Quick Fermenting Beer for summer?

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Will2Brew

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Hello all!

Ok, I got my IPA racked to secondary this weekend and after taking inventory it appears that I'll be running low on beer reserves SOON!

I need help with a beer recipe for summer drinking. Something we can enjoy with crabs or on the boat. Something that will condition quick if possible so I'll have enough for the later part of summer. I'm hoping for a beer that we can drink within 3 weeks of brewing...

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
 
If you can't keg, you will be hard-pressed to have a beer ready in 3 weeks. It could be done, but I think you'd be better off just saving a bit of your current beer, or buying some. After all, why go through the time and effort to drink an extremely green beer?

If you can keg, then a cream ale, American pale, American wheat, or dry stout are all good options.
 
Could always do Jamil's Blonde Ale, it is cheap, easy, and tasty! Always a hit around here.
 
I'm about to do a Strawberry Smash with MO and Williamette.
1 week in primary, 2 weeks on the strawberries.
I think it'll be fantastic!
 
Wow! thanks for all the responses. Now I can get a handle on my brew for this weekend.

This forum has been really awesome for information, I"m glad I found you guys.

Thanks!
 
DCP I just brewed a mild two weeks ago. A southern, northern, and special bitters last week. Just waiting to keg the mild.
 
No question about it, Hefe's are the best quick turn around beers. I've done Mild's, Hefe's, and APA's as quick fermenting beers and the hefe is the best for drinking young.
 
I just made a Bavarian Hefeweizen in 2 weeks (well... not counting the starter).

Fermenting started on a Sunday, bottled it the next Sunday, went away for a week (work) and drank one when I came home. It was seriously the best wheat I've ever had - though I was trying for more banana.

6 lbs DME Breiss Wheat (split boil, half at 60 min half at 15 min)
1 oz German Hallertauer (3/4 at 60 min, 1/4 at 10 min)
WLP300 (1st gen from freezer)
Filled to 6 gallons post boil (shooting for SG of 1.048)

.....Explosive Ferment.....

Ferment was at 68 (my previous wheat was 60-62) and it has great clove character with a hint of banana.
 
I'll check the recipes for a mild. That sounds really good. I would do a wheat but I'm just finishing a batch of Wit. IPA is coming along nicely showing signs of refermentation now. I want to brew a blackberry wheat after my chocolate cherry porter.

I got yelled at while eating dinner last night.. Wife wants to know where I"m going to put all this beer..haha

Now I see why most of you move to keggin rather quickly. Do most of you use the Corneys? Is it expensive to make the move to keggin?
 
It was much cheaper two years ago when corneys were cheap. $25 used to be a good price...now $35 is. And you will need a few to keep up with storage. You'll also need some way to keep the kegs cold, Fridge or Freezer + temp control. With a cheap fridge on craigslist you could get into kegging for as low as $200. But if you want to have more than 1 tap (I assume everyone does), then it will go closer to $300 for two. And this is just picnic taps, the most basic system.

It can be as expensive as you want from there...
 
If you like English style ales, here is one I just did:
4 1/2 lb amber DME
1 1/2 oz Cascade (boiling) (at the beginning of boil)
1/2 oz Willamette (aroma) (at 58 mins in)
2 tsp gypsum
English style ale yeast (I used Wyeast 1335)

Righteous American Real Ale, It is from p.170 of Joy of Home Brewing.

I like this for Ale for three reason:
1. 17 days from boil to beer.
2. Its an easy, cheap receipt to make.
3. its a style that I don't see often outside of homebrewing.
 
use S04 dry yeast. it can finish fermenting a 5gal batch in 3 days, so you have more time to age the beer.
 
Thanks azbrews..

Question though. I've read posts about guys saying with this beers hoppiness it tends to grab your taste buds initially.

My question is what if we use 6lbs of amber dry malt extract wouldn't that tone the hop factor down a smidge plus add a little more abv? How would that affect the quick turn around time? taste? bitterness?
 
More malt will up the abv and reduce the ibus, but it will take longer to ferment and age. I can't assess the difference here since I'm on my phone though. I'd reduce the hops instead of increase the malt if you want a quicker turnaround.
 
If you like English style ales, here is one I just did:
4 1/2 lb amber DME
1 1/2 oz Cascade (boiling) (at the beginning of boil)
1/2 oz Willamette (aroma) (at 58 mins in)
2 tsp gypsum
English style ale yeast (I used Wyeast 1335)

Righteous American Real Ale, It is from p.170 of Joy of Home Brewing.

I like this for Ale for three reason:
1. 17 days from boil to beer.
2. Its an easy, cheap receipt to make.
3. its a style that I don't see often outside of homebrewing.

58 minutes is way, way, way too early for an aroma addition.
 
MPOWELLJR said:
Thinking 58 mins in (into the boil) = 2 mins left in the boil if I had to guess.

That's how I read it too: add after 58 min
No mention of boil volume, which could (using 1.5 oz casacade boil hops) result is very hoppy beer for 5 gal boil. I'd assume 2.5 gal (?)
 
More malt will up the abv and reduce the ibus, but it will take longer to ferment and age. I can't assess the difference here since I'm on my phone though. I'd reduce the hops instead of increase the malt if you want a quicker turnaround.

Thanks.. This confirms my questions.. It still sounds like a good brew. I may give it a hot Saturday and just simply tweak the hops addition to bring down the IBU's.
 
Yes, I'd just use something like Hopville.com to determine the IBUs from the original recipe and then tinker with it to get it where you want it.

Something else that's been addressed here is the convention for stating hop additions. The norm is to state the hop addition in time in the BOIL... So, a 60 minute hop addition is added to the boil 60 minutes before flame out. A 2 minute addition is added to the boil 2 minutes before flameout. I don't mean for that to sound off, but I just want to help avoid ambiguity in the future....
 
use S04 dry yeast. it can finish fermenting a 5gal batch in 3 days, so you have more time to age the beer.

I agree! I used S04 with a lawnmower ale and racked into my keg after 4 days of fermentation. Depending how hard up you are for beer you could drink within a week or less of kegging, even with the set and forget method.
 
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