what to brew grain to glass in 3 weeks

Im at a loss as to what to bre this weekend. Beligians are out, just made an IPA, and Im burt out on nut brown ale. I want somthing malty medium bodied and mabe a little hoppy.. nothing to dark. cant drink guiness yet and im not real wild about stouts. im a recovering bud lightaholic and im still working on my tastbuds.....

Any ideas? I was thinking maybe a brown porter?
grain bill with yeat and hops needs to be under $30 for a 5 gallon batch.
i batch sparge

Thanks and i'll post pics of my getto as setup in action in exchange for advise.

Hefeweizen
or
An English mild
or any other light (abv and IBU) beer...

But, IMO, unless you're kegging (or otherwise able to force carbonate) you won't be able to do it (well)....

I've done an ordinary bitter in 3 weeks.....Kinda.... Bottled after 2 1/2 weeks and started on them after 3. Sure, it wasn't properly carbed, but it was acceptable and the taste was very good.

-I only keg ,I took one look at sanitizing and bottling decided to hell with it.

-Hefe's have way to many yeast flavors for me.

If i cook this weekend I'll have a solid 6 weeks from today to brew and consume, most of it. one week will be a family vacation so im not worried about wasting the beer. I want somthing on the darker side of life.

A low-gravity ale can easily be mature and in perfect drinking condition in 14-21 days. I regularly go grain to glass in 15 or so days with my March Brown Mild that's in my pull-down. The key to a quick drinking ale is to keep things simple with your grainbill and hopping schedule.

Try my blond ale recipe. It's best aged but I cheated. Kegged it after 14 days and started drinking it after another 7 in the keg. (so cold aged on gas for a week).

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f62/dennys-d-e-c-summer-quaffin-ale-120761/

+1 on blonde ale. Keep it fairly low gravity and you'll have a very drinkable beer very quickly.

I did this very thing last year when a party reservations nearly doubled.
10Der & Mild did well, and I think BierMuncher's Centinennal Blonde would be another great choice.

Since you're looking for the "darker side" I would also strongly suggest (or +1 in forum parlance) a Mild Ale.

Fly Anglers looks good as well as the various versions I reviewed in the 10der swap (BierMuncher) has a recipe as well.

Not too dark.
Malty.
Little hoppy but not too hoppy.

I think you could get by with a Special Bitters (English Pale Ale) in pretty short order.


Batch Size: 11.50 gal
Boil Size: 14.26 gal
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated Color: 10.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 34.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

15.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
3.00 lb Toasted Malt (27.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)

2.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.80%] (75 min)
1.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.50%] (20 min)
1.00 oz Williamette [5.20%] (1 min)

Pitch plenty of yeast of your choice.
Get a hard boil and a quick chill.
Leave it in the primary for four weeks.
Secondary with gelatin for 5 days.
Keg and crash chill.
30 PSI for 30 hours then hold at serving pressure until the party.

ggoodman said:

Im at a loss as to what to bre this weekend. Beligians are out, just made an IPA, and Im burt out on nut brown ale. I want somthing malty medium bodied and mabe a little hoppy.. nothing to dark. cant drink guiness yet and im not real wild about stouts. im a recovering bud lightaholic and im still working on my tastbuds.....

Any ideas? I was thinking maybe a brown porter?
grain bill with yeat and hops needs to be under $30 for a 5 gallon batch.
i batch sparge

Thanks and i'll post pics of my getto as setup in action in exchange for advise.

Click to expand...

A nice ESB will work. I had one go 3 weeks from boil to keg, and it was a hit. Used 40% 2-Row, 40% Maris, 20% Cara 40. 1056 for the yeast, and BU/GU of .75. It got even better after another week, but the beer was solid and a good middle of the road beer for my friends and SWMBO.

BTW, on that 10der & Mild, it got REALLY good a week or two later, so it ages well

You could probably get a nice dry stout done in that amount of time, too.

Most anything around 1.040 and below OG and with a restrained hop character can be done in that period of time. I think the key to getting a beer from grain to glass in three weeks is yeast management. Keep the gravity and hops down, pitch an appropriate amount of yeast, aerate well, and it's doable.

BierMuncher said:

Not too dark.
Malty.
Little hoppy but not too hoppy.

I think you could get by with a Special Bitters (English Pale Ale) in pretty short order.


Batch Size: 11.50 gal
Boil Size: 14.26 gal
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated Color: 10.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 34.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

15.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
3.00 lb Toasted Malt (27.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)

2.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.80%] (75 min)
1.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.50%] (20 min)
1.00 oz Williamette [5.20%] (1 min)

Pitch plenty of yeast of your choice.
Get a hard boil and a quick chill.
Leave it in the primary for four weeks.
Secondary with gelatin for 5 days.
Keg and crash chill.
30 PSI for 30 hours then hold at serving pressure until the party.

Click to expand...

im keggin your swmbo slayer this thursday night if it taste decent i'll give this one a dance...pity my swmbo will never get to try it. she's heading to our new home in alaska.

I think you can have almost any <6% ABV ale ready in 3 weeks

Primary 7-10 days

Rack to secondary, 2-3 days at room temp

Crash cool secondary, add gelatin finings, wait 3 days

Rack cold to keg, force carb and reduce co2 to serving pressure

Wait 2 - 24 hours and serve.


If you're going to dry hop, you may have to extend secondary time to 4 or 5 days.

If you're looking for something darker, an amber or copper ale might work.

Just my $.02

My Minute Wheat was 14 days from brew to completely consumed. It has wheat, but not too much yeast character. It was pretty damn tasty, according to the 30 people at my party who killed the keg in little more than 2 hours. Plus, to my great honor, an honest-to-God Master Brewer went back for two pints!

If you're absolutely set on something darker, try adding 4-6 oz. of Black Barley. It's all in the eyes, but the tongue tells the truth. I've created a version of the recipe with a bit of the Black Barley in place of the Crystal. It's called Dark Wheat, and you might find it's the perfect vacation beer. And as a wheat beer, you should be fine with just 3 total weeks from brew to toilet.