Hacking a Woodfordes Wherry kit.

[bellebouche]

Winters finally making signs of being behind me and the last of my winter brews are running low - it's time to start the first brew of the year.

I've got a Woodefords Wherry kit (2x 1.5Kg cans in a kit) and I thought I'd try an interesting experiment with one can brewed out to 11litres as a 'negative control' and another brewed at the same time in a different FV with some adjuncts - I was thinking of some dried elderflowers and some extra dry hopping in the FV.

My question though is about the yeast and the fermentation conditions. It came with a single 6g sachet of yeast that I'm proposing to make up into 1litre of a 1030(ish) starter wort. I'll use a mixture of 35g DME and 35g of Dextrose to make the starter and wake the yeast up. I'd then hope to be able to pitch a higher yeast content to help with what will be a lower temperature and and more equal split between the batches. My fermentation room is at about 8 degrees now - I have an option on another sitting room which is averaging about 16. Both are quite a bit cooler than the kit recommendation.

Any thoughts on..
Using the kit yeast and making it up in a starter? I have a spare S04 pack on standby if this is a no-no. Risks with a cooler fermentation? I appreciate it'll take longer of course but I'm wondering about the change in flavour profile. Comments very welcome as I'm chomping at the bit to get a spring beer under my belt.

[bellebouche]

Made my starter, 650ml of 1035 wort with the single 6g muntons yeast supplied. Left it 30 hrs @ 16c where it multiplied spectacularly - seen here at right....


With the remainder 350ml of starter I've set a culture from a St. Bernadus prior 8 going. Difflicult to see in the shot above but it's going slowly. This will get used to bottle condition something in the summer - not sure what yet. Starting with dregs like this will take a few goes at 'feeding' over a few weeks. This yeast has an unusual 'pudding' character I think - hard to describe but gives a giant mousse in the mouth - full of plum, raisin, ginger/fruity esters.

Better contrast on how the same wort reacts with the different yeasts.


So, made up one tin of the extract as my negative control to just under 12 litres and OG 1042 and pitched half the 30hrs old yeast above. Ambient temp 16 degrees and a good 18-20 hr lag ensued before I saw any significant acivity. That was a bit of a surprise as given the activity in my starter wort I'd expected it to rocket off. Not so.

Now, the fun stuff.

Made a baby AG wort as follows. 150g Munich, 60g 160L Crystal. 90 mins @62 degrees and flushed with 77c water. The (watery) wort at this point got a 60 min boil with 12g aged wilamette, 5g of dried edlder flowers and 275g of candi. I added another 5g of elder flowers a few mins before 'flame out'.

Gubbins...


Sticky stuff...


Chilled in an ice bath, got a little cold break which resembled miso soup and filtered through the hop bed. I was left with 1.5l of 1085 wort that was very bitter, strongly aromatic and had huge lemony wafts - very suprised by this. In that went to the next wherry batch and I added spring water to bring the OG down to the same as the control batch.

I drained the starter wort off the slurry from the bottle above, mixed with a little boiled/cooled water and pitched about two hours after the control batch. Interestingly this one 'caught' first, is more active and has a substantial light creamy thick krausen developing well ahead of the first batch.

Would hope to get two fairly similar beers but one with a little more 'chew' and aroma. Will take in-flight gravity readings at 4/7/10 days and report back.

[bellebouche]

Both showing a similar rate of attenuation at 7 days

Day 4, 16c, 1028.
Day 7, 17.5c, 1022.

Markedly different flavours though.

I was very surprised by the wherry, thick mouthfeel, astringent hop bitterness, no sublety of aroma. Quite cloudy. Far less krausen on top.

The modified half that had the sugar, hops, malts and elderflower, much better. Mouthfeel was considerably thinner I thought in comparison to the control. I'd expected it to have been the opposite. Maybe too much sugar and extra liquid to equilibrate the starting gravity. Hop and floral aromas coming through very strongly. Will be a lighter beer all round I think and I suspect I'll hold back on it after bottling until the peak of the summer.

