Your Shortest Time Grain to Glass

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14 day english mild, close to the same on a wheat, german style. Yuri rage wrote a great thread on these a long while ago.
 
I also haven't tried anything less than 3 weeks. Although now that I keg every batch I could probably give something fast a shot.
 
Not sure what is meant by "grain to glass" here, since I bottle. There are obviously two ways this can be taken. Most beers, pitching yeast to bottling time is 4 weeks. Given the temperatures in our house most of the brewing seasons, I need another two weeks upstairs for conditioning, then move the bottles to storage in the basement. Maybe taste then, maybe wait another 1-2 weeks. So- 6-7 weeks is a good figure for the "normal beer" requirements.
My Spring brewing is now moving out of the pipeline & into storage, and the beers are hitting these numbers very well. I've already tasted a Boston Plus Amber and an Irish Red, and a Nut Brown is up for tasting today.

As I'm sure most everyone reading this thread knows, wheat beers can take a significantly shorter time to complete, and big beers will take longer.
 
I had my first hefe ready to drink in 3 weeks. It was okay but it tasted much better after 4 or 5 weeks.
 
Summer Ale good in the glass on day 11. It was an extract batch. It was better after 2 more weeks but not so much better that I wish I waited.


Hefe in 8 or 9 days I forget. All grain batch. Tasted great.
 
Grain to glass is pretty simple to understand. There is no ambiguity in his statement. Anyway, you can go grain to glass in two weeks. Most commercial beers do. Not 4 weeks. Homebrewers can go anywhere from about 2 weeks to a year. I have made several great beers that were only 2 weeks grain to glass.
 
Sacdan said:
Grain to glass is pretty simple to understand. There is no ambiguity in his statement.
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Actually, as a new brewer, I do find myself confused about whether those who bottle and those who keg are speaking the same language here. I'm set up only to bottle--if I'm brewing a particular recipe in a particular style, and the brewing and fermentation process is otherwise the same, would my "grain to glass" time be roughly the same as that of a brewer who kegs that same beer? Or do I need to allow more (or less) time for conditioning and carbonation?

The reason I'm agonizing over this is that I've brewed an ordinary bitter and I don't know when to bottle in order to enjoy the beer at its freshest, and to avoid having it clean up too much. It's at day 7 in primary right now, it has been at FG for some time, and it tastes good. I'm happy to leave it in primary for 10 days or 14. But would it taste any better, or would it lose something?
 
I think anything under a month for a bottled beer would be just short of miraculous. If you keg and force carb you can transfer from primary today and drink tomorrow no problem.

If you bitter is done with primary I would cold crash it, if you can, then bottle it. I say cold crash it because after a week in primary there is going to be a lot more yeast still in flocculation than you will need for bottle conditioning. Either give it another week or cold crash it. If you give it another week find a nice cool spot for it to go.
 
tonyolympia said:
Actually, as a new brewer, I do find myself confused about whether those who bottle and those who keg are speaking the same language here. I'm set up only to bottle--if I'm brewing a particular recipe in a particular style, and the brewing and fermentation process is otherwise the same, would my "grain to glass" time be roughly the same as that of a brewer who kegs that same beer? Or do I need to allow more (or less) time for conditioning and carbonation?

The reason I'm agonizing over this is that I've brewed an ordinary bitter and I don't know when to bottle in order to enjoy the beer at its freshest, and to avoid having it clean up too much. It's at day 7 in primary right now, it has been at FG for some time, and it tastes good. I'm happy to leave it in primary for 10 days or 14. But would it taste any better, or would it lose something?
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You're proposing ambiguity. You stop that! ;)
 
bryanjints said:
If you bitter is done with primary I would cold crash it, if you can, then bottle it. I say cold crash it because after a week in primary there is going to be a lot more yeast still in flocculation than you will need for bottle conditioning. Either give it another week or cold crash it. If you give it another week find a nice cool spot for it to go.
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I'm not set up to cold crash very effectively, I don't think. What temperature is required? Would it be good enough to put my fermenter in a tub of ice water, and if so, how long would I hold that temperature before I racked and bottled?

And how does the cold crash differ from cold conditioning in bottles?
 
What yeast did you use? With most of the highly flocculant british yeasts you really only need about 50F for a day. A cold water bath would work, or you could set it outside under cover overnight.
 
trigger said:
What yeast did you use? With most of the highly flocculant british yeasts you really only need about 50F for a day. A cold water bath would work, or you could set it outside under cover overnight.
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You know what? When I took a gravity sample (2 days ago) it was at 51 F. Dunno how long it had been at that temp. I wonder if I've already accomplished my cold crash.

My yeast was Nottingham. It fermented vigorously and seemed to flocculate quickly. Then again, I'm a noob so what do I know? That's why I'm asking all these goofy questions.
 
10 days on a couple different beers around 1.040-1.045. The big tricks are:

-Ferment cool to minimize off flavors that will need to age out.
-Raise the temp near the end of fermentation to help the beer finish up.
-Leave in the primary the whole length of time.
-Crash cool and add gelatin finings directly in the keg.
-Force carb at 30psi once the beer is cold enough

I find if I do all this, I have a good beer at 10-12 days, which is usually fantastic by day 20 or so. Obviously bigger beers definitely take longer.

