Two week beer?

In Charlie Papzian's book Joy of Home Brewing he has a recipe for a beer that he claims is "terrific" 2 weeks after brewing. Is this one of those things that is too good to be true? If not, I plan to brew this beer this week so I can increase my beer reserves a little faster. I have the recipe posted below. I would appreciate your thoughts.

It is called Righteous American Real Ale.

4 1/2 lbs dried amber malt extract.
1 1/2 oz Cascade hop pellets.
1/2 oz Yakima Goldings (or willamette)
2 tbs gypsum
English style ale yeast
1/2 c corn sugar.

OG 1.040
FG 1.007
Bitterness 30 IBU Color: 10 SRM

what are we talking here, 1 week ferment, 1 week in a bottle or something? or bottling/kegging two weeks after brewing. if you're kegging/force carbing, you COULD drink it after 2 weeks, but it's probably not going to taste as good as it would if you drank it after, say, 4 weeks. if you bottle condition it, you're looking at 3+ weeks for carbonation to take place, so that would make it 5 weeks... recipe looks easy and could definitely be a quick fermenter.

If you keg it can be done. If you bottle, it will be more like three to four weeks from brewing.

He recommends ~10 days in primary and then 4-7 days in bottle before drinking.

You will also notice it only calls for 1/2 cup of corn sugar rather than 3/4 cup because this bitter style beer isn't meant to be as carbonated. Will that make a difference?

Most of my batches will carbonate in three days. At one week they have cleared. Papazain knows that as well as many other brewers. A lot of factors come into play, most important is yeast health and temperatures. One thing is certain, well brewed beer tastes better younger than poorly brewed beer. Off flavors my go away with aging. Bad water profiles can lead to astringent flavors that will have to mellow out. Strong beers need to age because they taste like crap young.

I had my Kentucky Common tapped shortly before 2 weeks after brewing and it tasted pretty good. They were meant to be cheap, quick beers, consumed as fresh as possible. Mine ended up at 6.1%, but they were meant to be 4.x%. Most beers will benefit from some aging/conditioning. I don't think it would be very carbed in bottles by then.

I'm drinking a roggenbier that was brewed 10 days ago. 7 in the fermentor, 3 in the keg.

I've made simple low srm beers (helles etc) and kegged them in under 2 weeks but the definatley taste better the longer the were in the keg.

Hefeweizens can be done on short order too. If you were kegging you could def pull off a 2 week beer no problem. You could probably pull off a 10 day beer if you had to, and have it be decent. Not ideal for a lot of styles tho.

I have a 14 day wit that rocks, its my go too beer. i say go for it.

HillbillyDeluxe said:

I have a 14 day wit that rocks, its my go too beer. i say go for it.

Click to expand...

possible recipie for this?

My 2 week Dunklewizen

Grain to class in 2 weeks (if you keg it)

TWO WEEK EASY-E.SB BEER! No seriously. Brew this and drink it in 14 days.
~Malty, sweet in the mouth, and mildly bitter with english woodsey hops when swallowing. VERY drinkable. Great with salted pretzles!~
extract - 60 min boil, add geletin at secondary. OG 1.053, FG 1.014, ABV 5.12%, color 13.25 (morey), IBU 30.36 (tinseth)

**steeping grain**
.5 vienna malt
.5 caramel 60
.25 Special B

** fermentables**
6 lbs Marris DME (any light DME is good, but marris is english and fits best)

1.5 oz goldings (any variety) @ 60 min
1 oz goldings @ 30 min

english ale yeast (my favorite is Mangrove Jack Dark Ale Yeast , M-07 which practically boils for 3 days in the bucket and is done. If you use this yeast the following schedule applies. Other yeasts may not attenuate as fast.

4 days primary at 67 - 70 degrees, rack to secondary at 60 - 65 degrees and add geletin to clear for the next 4 days.

8 days after brew day, Bottle using 2.9 oz table sugar fpr 5 gal to achieve 2.0 vol carb.

bottle condition at room temp for 6 days, chill and swill!
~Recipe attached~

View attachment EASY-E.SB.pdf

Two weeks is totally doable and amazing when you nail it.

I've done that one, and it turned out pretty good... tasty enough that I have a second batch going right now and it'll be my "keep the ball rolling because I'm out of carboys, everything going is a longer beer, and I'm running out!" brew. :-D