11 day turn around beer... feedback/help requested!

So I've got myself in a bit of a pickle. I told a friend I'd bring 2 kegs to his house September 1st. I was just reminded this morning!

Problem is I forgot so last brew day I started a Kolsch when I should have started something else. That most definitely won't be done in time as I'm fermenting it cold (59F) and will want to cold crash/lager it a bit to get it clear. It's only been going for a week.

I'll have 1 keg of an APA that is dry hopping now, but I need a second beer that has to be done in... 11 days. Ouch.

So I did a bit of googling around and searching on this site. Most people recommend pale ales or wheat beers for fast turn around beers. Since I'll already have one pale ale, I decided to go the wheat route. I thought I remembered seeing a recipe for a wit that was 11 day turn around a while ago but couldn't find it again.

Right now I'm thinking of something like this:
3.00 lb Wheat Dry Extract
2.00 lb Light Dry Extract
1.00 oz Hallertauer (60 min)
1.00 oz Williamette (15 min)
1 Pkgs American Wheat Ale (Wyeast Labs #1010) Yeast-Ale

I'll go to the store right after work today and get a starter started. I don't have a stirplate but I can make sure it gets swirled every hour or so except for when I'm sleeping.

24 hours later (tomorrow evening) brew it. I'll let it ferment at ~70F until I hit the FG 3 days in a row then immediately keg and force carb. Depending on how much time I have I'll either do the just set it at 30PSI for a few days or if I'm really rushed sit there and shake it while its at 30PSI until its good to go.

I'd kind of rather do a wit with some spices, but I'm leary about it being done in time. If someone has an extract wit that can be done please let me know.

Also any tips, tricks, or any other kind of feed back to help me select a recipe and get this done is much appreciated! I'll be heading to the homebrew shop at about 4pm central time.



Ninja Edit I also see a lot of good reviews for this beer: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/centennial-blonde-simple-4-all-grain-5-10-gall-42841/#post426430
And it's supposed to be fast. Any confirmations that I can probably get this fermented and kegged fast enough?

Recipe looks good to me, the low gravity will give you a quick turn around. I'd pitch that starter at high krausen to jump start your ferment. If you can hold the temp steady you should have no trouble getting to final gravity in 3-4 days. Be nice to allow the yeast some more time to clean up after themselves but maintaining your fermentation temp and pitching the right amount of yeast will minimize the off-flavors. And if you hit it after 4 days you'll have time to dial in your psi and let it sit the remaing time to get the desired volume of co2.

Some may say different, but 1010 would probably not be my choice for a quick beer. I love the strain but it does seem to take a little longer to mellow. At least for me, even with controlled temps, it puts off a lot of sulpher and usually takes a couple weeks of bulk aging for the smell to drop off. I've used White Labs WLP029 German Ale/Kolsh with a wheat base at the top of it's temp range for a pretty quick ferment a few times and the flavor has been decent with that.

Super basic belgian wit that I turn around in about 10 days:

50/50 Pale and wheat malt. Aim for about 1045-50.
Touch of oats for mouth feel
corriander, bitter orange peel for the last 10 min.
pick a hop you like, something mellow. Use it for bittering - I usually aim for about 12-17 IBU.
WLP400.
Get it going warm - it'll go crazy, you should be close to FG in 3-5 days, give it a couple to complete then force carb it. It won't hit it's best for another week - but it'll be nice and drinkable when you need it.

the benefit is that the high temp fermentation give you flavors that are style appropriate.

Anything around 3.5% abv with a flocculant yeast can be turned around in that time frame, I just did an experiment and brewed 15 gallons of sterling gold and split the yeasts between Safeale 04, 05 and 06 and went grain to glass in 7 days. As long as fermentation is done within the first day and you keg it's not that hard. Inject that puppy with pure O2 and pitch a starter at high krausen and it won't be a problem at all.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

After reading mobrewdude's feedback on the yeast choice for the wheat and brycelarson super basic wit I think I'm going to go with a wit. I've been meaning to do one soon anyway to start playing with spices. I've got to run off to an afternoon of meetings but I'll update this thread with the recipe I choose and how the brew process went in case someone else stumbles across this while searching.

yeah, let us know how it turns out - I just kegged a batch yesterday - brew day was the 9th. That's a few days more than you have - but same idea.

For the recipe I've decided to go with BierMuncher's Blue Balls Belgian Wit extract version... heading to the LHBS today, brewing tomorrow. Unless something spectacular happens, no updates till I'm kegging and then I'll post OG/FG and any initial impressions. Then one more after I've carbbed with final impressions before taking it to the party.

Again thanks for the feedback.

that recipe looks great. good luck

This Centennial Blonde was grain to glass for me in 8 days using Notty. You could change it up a bit with some different hops. I can tell you this, your BMC friends will be bugging you make more. Extract version is in post #10

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/centennial-blonde-simple-4-all-grain-5-10-gall-42841/

Sorry forgot to update...

The wit beer was allllll sorts of screwed up (my fault). First thing was I got to talking at the homebrew store and trying out some of their latest brews. Completely forgot to buy the hops. The next day was brew day and they were closed, I had already worked late so I was short on time, and was worried about not having the beer ready in time. I brewed anyway and used some iso hop extract I had to try to account for the lack of bittering hops and some hallertau I had on hand (half oz). I also didn't realize until the beer was almost done boiling that I didn't have coriander seeds. Used cilantro instead, same thing right? (No. It's not.) Chilled, pitched the starter. Massive fermentation and then... I didn't check on it for a few days (busy) and came back and it was off its estimated FG by a little over 10 points! My stupididty prevented me from actually SAVING the new temp in the tmep controller in the ferm chamber... it was just a little too cold for this yeast(63ish?). I turned the temp up to WPL400's upper range (73ish) and let the yeast do their thing for another few days. They finished it out but now it was the night before. I tasted it and it was definitely off enough to be a private consumption only beer. Too bitter for a wit, and it doesn't taste like a good wit but is otherwise drinkable.

I can't really review the recipe I used since I didn't follow it and screwed up a bit but this beer seems to be coming into its own after another week in the keg so it might not be best for a super fast turn around beer.

For future reference I did also brew the blonde linked earlier in the thread last sunday. Today it is definitely done and delicious (just under a week). For someone else looking to make a fast beer, I'd recommend that one.

It sure does seem like your brew day got screwed up! Hopefully your friends enjoyed the APA and wanted more!

edecambra said:

It sure does seem like your brew day got screwed up! Hopefully your friends enjoyed the APA and wanted more!

Click to expand...

They loved it!I'm actually trying to find the recipe.... I might have lost it.