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Beer Enhancing
I've had a Wherry in the primary fermenter for two weeks now, is it too late to add something to enhance it, for example, hops, or is it too late.
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Started 11 months ago by cliffgil, with a total of 8 posts. Follow this topic with the RSS feed.
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Posted 11 months ago by Moderator
Hi there.
Really you need to be putting hops in a couple of days after the fermentation starts. You could add a handful of hops, about 10 to 20 gms of Goldings would be good, and leave them in for a week. Best to put the beer carefully into a 2nd fermenting bin for this but it's not critical. The other way would be make a 'hop tea'. Add 10 gms of Goldings to half a litre of boiling water and boil for 5 minutes. Strain, let it cool to the same temp as the beer and add it to the beer. The first way will not add any bitterness, but the hop tea will, and the longer you boil it, the more bitterness you get. The other problem with the hop tea is that Wherry is a bit weak anyway and you'll dilute the alcohol slightly, but on the other hand you'll improve the flavour. It's too late to add anything else.
Dry hopping is often done by adding hops to the barrel, but it's uncontollable, often introduces odd flavours if left too long and clogs up the tap, so best not.
Take a look at this:
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/forum/topic/any-wherry-tips
Post 7 tells you how to improve a Wherry, and it works so well. Many have tried it and all love the result. It would work with just about any kit.
Planning: - To get some more brews on now the weather's a bit cooler
Fermenting: - Ginger Beer experiment
Conditioning: - A normal bitter with Styrians
Drinking: - All of it!!
E-mail: arnyfris@gmail.com
Posted 11 months ago by Member
Thanks Saracen, I read your Post 7, which prompted me to ask the question, about wether it was to late or not to add something to the fermenter. I am on my 4th kit and although I find everything satisfactory, the beer just doesn't quite taste the way I would like it. I have recently been trying many different bottled beers, and without exception I have enjoyed them all, and have noticed that they do not differ in taste a great deal, maybe a slight difference in after taste. I am looking to buy a reasonably priced kit and to add the DME and Goldings or maybe Fuggles to the brew as per your instructions and hope I get the taste I am looking for. Could the Muntons Beer Kit Enhancer also be used and perhaps a beer heading liquid in the set up. I am using Cornelius kegs to dispence from. Thanks.
Posted 11 months ago by Moderator
Hi. You could add the DME and do a 2nd fermentation but it starts getting complicated then. The reason the beer doesn't taste right is because it's from a kit. Very few kits produce a beer of commercial quality, which is why we play around with them. To get body in beer, you need grain, simple as that. Yes, bottles do taste very similar. The reason is simple, commercial viability. Ingredients cost varying amounts and brewers can't spend huge sums on ingredients bvecause the profit goes down the toilet. While the supermarkets sell all the bottles at a price they dictate to the brewer, innovations will be few and far between. The difference in aftertaste comes mainly from the different hops they use for post boil hopping.
As far as your next kit goes, always use a premium (2 can, 3.0 kg) kit. That way you don't start adding sugar or brew enhancer, neither of which are as good for the job as DME. Stick with Woodfordes kits and you'll get good results. You shouldn't need any form of head enhancer.
Next step is to move on to an extract kit, such as Summer Ale from Brew UK. You won't believe how different, and better, it is.
Planning: - To get some more brews on now the weather's a bit cooler
Fermenting: - Ginger Beer experiment
Conditioning: - A normal bitter with Styrians
Drinking: - All of it!!
E-mail: arnyfris@gmail.com
Posted 11 months ago by Member
:DThanks Saracen for your reply, things seem a lot clearer now and my next brew will be the Summer Ale Brew from Brew UK, funnily enough I was thinking last night that I ought to try the Summer Ale, after reading the great reviews. Extract brewing seems the way to go without the complications of all grain, although all grain sounds fascinating, I guess you need a lot of time to spare and patience which I am sadly lacking. I have the Woodforde's Wherry on the go at the moment and a Cooper's Sparkling Ale, but after hastily drinking these I'll go for the Summer Ale. My only displeasure with the Wherry which I have brewed before was that it took forever to clear, but nice once it had, and friends were quite surprised that homebrew could be that good. Once again thanks.
Posted 11 months ago by Moderator
Hi. Wherry not clearing very well is an issue that has come up often before. Most kits are OK, but a few play up. Nothing you can do about it.
The Summer Ale kit is great to start with as it gets you used to using Roasted Grains and Hops without the complications of the grain mashing, rather like having stabilsers on your first bike. All grain is the big step. It takes about 6 hours to do an All Grain brew and you need quite a lot of equipment. A large shed or garage is the best way. The key to it is cleanliness and being very methodical. It really isn't difficult. Extract brewing can produce a beer just about as good and suits the smaller home far better. Extract also opens the way for experimentation. You can use different hops, more or less Crystal Malt and generaly play around with it. When you start swapping hops you need some software, and Beer Engine, for all it's simplicity, is more than enough to do it and it's free. You can enter GW's recipes and tweak them around how you like. You can download it here:
http://www.practicalbrewing.co.uk/calculators/beerengine/
Take a look and have a play with it. If nothing else you'll see how the different Alpha Acid content of hop varieties affects the final brew. You can learn a lot from it.
Home brewing, 40 years ago, was, quite frankly, a joke. Kits producede something similar to ditchwater tasting of chemicals and the reputation stuck. I had some horrendous hangovers from home brews at parties in the late 60's and 70's. It changed dramatically over the years, and if your mates were impressed with a Wherry, do another Woodfordes kit and use the improvement system above. They will really be blown away.
Planning: - To get some more brews on now the weather's a bit cooler
Fermenting: - Ginger Beer experiment
Conditioning: - A normal bitter with Styrians
Drinking: - All of it!!
E-mail: arnyfris@gmail.com
Posted 11 months ago by Member
Thanks Saracen, for all the information, greatfully recieved. I do remember the reputation that homebrewing recieved many years ago and I expect a lot of people tried it once, and once was enough. Remember my first pint in my local in the mid-sixties, and I didn't know what to ask for and ended up buying a pint of brown ale, however was educated by others and soon got onto light and bitter which seemed to be the order of the day. Thanks again and here's to extract brewing.
Posted 11 months ago by Moderator
My old man did a boots kit in the 80's - bought 2 barrels, the kits, the whole shabang......... One week later the barrels were tipped down the drain and from then on it was filled with 6x from a polypin and some amazing cider (as seen on james mays drink of britain thingy) every xmas. Sweet.
Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!
nathbrew@gmail.com
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