Wherry kits, availability & advice

[orlando]

I have the inaugural meeting of the brew club I am founding in mid September. At that meeting I am going to ask everyone to brew a Wherry kit, including myself . But, and this is the fun part, I will ask them to brew it exactly as it says on the tin, whereas I want to "cheat"! Let me explain, one of the things I want to do within the club is to get members experimenting and improving their skills and getting more out of even the simpler side of brewing. Problem is I haven't brewed a kit beer since the 70's so I'm now looking to the kit maestros for advice on how I can brew one that will knock the socks off any others that we drink on the tasting night. So my questions are first of all where can I get hold of 1/2 dozen kits at a good price, including carriage, and more importantly what do I do with the bloody thing to knock said socks off?

[WalesAles]

Hello Orlando,
I expect your fellow brewers will also be `cheating`, so all the brews should turn out pretty good!
I made my first Wherry in February a few weeks after joining JBK and reading lots of Wherry posts.
Make kit as per instructions,
OG 1040, Loose lid, no airlock, 18 - 22deg in front room, covered FV with a thick blanket.
FG 1010 day 10, 11, 12, bottled on day 17 ( too busy for day 14 ) with 70gr white sugar batch prime.
After two weeks this beer was tasting lovely, after a month there was nothing left.
WA

[twentyfootwilf]

Is there a local home brew shop in your vicinity that you could strike up some kind of deal with, maybe by promoting the shop at the Home brew club with members using the shop for their supplies at a small discounted. The shop gets something out of it by way of the clubs custom and the club members get some discount. Or if there is no local shop maybe one of the online traders would oblige. How good are you at negotiating?

[PhilB]

Hi Orlando

Over on the BrewUK forum there is a recipe for Saracen Tweaked Wherry (link) ... which is about as generally well reknowned over there as Ditch's Stout is over here

I made one of those as my first ever brew back in April 2012 ... and it all got consumed at one BBQ/Garden Party around 7 weeks later ... a day or two later, when discussing my plans for what I wanted to brew next with a friend who'd been at that party, he made the comment "But why would you make anything else? That was so nice, why would you risk making something that might not be as good?" ... in a back-handed way I think that might be the nicest thing anyone's ever said about any of my beers ... I was talked in to doing another for Xmas and can confirm results are consistent

I think it may well have the "wow" factor you seem to be looking for ... the volume reduction and extract addition makes it up to 4.9% and gives a bit more body and the dry-hopping really compliments (and lifts) the underlying hoppiness of the beer ... and all of these things could very easily be done by your pupils, singly or in combination.

Cheers, PhilB

[orlando]

Thanks guys, all good stuff, I will check out that thread for the Saracen tweak, as for LHBS that is Good Life Homebrew in Norwich renowned for high prices but they might go for it.

As for cheating, that is only allowed by me

[Monkeybrew]

Wilkinson's sell Wherry kits for £19 each and you can 'click and collect' to guarantee you can pick up 6 kits.

My tips are-

Either use good quality supermarket bottled water for your liquor or treat tap water with half a Campden tablet to get rid of the chlorine.

Brew to 21L

Steep 25g of EKG pellets for 30mins in boiling water in the kit tins.

Dry hop with another 25g of EKG pellets.

One of my best kit adaptations.

MB

[neillf]

Maybe consider switching yeast, maybe s-04? But I guess Orlando you would know all about yeasts. Cheers, N.

[orlando]

Steep 25g of EKG pellets for 30mins in boiling water in the kit tins.

MB

I was hoping you would come to the party. Do you then add to the brew then pitch?

[orlando]

Maybe consider switching yeast, maybe s-04? But I guess Orlando you would know all about yeasts. Cheers, N.

The thought crossed my mind. I have some yeast that is very close to the one Woodforde's use (same original source) so one idea I have is to follow the tweaking advice so far and maybe split the brew and pitch with that and one other and dry hopping 2 ways too.

[twentyfootwilf]

What yeast do Woodfordes use, I assume it's a Muntons. I've had good results using Muntons Gold Yeat and I did think that Muntons Gold was Nottingham yeast but I'll believe anything I've got a Wherry in the cupboard ready to do I was thinking of doing it with only a slight tweak of a few extra hops, so I will be watching this thread with interest.

[Monkeybrew]

Steep 25g of EKG pellets for 30mins in boiling water in the kit tins.

MB

I was hoping you would come to the party. Do you then add to the brew then pitch?

I empty as much extract from both tins into the FV, then add roughly half of the pellets to each tin, fill with boiling water, cover each tin with clingfilm and then let them steep for 30mins. By covering the tins with clingfilm, I find that the last bit of extract gets steamed off nicely.

I then add the hop tea to the FV by straining it through a piece of boiled voile, and then this hot hopped tea dissolves the malt extract with the help of a good stir.

Clear as mud?

MB

[Monkeybrew]

What yeast do Woodfordes use, I assume it's a Muntons. I've had good results using Muntons Gold Yeat and I did think that Muntons Gold was Nottingham yeast but I'll believe anything I've got a Wherry in the cupboard ready to do I was thinking of doing it with only a slight tweak of a few extra hops, so I will be watching this thread with interest.

I think that you may be getting mixed up with Gervin ale yeast that is said to be Nottingham.

The yeast that now comes in Woodfordes kits is Muntons premium, and has no trouble getting down to 1.010. There has been much discussion on here, that it's the Edme strain /S-33.

MB

[WalesAles]

Hello Orlando,
I made this Wherry on 8/03/13
Wherry kit
250gr Medium spraymalt
100gr Demerera Sugar
Follow Instructions
OG @ 21deg 1046
20 ltr brew
After 7 days split to two 10 ltr FV, Dry Hop with 16gr Cascade Hops, other one 16gr Willamette Hops, leave for 7 days.
Batch prime both 14 days after start with 35gr sugar per 10ltr.
FG 1010 5.4% ABV
Leave bottles for 2wks warm, 2wks cool conditioning.
Lovely pint of Beer, I loved the Cascade, my brother loved the Willamette!
Wa

[orlando]

Steep 25g of EKG pellets for 30mins in boiling water in the kit tins.

MB

I was hoping you would come to the party. Do you then add to the brew then pitch?

I empty as much extract from both tins into the FV, then add roughly half of the pellets to each tin, fill with boiling water, cover each tin with clingfilm and then let them steep for 30mins. By covering the tins with clingfilm, I find that the last bit of extract gets steamed off nicely.

I then add the hop tea to the FV by straining it through a piece of boiled voile, and then this hot hopped tea dissolves the malt extract with the help of a good stir.

Clear as mud?

MB

No, perfect sense I will follow that to the letter but am thinking of splitting it in two and using hops I have. I was thinking Cascade or Citra to give it a US twist and then using a Styrian or Bobek, as they are what Wherry originally used, this would pump up the citrus notes just from slightly different directions. Have to say I'm rather intrigued by how it will all turn out.

All very useful ideas thanks everyone.

[twentyfootwilf]

Where do you get this info on the hops used to actually make the kits, I know some kits are now starting to add that sort of info to the labelling, but I didn't realise Woodefords did.