I've gradually allowed the temperature to rise as the fermentation has progressed, if I don't see a continued points drop in a couple of days I'll rouse and then put them in a south facing room to finish.

[bellebouche]

Attenuation by this yeast continues at a steady pace, despite ambient temperatures dropping a little.

In the face of the evidence I'd decided against rousing and just to let the yeast do its thing. The temperature has dropped so I moved the control batch to the top of a chick brooder (!) to bring it up to 21c. This has brought the SG down over the hacked version and will (I hope) even out some of marked bitterness I had on sampling.

Updated data from my notes for those that like this kind of thing..

Code: Select all

Date   Day    Ctrl   Hack Notes/Temp
04/4    0     1042   1042  15.0
08/4    4     1028   1028  16.0
11/4    7     1022   1022  17.5 Weather then turned much cooler for next 2 days
13/4    9     1017   1014  21.2 for the control batch, hacked remains at 15c

So. I've no idea what the specific characteristics of the supplied yeast are but it looks to perform well, if predictably slower, at lower temps. If I guessed at an average 73% attenuation rate for this yeast I'd expect the final gravity to stop at 1011 for 4.2%. No idea what I'll hit but now my minds turning to a transfer to secondary for a few days through a coarse filter as both batches have a lot of floaty krausen bits.

[bellebouche]

The control batch has been steady at 1012 now for two days (and it's sat at 21c) so time to bottle. The krausen has/had mostly sunk when I came round to bottling so no need to filter off into a secondary. Dosed the control batch with a boiled-then-cooled sucrose primer at 8g/litre and bottled out 12 litres into an assortment of 33/50/65/100 cl bottles. The hacked batch was showing 1014 @ 16c today so it was moved to the 21c spot atop a brooder full of baby chicks. It'll be done in 2/3days I think.

Tasted the control batch before bottling and the harsh bitterness was there still. The primed solution... with just a little touch of extra sugar tasted so much better, it was superb. I hope that in bottle maturation it keeps a little residual sugar as well as developing a healthy fizz. I have high hopes as the flavour was absolutely spot on. I'm rather excited now to find out what the hacked version tastes like.



I bottle off at least one into a clear bottle as a rule... just to see how well it's dropping bright (or not!) and what the sedimentation is looking like. Saves having half an excuse to open one too early.

[L2wis]

good stuff dude, I've just barreled my wherry (just left standard) but i primed it with 50g of light brown soft sugar and 50g of demerara.

I tasted some straight out of the FV (from the trial jar) and it tasted really good! I'm excited to taste the finished product!

*edit, great photos by the way!

[bellebouche]

Some encouraging news!

The Control batch which has been bottled for a short while now is starting to show some signs of clearing and a slight sediment is forming on the bottom.

Attenuation in the Elderwherry batch continued at a slower pace but settled out at 1010 this morning when I checked. So, job done. I've just bottled this at 10g/litre as a priming dose. It's a slightly thinner tasting, not as harsh a bitter edge and much more floral (of course!) brew which I think will suit a bit more chilling and a fizzy finish. I was getting some vegetal/grassy notes too from the aged hops so I was pleased with that.

Impossible to draw an accurate conclusion but it looks a little clearer on bottling than the control batch. I've a few brewing chums over next week for the AHA Big Brew day (I'm making a Scottish 80/-) so they'll get a sip of the (immature) control batch then. After that, it's a waiting game.

Beer aficionado and father in law will be here for Bastille Day so I'll be able to report back then on a proper (and somewhat independent!) tasting.

[bellebouche]

On the right...

first proper sample of the wherry. Not fallen properly clear yet but an excellent head with great retention and perfect carbonation. It had been bottled just two weeks at this point.

If I'd bought a pint of this in a pub I'd have been thrilled and gone back for more. Good malty nose, no yeastiness, excellent tart hop profile and a sharp bitter aftertaste. Highly recommended and super quality for an extract kit and I can only guess it'll get better with another few weeks. It''s now been moved to a cool cellar out of temptations way. Nothing cooking on the Elderwherry yet - too early to tell.