Making 40 Pints of Woodforde’s Wherry with a Youngs Kit – Part 2

Step 5 - The Wait 

To be honest, this was the bit I was dreading more than any other. Waiting is boring. Whenever I have to wait for anything, I feel every second of my life slipping irretrievably away. I sense my chromosomal telomeres getting shorter and shorter. Or maybe I’m just getting old.

Four to six days until fermentation stops. I could get run over by a bus in that time. Funny how rogue buses play such an important role in not only reflections on one’s mortality but also corporate risk management modelling.

So, after putting the vessel into the garage I wait.

A couple of hours later, I go to check on it.

Hmmm... we’ve had some sort of a problem. The lid has been blasted off the airlock and I can smell pub carpet. I clean it up and put everything back.

Over the next 48 hours, this happens several times – on one occasion, propelling the lid of the airlock a good six feet away. Alas, I didn’t see it happen.

Eventually, I get things under control so that the airlock is bubbling away gently without spurting foam out.

Here comes the science bit. And by “science” I mean “what I think happened”.

What I think was happening was that my wort was too hot – meaning that it was fermenting very quickly, belching out big gouts of CO2. These were generating foam on the top of the wort. Instead of the gas escaping the airlock fairly smoothly, foam was building up under pressure until – BLEEERRRRP! – it overwhelmed the friction holding the top part of the airlock on and burst out.

The reason you need an airlock is to let the CO2 - a by-product of fermentation - out without letting air – a vector for microbes, flies, cat hair etc – in. If bad shit like that gets in, it can spoil your beer.

Anyway, by the end of waiting day 2, order had been restored.

A Short Digression While We Wait

What is Woodforde’s Wherry, you may well ask?

It is beer from Norfolk – whence my brother and sister-in-law come, which is why I am making it (it was they who got me the kit). I have drunk it before, but I can’t really remember what it was like.

Woodforde’s chief brewer says it is:

Fresh and zesty with crisp floral flavours. A background of sweet malt and a hoppy 'grapefruit' bitter finish characterises this champion bitter.

Their website says:

Light but full of flavour and with a delicious citrus aftertaste. Great with Norfolk Ham and Turkey or on its own.

To that, I say “hmmm...we’ll see.”

I should also add Woodforde’s home town of Woodbastick to my list of amusing English place names.