Such an easy way to make this beer.
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This was my first beer kit and worked really well. It is a simple kit, with 2 cans of brewing malt and a sachet of yeast. Only other ingredient required is water. I put mine into a perssure barrel after fermenting and let it stand in my cellar for about 4 weeks before drinking it. The result was a pretty good best type bitter at about 4%. It was also quite clear and had decent head retention - pretty much like a well kept pub beer. It became a bit cloudy towards the bottom of the barrel as you might expect. I would buy it again, but have another one conditioning that is about the same strength, so trying to brew something a bit stronger at the moment.
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Strong tasting beer, perfect.
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Ok so it’s more expensive than some home brews but so is the pub! This produces a lovely robust beer without the thinness that can be apparent in other cheaper options. Home brew is for having a decent pint whilst watching the sport or in the garden with family - the times when going to the pub is not an option. No extra sugar needed for this beer which means it’s already at the perfect level. I’ve also never had a ‘failed’ fermentation which I have had with a few other brews (although maybe that’s down to my brewing skills or sugar measurements!). Would recommend. Cheers
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I bought Woodforde's Wherry on the back of 4 previous attempts to make Homebrew bought from kits made by other manufacturers. The beer made previously had tasted good but all 4 batches seemed to suffer from a cloudy appearance. By contrast, Woodforde's Wherry not only tasted great but also looked like real ale (with no sediment or bits of unspent yeast floating in its midst). I have a friend who works as an independent examiner for FE Colleges assessing coursework done by student chefs. He also manages a free house real ale pub - so he knows far more than I do about people's expectations as to the taste and appearance of beer. I got him to wear a blindfold and asked him to compare my homebrew with a Bank's bitter which had been bought in ASDA for an equivalent of £1.80 per pint. With the blindfold on, the two beers produced a very different reaction from him. Woodforde's was "full strength" (he thought it was 4.2-4.5 abv), smooth and rich in flavours whereas the Banks' was medium strength (he correctly guessed it was 3.5 abv) and bland. With the blindfold removed, his comments of the beers was equally encouraging with the Homebrew being just as clear as the commercial pint. He said he could serve the homebrew in his pub and charge full price for it whereas his customers would complain about the Banks's. So there you have it, Woodforde's produce a beer which can be made at home and pass professional scrutiny. Regarding the homebrew made previously from the 2 other brands, the temperature in my kitchen may not have been as consistently high as it was when I made the Woodforde's . Recently, the weather has been exceptionally warm, so the room temperature always exceeded 16 degrees throughout the initial fermentation period of 10 days. Secondly, after decanting the fermented beer from the mixing bucket into a plastic settling barrel, I added a teaspoon of sugar to encourage the bacteria to eat all the final traces of yeast and then I left it completely alone to go on holiday for 2 weeks. Patience is certainly a good homebrewer's greatest virtue!
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Woodeforde's kits are easy to use with great results and the Wherry is no exception. It's a nice compromise between easy drinking and well flavoured - a notch up from bests and basic bitters. Tip two cans of malt extract into a sanitised bucket, add water to 19/20 degrees C, sprinkle on the sachets (yeast) and wait. Unfortunately I wont be buying one again as the price is £20 more than usual. Woodeforde kits are worth £20-25. I can understand a bonus price under the circumstances, but not an extra £20 - I'll just have to make a clone from about £7 of grain - most regular homebrewers have a bit more time on their hands to do that afterall (while these kits are usually timesavers). So it looks like this is taking advantage of people looking to get into homebrewing as a result of the lockdown and pub closures - after all they don't know the usual price and will be shelling out their money not realising they are being ripped off. Shameful.
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Have brewed from beer kits and made wine for decades but Wherry and Nelson's Revenge are a cut far above the usual run-of-the-mill beer kits on the market. Woodforde's kits are an absolute joy to use and you end up with a beer (or ale) that is very reminiscent of what you can buy in Norfolk pubs. Not having to add bags of sugar makes brewing so easy and I gather some people use those kits with two cans of malt to make two smaller batches. I am happy enough to make all 32/36/40 pints at once. Unlike some, I have never had an issue with yeast not starting or the final product not clearing. In summer I brew out in our garage but over the colder months the fermentation bin sits on a plank over the bath in our bathroom (we have an ensuite shower room, so bathroom is mainly for guest use). Have used plastic barrels in the past but far prefer to bottle the resulting beer, despite the hassle of washing out and sterilising 40 or more bottles. My two words of advice would be "have patience" - give it time to ferment, a week is often not long enough, and let it age in the bottle or barrel for a few weeks before starting demolishing your brew in earnest. Try it earlier by all means but don't touch the bulk until it has had time to mature. It does keep if you can keep yourself from drinking it all. I had a bottle of Nelson's Revenge a month or two ago that I brewed in Summer 2022 and it was still in wonderful condition. Must take a few bottles with me next time we are visiting The Broads and try them alongside the pub served versions.
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