My typical 1.050-1.060 beer takes 20days before it's drinkable, 4 weeks before it's great. Every 10 gravity points adds a week or two, I've found. That's assuming a simple grain bill without any complex flavors that need to age out.

Age definitely cures a lot of off flavors, but if you do your best to keep your beer clean, you can go from grain to glass much quicjer
 
tonyolympia said:
You know what? When I took a gravity sample (2 days ago) it was at 51 F. Dunno how long it had been at that temp. I wonder if I've already accomplished my cold crash.

My yeast was Nottingham. It fermented vigorously and seemed to flocculate quickly. Then again, I'm a noob so what do I know? That's why I'm asking all these goofy questions.
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If it is 50 and you used notty you should be good to bottle.


The cold crash helps settle out anything floating around, mostly yeast. Doing a cold crash before bottling helps keep sediment out of your bottles. It also makes a clearer beer. Gelatin without a cold crash will basically do the same thing. Combine the two for a real clear beer.
 
scottland said:
10 days on a couple different beers around 1.040-1.045. The big tricks are:

-Ferment cool to minimize off flavors that will need to age out.
-Raise the temp near the end of fermentation to help the beer finish up.
-Leave in the primary the whole length of time.
-Crash cool and add gelatin finings directly in the keg.
-Force carb at 30psi once the beer is cold enough

I find if I do all this, I have a good beer at 10-12 days, which is usually fantastic by day 20 or so. Obviously bigger beers definitely take longer.

My typical 1.050-1.060 beer takes 20days before it's drinkable, 4 weeks before it's great. Every 10 gravity points adds a week or two, I've found. That's assuming a simple grain bill without any complex flavors that need to age out.

Age definitely cures a lot of off flavors, but if you do your best to keep your beer clean, you can go from grain to glass much quicjer
Click to expand...


I think you left out the most important thing. Proper pitching rates. If you pitch enough healthy yeast it will finish in a week. You recommend fermenting cooler. But if you don't pitch enough yeast it is going to take much longer for the fermenting to begin which then can stress your yeast resulting in off flavors.

I think proper pitching rate is more important than temp when it comes to turning a beer around quick.
 
bryanjints said:
I think you left out the most important thing. Proper pitching rates. If you pitch enough healthy yeast it will finish in a week. You recommend fermenting cooler. But if you don't pitch enough yeast it is going to take much longer for the fermenting to begin which then can stress your yeast resulting in off flavors.

I think proper pitching rate is more important than temp when it comes to turning a beer around quick.
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Oh, absolutely. I always pitch according to what mr malty recommends.

Good, healthy, controlled fermentation is the #1 thing to a quick turnaround. Same reason professional brewers turn around beer so quickly -- they ferment very well, 100% of the time.
 
My Hay Buck Farmhouse Ale is a historic farmhouse ale (low ABV so the field hands didn't get wasted) using 3711 that I can start drinking in 14 days. The OG is only ~1.038 so the 3711 plows through that in no time then I'll naturally carb which the 3711 handles quickly.
 
CreekBrewery said:
My Hay Buck Farmhouse Ale is a historic farmhouse ale (low ABV so the field hands didn't get wasted) using 3711 that I can start drinking in 14 days. The OG is only ~1.038 so the 3711 plows through that in no time then I'll naturally carb which the 3711 handles quickly.
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That sounds lovely. But by "naturally carb" do you mean bottle with some kind of sugar? If so, how much of that 14 days goes to carbonation?
 
Yes, the last time I made it a month ago for a Brewer game I tried priming a keg with sugar for the first time. It turned out real nice. Before that I naturally carbed in bottles.
I split the 14 days between fermenting and carbing although the fermentation hasn't taken a full 7 days I like to make sure I'm at FG. If you've never tried 3711 before I really recommend it!
 
My first recipe post and my 100th post! Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Click 'Recipes' under my username to the left and that should take you there.
 
CreekBrewery said:
My first recipe post and my 100th post! Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Click 'Recipes' under my username to the left and that should take you there.
Click to expand...

I tried, but couldn't get there through my phone (which is how I normally access HBT). No worries, I'll sit down at a regular computer and get it. Thanks!
 
Toecutter said:
Blood Orange Belgian Witt in the fermenter.. Today is day 16. I think I'm gonna filter and keg it today, so I can enjoy it over the 3 day Holiday weekend coming up.
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filter a wit?? blasphemy!
 
I typically go grain to glass with most of my 1.050 or under beers in about 10-12 days.

I have been a firm believer that if you have solid fermentation temps, proper pitch rates, fresh ingredients, and good water you should have no undesired flavors that you would need to age out.

Here is Yuri's thread on this subject.
 
I had a Wit on tap at 14 days...

Most other beers I let condition under pressure at ~60 degrees for 2 weeks before tapping. Just habit/routine, I suppose.
 

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