jvend

Recipes 

Can I do a california ale in 3 weeks? Its og is 1.050, its a California Ale of white labs maybe 2 weeks in primary fermentation and 1 week in bottle conditioning with sugar? Its possibble?

jubelale

Recipes 

With force carbing in a keg, Yes. Bottle conditioned, probably not. It will be very low in carbonation.

PIGMAN

Recipes 

The 2 weeks in primary works, but then you're only allowing 1 week for bottle conditioning, and no time in the fridge for the CO2 to be absorbed into solution. I think you'll be happier if you let the ale bottle condition for 3 weeks, and then chill them down for at least 2 - 3 days. Good luck.

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PIGMO'S BREWPUB


Primary: RIS
Bottled:
Drinking: Caribou Slobber, Cream Ale, The Innkeeper, Sweet Stout, IPA, American Pale Ale, English Bitter

jvend

Recipes 

Ok, but its ok to do secondary and bottle conditioning at the same.time?. If I add a lot of prime sugar maybe bottle conditioning its going to be ready in a week. Or not?

jbaysurfer

Recipes 

What they said. Also, with a carbonator cap (retail or homemade) and a PET bottle, you can force carb it. No way with bottles. They need a full 3 weeks to properly carb all by themselves.

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First Brew was thanksgiving 2011, I'm at 46 batches and counting, and ran out of room in my signature to list them all.

JohnnyO

Recipes 

Do NOTadd more priming sugar. Doing so could (will) contribute to bottle bombs. It will not make your beer carbonate any quicker.

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Fermenting: Nothing
Drinking: APA, My Own Personal Helles
On Deck: American Wheat

ludomonster

Recipes 

The secondary stage of fermentation is used to clean up the beer. When bottle conditioning, this process takes place. You can't bottle condition in a secondary carboy because you don't have any cap to allow pressure to build. Also, adding a lot of priming sugar will make your beer very dry. Not only that, but your bottles can explode. It's probably better to plan for enough time for everything to go smoothly. When I brew a normal gravity beer for events, I take 3 weeks in primary and 5 - 6 weeks to age, depending on the beer's character. I plan the beer at least 10 weeks out.

PIGMAN

Recipes 

All extra priming sugar is going to do is overcarb the ale,(not any faster by the way), and cause possible bottle bombs. And no, you don't secondary and bottle condition at the same time. Wait it out, you'll be happy you did. There's a lot of great commercial beer out there in the meantime. Try a couple of styles that you never tried before, it may give you some future brewing ideas.

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PIGMO'S BREWPUB


Primary: RIS
Bottled:
Drinking: Caribou Slobber, Cream Ale, The Innkeeper, Sweet Stout, IPA, American Pale Ale, English Bitter

jvend

Recipes 

How much sugar do I have to add to bottle condition?

billl

Recipes 

Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? Depends on your ability to optimize your fermenting time. If you pitch the ideal amount of healthy yeast into an ideally aerated wort and can hold temps consistently in their yeasts ideal range, you'll have tasty beer in under 2 weeks. Add a little fresh yeast at bottling time and store a bit warm (75 ish), and you'll speed that up too. (Don't double up the priming sugar though!) Commercial breweries crank out beer on that type of timeframe, but they are testing and measuring constantly to make sure they are hitting their marks.

If you were considering doubling up on priming sugar, I'm gonna bet you don't have enough experience to say for certainty that you will 100% control all those key variables. If that is true, then a 3 week turnaround is unrealistic for you. If you need beer in 3 weeks for some event, just buy some microbrew and let your homebrew run it's normal course.