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

[LeeS]

Update

I have stuck the woodefords in the pressure barrel and its got potential, mostly due to the cascade teabag giving a bit of flavour (although the damn thing burst so i had filter through a muslin bag during syphoning which was a pain in the backend).

COOPERS!

Bought a Coopers lager and a BKE bag from Wilko, it did very little for about 18 hours, then went mental, it was up to the lid of the FV and down to 1014 in 2 days, eat that woodefords crapola!!

After a week it was down to 1010 so syphoned into a FV with beer brite.

The next day I added 4 oz of glucose, gave it a stir and bottled it, apart from bottling been a total pain the Coopers Lager has gone a treat, this is how easy a kit should be.

Its a little light on flavour but I'm hoping it will condition in the bottles.


The next kits I do will certainly be Coopers, thanks for the advice


Lee

[Swiller]

As a relatively new home brewer I was lucky enough to try a Coopers lager kit for my first brew and have never looked back, I am working my way through all of their kits and up to now have had no problems. I use Geordie BKE and use aquarium heaters set to 21c I do prefer to bottle the lager as I prefer a high carbonation. I have tried 3 Woodford's Wherry kits over the last few months and did have a problem with this last one sticking at 1.020 I too gave the the bottom of the wort a gentle stir and it started again for 4 days giving a FG of 1.018 over 48 hours and is now in the barrel.

[Lillywhite]

I tried a Cooper's for the first time with my last brew using their Bitter kit with 1kg of BKE and noticed how well they fermented out and will certainly be trying another one in the future.

The cost works about the same price as a Wherry kit from Wilkos.

[Scotty]

I've had a Wherry kit waiting to be made for a while and jumped into it today. I used Safale S-04 yeast with some yeast vit. Everything seems a-ok at the moment but only time will tell!

[joel_m]

Ok After having stuck fermentation on my Muntons midas touch and eventually getting it going again by adding some Tronozymol i kegged it and after a week nothing.. not a jot... No clearing no pressure nothing.
So I went through all the usual checks to make sure my keg is holding pressure Syphoned some off the bottom and it held vacuum. Then gave it a blast of CO2 in the top checked the next day and the pressure was still holding. Realeased the CO2 and looked at it again after a few days... nothing.. no yeast activity as far as I could tell.

So in desparation i added the smallest amount of tronozymol to it literally sprinkled in less that 1/4 of a level teaspoon. The next day I looked and the keg was up at pressure and the beer was clearing (not to mention already starting to loose some of its green flavour). My quesiton is has anyone else ever added a yeast nutrient this late? Also is there any effect it may have on the final brew?

[joel_m]

As an update if anyone is interested on the effects so far of late addition nutrient:

After a couple of days the beer took on a really cidery/ester flavour (I'm guessing it kicked off some pimary fermentation again). But I few days later and that has gone and it is clearing nicely. I'm thinking that the nutrient has worked however the beer may need a little longer conditioning.
Other than that I've seen no other unusaul effcts ... so far.

[Scotty]

I've had a Wherry kit waiting to be made for a while and jumped into it today. I used Safale S-04 yeast with some yeast vit. Everything seems a-ok at the moment but only time will tell!

Just as I expected, it has stuck at 1.020. Going to give it a bit of a stir, is it worth adding a little more yeast vit?

[xpers]

I haven't read the whole chain of posts here and this might be obvious and already covered, but has anyone contacted Woodforde's Broadland Brewery directly to complain about this issue? The quality of the Munton's kit produced for them reflects badly on them as a brand.

Just a thought.

Sorry if this has already been covered.

[rick_huggins]

I'll change my no to a yes; nelsons has been stuck at 1020 for 4 days, 10 days in FV...DOH

Spoon stirry a go go..

[Scotty]

stirring hasn't worked so I've repitched some S-04 (what I originally used) and some yeast vit. I didn't have high hopes for it to start with, so I'm not worried if it has to go the journey

[Sunray11A]

I've just done a Woodforde's Nelson's Revenge that wouldn't drop below 1020. The infernal thing also refuses to clear, even after a double dose of finings. The Wherry & Great Eastern kits were also difficult and very slow to clear. Given the price of these kits, it's not unreasonable to expect that they should do what they are supposed to.
I think I'll go back to using single can (Geordie) kits from now on.

[Sunray11A]

I emailed the European Sales Manager of Munton's, who informed me that they are looking into a possible problem with the barley they use in Woodforde's kits. He also stated that he will provide a replacement kit, of a different brand, to compensate me for having ended up with several gallons of sweetish sludge that refuses to clear despite two doses of finings. If that happens, I'll consider it a fair enough result.

[Sunray11A]

All true enough, but I was merely passing on what the man told me.

[Sunray11A]

I emailed the European Sales Manager of Munton's, who informed me that they are looking into a possible problem with the barley they use in Woodforde's kits. He also stated that he will provide a replacement kit, of a different brand, to compensate me for having ended up with several gallons of sweetish sludge that refuses to clear despite two doses of finings. If that happens, I'll consider it a fair enough result.

True to his word, the man sent 2 Milestone kits. Let's just hope that they turn out better than the Woodforde kits.

[pauljmuk]

to resurrect this, following an email debate with James Smith some time ago, I was called by very nice lady today from Muntons - they are despatching a replacement for my Wherry today by courier.

I'm happy, hope this one dont stick!