blinky - guess what - pitched it in about an hour ago! Couldn't wait (also gave it a spoonful of nutrient - not sure if I should've or not - threw caution to the wind) My other kits went so quick and had so much action going through the air lock that I was convinced this one was a duffer. Come Tuesday I'll be bottling this and going back to my normal 1.5kg kits - unless it knockout of course.

Good shout re the date on the box but it seems ok Feb 2010 - this kits been a bloomin' space odessy.

Cheers!

BetterThanTheRealThing

Re: Sticking Munton's (Woodfordes) Kits - Information and offer

Post by BetterThanTheRealThing » Tue Oct 14, 2008 8:29 pm

My second brew is a Wherry and with a starting gravity of >1.040 (a few bubbles in there so hard to tell) it has now dropped to 1.014 after 9 days (perhaps even read at 1.013 as the temperature has dropped to 17c - http://www.18000feet.com/how/hydroreading.htm)

The airlock has been bubbling away constantly and I had no reason to think it had stuck (although I understand that itself does not indicate fermentation), but it is still going. The kit came from Wilkinsons and has a BBD of 30 sep 2010. I didn't add anything to the kit. I did not use campden tabs in the water.

I'll take another reading tomorrow to see if it drops any more. If not I'll transfer to my new KK.

The Wherry smells and looks great - unlike my first brew which was a Woodefords Nog that I messed up and tastes like pish.

Invaluable advice here on the forum though. Thanks to all the people who post.

BTTRT

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jubby
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Re: Sticking Munton's (Woodfordes) Kits - Information and offer

Post by jubby » Tue Oct 14, 2008 8:44 pm

That all sounds spot on BTTRT. It's going to be a good brew. =D>
Mr Nick's Brewhouse.

Thermopot HLT Conversion

Drinking: Mr Nick's East India IPA v3 First Gold & Citra quaffing ale
Conditioning:
FV:
Planned: Some other stuff.
Ageing:

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