Super fast Old Ale

So I just got the 2013 brew list for my brewclub, and the January meeting is in a little over 2 weeks. The January beer is "Old Ale" 19A. We do a monthly contest with the beer, and the top 3 get points toward a brewer of the year competition.

I had pretty good success in the 3 competitions I entered last year (2nd in all of them) and there's a brewer of the year award that I don't think is unattainable for me.....but that category is a giant beer that's traditionally aged for quite a while.

So...any suggestions? I do keg, and I could always carb with the carbonator cap (in fact, I'll likely HAVE too) and I don't think it would be my best effort, but then again, I may only have to beat out 2-3 other people to make the medal podium and get some brewer of the year points. I have nothing to lose by trying, so yes, save me the "not enough time" posts, because I'm going to give it a go.

Any suggestions? Yeast that finishes quickly would be key, and I may actually consider using SD super yeast or something that I've had success with (finishing big beers in short time periods) unless anyone comes up with a very fast English Ale yeast suggestion.

I'll pitch a giant starter, and aerate the crap out of it...maybe even aerate again 24 hrs. after pitching though I've never done that before. I'll probably start to crank the temp in the fermenter after day 7 to speed the finish process, and FYI, I have a pretty complete home brewery setup, so don't be afraid to throw out equipment dependent suggestions. Everything is temp controlled.

Thanks in advance. I wouldn't be surprised if my brew club members get an eyeball on this thread, but with a little luck they won't know which beer it resulted in during the blind tasting.

I pitch 1968 London Ale by Wyeast and regularly am done fermenting in 5 days at 68º. It is about a 75% attenuation so it will handle a pretty decent size wort.

Edit*
Once you have pitched do not aerate again, let it ride and let it do its thing.

Nightshade said:

I pitch 1968 London Ale by Wyeast and regularly am done fermenting in 5 days at 68º. It is about a 75% attenuation so it will handle a pretty decent size wort.

Edit*
Once you have pitched do not aerate again, let it ride and let it do its thing.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Off to buy some 1968, I'll just make a huge starter 2.5L or so and aerate the crap out of the wort. Appreciate the feedback. Anyone else? Recipe?
I'm heading to the LHBS in an hour or so!!!

i'd look up the Fuller's ESB/London Pride recipe and bump that up to 7.5-8.0% ABV, and hop it however you want (maybe similar to the esb, w/o the dryhop). Fuller's partigyles that recipe, and makes a barleywine from the first runnings that is around 8%, I think. It would probably ferment out in 5-6 days (as previous poster mentioned w/ 1968), and I bet it would be drinkable pretty quickly.

Thanks guys. I'm limited to what I have on hand at this point:

Rahr 2 row Pale Malt (I know, this is the first problem. It should be a continental malt, but I intend to add some bready taste with Biscuit Malt)
Biscuit
Crystal 60 and 120
Chocolate
Honey (malt)
Molasses
Carapils
Aromatic
Special Roast
and white wheat, but I don't think I should be using this based on the recipes I've seen.

I'm thinking mostly 2 row with an LB of C120 and an lb of Biscuit (5G batch).

You think any of those other specialty malts fit in? I'm going to mash it in the morning, brew tomorrow night. I'll make a 2L starter tonight of the 1968 (well WLP002, my LHBS only stocks Whitelabs) tonight, but since I haven't perfected the recipe I'm guessing on the size. Probably do a 3L ya think? I don't usually make starters that big, but I can.

Yeast question: My LHBS guy told me this yeast is known for diacetyl. Is this simply solved by doing a rest? Should I also primary low (like 64ish) on this yeast to decrease the diacetyl? I'm thinking I'll start ratcheting the temp up on day 7 and have it to full rest temperature (maybe 70f?) by the end of day 8. Day 9 and 10 are rest days. Day 11 to 13 is carbing, and serve on day 14?

That's my current plan anyway, open to recipe suggestions, as you can see I'm somewhat limited on ingredients but I have a general idea of where I'm going. It could be horrible, I've made horrible beers before

No joke s-04 will finish in 2-3 days. Always finished my 1.05-1.06 beers in two. Drops like a brick too

Just stumbled across this old thread and thought I'd update it for any future lurkers...

This can be done. I brewed up an English Old and had it in the contest 2 weeks from brewday. It got 2nd place. It's still on tap though...I don't love the style. May take forever to finish it. In the same spirit I got a 3rd with a Barleywine that was 3 weeks old, and it's gone because it aged so deliciously.