Getting 5% or above with Wherry?

[lee1]

21l is the plan for my next wherry

That's weird, I've been thinking about brewing another wherry and had decided to brew at 21L.

I also plan a big dry hop of EKG pellets after primary is over

not sure what hops to use the wherry is just lacking something

[Monkeybrew]

Something very English

[monkhouse]

Ok so I've just started my wherry, didn't hydrate yeast as I was having difficulty getting the yeast starter water to 30c (must buy proper thermometer!) however I made the brew up to 18 litres ang my starting og was aprox 1054, sound about right for 18 litres?

[Pinto]

Stand your boiled yeast water in a bowl of water - it'll soon hit temperature. From your earlier post, I'd have still used the 6 pints of boiling water and just dealt with the extra temperature in the short brew by the water bath method or a a few hours in my frooker.

Interested in how you gained the extra gravity - did you add basic sugars or DME/LME ? If just a higher ABV was your goal then the sugar would have provided what you wanted and if you used a malt of some kind then you'll just have to see what your FG turns out as because of the extra unfermentables you've added will affect the FG so it'll be harder to guess your terminal ABV.

a Ferment to 1.010 will yield 5.9% abv on your SG so you've nuked your target........ but i'd expect a 1.012-1.014 finish with malt added.

[monkhouse]

Pinto- I haven't added anything else to the brew at all, I used bottled water and only topped fv up to 18 litres, I suspect the extra gravity is simply a lack of water?

[PaddyX21]

...I suspect the extra gravity is simply a lack of water?

Correct

[Monkeybrew]

The only 2 can (3kg) kit that I've brewed to 18L is a St Peters IPA, and that had an OG of 1.049.

Admittedly it's a different kit, but it gives you a rough reference point.


MB

[monkhouse]

Ok so I've got home from work and its just started bubbling the airlock- not vigorously just once every 10 seconds, normally with this kit I use a heat belt and this gives allot of bubbling but this time I've left the heat belt off, do you think I should turn the belt on?
Temps are around 18c I think ( my stick on temp gauge is hard to read with its silly colours! - any advice on how to properly read these stick on temp gauges would be great too)

[sean88]

I brewed my Wherry to 20l and by my calculations ABV should be 5.1% though I'm starting to doubt myself after having read this topic...

[monkhouse]

Ok so with my wherry brewed to roughly 18 litres how much priming sugar would I need when I come to bottling? I'm thinking around 75g?

[Monkeybrew]

Ale's are normally primed with 80g of sugar for a 23L batch, which works out at 3.5g per L.

So for 18L, you would need 63g of sugar.

MB

[monkhouse]

Thanks mate! I'm using dextrose ( Wilcos brewing sugar) for priming if that makes many difference at all? I want a good cramp action but don't want any risk at all of bottle bombs! Lol!

[monkhouse]

Fu#*ing iPhone I mean carbonation (cramp action)!!!

[Pinto]

No chance of bottle bombage at that level of carbonation

Fu#*ing iPhone

Says a lot samsung galaxy FTW !

[monkhouse]

So if I used 70g of Wilcos brewing sugar would that give decent enough carbonation without bottle bomb risk? Lol I can't leave anything to chance with this one- it's my last brew before Xmas!