I am really looking to ramp up my brewing in the near future and I was thinking that a reasonable turnover time for mild brews (1.035-1.060) would be 21 days. This would give me 7 days in primary, 2 day diacetyl rest, 3 day cold condition and 9 days to carb in a keg. The carbing is what I'm hesitant on but I feel like if I get my process down then all should go well. Something like 30 psi, shake for 2 minutes, leave overnight at 30 then turn down to serving pressure for the remaining 8 days. What do you all think?
I do the set and forget method for everything.
Primary: 10 days
Secondary: 14 days
Keg: 5 days
Ten days in the primary is (almost) always enough for the beers I normally brew. I do check the airlock activity every couple days just to make sure everything's going normally.
I use a secondary for two reasons: I dry-hop some of my beers; and because of my limited equipment - two 6.5 gal and two 5 gal carboys. I need to free up the 6.5's for the next 10 gallon batch.
Fourteen days in the secondary is about right for dry-hopping. To keep things simple, I stick with fourteen days whether dry-hopping or not.
When I keg, I pump it up to 30 psig to seal the lid, shake for a minute or two, burp it, then turn down to serving pressure (10-12 psig). It's usually ready to drink in 5 days.
I'm lazy and forgetful!
Taking daily gravity readings is for the birds. I forget to count the airlock bubbles every day. I forget when I brewed or transferred or kegged it.
So I use blue painter's tape (almost always on sale at HomeCheapo or Lowes) and a Sharpie to make two date schedules - one goes on the carboy. I cover the carboy with a green trashbag since my wife forgets to turn off the light in the pantry. So the second schedule gets stuck on top of the airlock, since I'd be too lazy to lift the bag to see the first one. After kegging, the airlock schedule gets stuck on the refrigerator door. So the "schedule" is always right there in front of me.
Now if only I could remember what day today is!
I tried the overnight 30 psig once, but I forgot about it the next day, and ended up with a fizzy mess. Never did that again.
This "schedule" method works well for someone of my limited braincells. Another benefit is that doing it the same way each time eliminates some of the variables - so I can concentrate on improving other parts of my brewing process.
Dave