Buddy coming home from Iraq = time crunch

Hi guys,

As the title implies, my best friend is coming home from Iraq for 2 weeks of leave. I just found out he hasn't had a beer since he has been over there (I think he's on 5 months now) and I want to brew a batch especially for him. The problem? I'm a newbie and I have been following recipes that require a minimum of 5 weeks (1 carboy, 1 bottled room temp, 3 bottled fridge) to make a batch. I see him in 4 and I live out of state and have to make a trip home so it isn't as if I can just wait the extra week for ostensible readiness. Is this stuff going to be drinkable? And by drinkable, I mean is it going to be tasty/alcoholic enough to make the special batch worthwhile? I'll be attempting it either way, I'm merely curious if there is anything I can do to expedite the process while still having a god final product. And trust me, I know the virtue of patience, but combat medics don't often get the luxury of time!

- Dr. Bob

You can definitely have beer ready to drink in 3 weeks....especially if you go with a style amenable to it: e.g. a hefe or a blonde ale. It not so much that these beer need that much time to age (especially the styles I mentioned), they usually need that time to carbonate.

If you could keg it, you can get some carbonation into that beer by force carbonating....from boil to glass in under 3 weeks.

Unfortunately, bottle conditioning takes time and you can't rush that, even with a beer style that can be enjoyed 3 weeks after brewing.

Thanks much. I ended up adding a pound of raw wildflower honey to the boil of a simple pale ale recipe. If what I've read is correct, it will be a tasty, hoppy, slightly floral brew that should be chalk full of alcohol for my friend if just slightly less carbonated by the time it gets to him. I'll let you know how it turns out!

In general, increasing the starting gravity increases the fermentation time AND the conditioning time.

david_42 said:

In general, increasing the starting gravity increases the fermentation time AND the conditioning time.

Click to expand...

That, and since you added the honey at the boil, you probably boiled off any sort of flavor that the honey would have contributed to the final product. You could have gotten the same effect by adding table sugar (at a fraction of the cost).

Talk about an epic moment of noobness. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to see how this one turns out. If it's undrinkable at the time (or if I simply cant bottle soon enough) I'll just put it aside and let it ride out. Thanks for the info, guys.

Just to give an update, I got CRAZY activity from the recommended type of yeast from the homebrew shop (I told him about the time concern and he knew exactly what he would use). It ran a bit hot, when I got home from work the next day it was at 74 so I cooled it down. It stablized at 66-68 (my apartment is kept always at 65). Now, after what was more like a roiling boil for 2 days, I'm getting fairly limited activity (1 airlock bubble every minute-minute and a half) and the foam has dissipated. It even looks like it is settling, and this is only the 3rd day.

I would have thought since I had such a high SG from my addition of honey that it would be a longer fermentation/conditioning, but the biggest portion of the fermentation appears to be over with. I'll still leave it for another week and 1/2 before racking.

Is this just a very active fermentation that fell off quickly, or did beginners luck run out?

Any thoughts?