Suggestions for a quick brew for my wedding reception

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DrJerryrigger

DrJerryrigger

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I'm getting married on Sep 24 and I'd like have 5gal of home brew on hand by then (and yes I bottle carb). I still need to order grain and put together my LMT so I'm really on the 11th hour already. I only have a few brews under my belt (all AG) so the chances I mess this up are high (but I'd rather fail then not try at all).

Any suggestions on a recipe would be quite helpful:
I'd like to make an amber or brown ale with mild hoppieness. I have some Sterling and Central hops from the garden I'd like to incorporate, but I will not have enough, so I'll have to buy some hops too.
I'd like to keep the ABV under 6.5, closer to 5.5 would be ideal.
A heavy mouth feel is quite important to me.

Also I'm thinking I'll try making my water starting with RO. I've been unhappy with my tap water in the past and would like more control, also I have no time to get a proper water test.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be great! Thanks
 
If it has to be quick I'd suggest some form of a wheat beer. My dunkelweizen was ready to drink 3 weeks after brew day.
 
I would suggest using wyeast 1968 -- It drops bright in about a week! Crystal clear beer with no filtration and it has a nice flavor. I just went to Everybody's Brewing in White Salmon, Oregon, and they brew all their ales with it and rave about its performance.

If you are looking for great recipes, I would do anything in Jamil Z's Brewing Classic Styles. Everything I've done out of this book has been great.

http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'd use the new WLP090 San Diego Super yeast. The guys at AHS seem pretty excited about it. Wyeast 3711 French Saison just chewed through a high OG batch pretty quickly for me too.
 
shivalotus said:
If it has to be quick I'd suggest some form of a wheat beer. My dunkelweizen was ready to drink 3 weeks after brew day.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately my old lady is not too keen on wheat beers. I'll have to try that another time.

ElDuderino said:
I would suggest using wyeast 1968 -- It drops bright in about a week! Crystal clear beer with no filtration and it has a nice flavor. I just went to Everybody's Brewing in White Salmon, Oregon, and they brew all their ales with it and rave about its performance.

If you are looking for great recipes, I would do anything in Jamil Z's Brewing Classic Styles. Everything I've done out of this book has been great.
Click to expand...
Great, I just added 1968 to my "cart". I'll have to look into that book too, but I need to get going on this before that would ship.

beerandloathinginaustin said:
I'd use the new WLP090 San Diego Super yeast. The guys at AHS seem pretty excited about it. Wyeast 3711 French Saison just chewed through a high OG batch pretty quickly for me too.
Click to expand...
How was the 3711 for flocculation speed? I've seen it listed as "low". The WLp090 looks like just the ticket for me, but I'm not sure if I want to try it for this as few people have had a chance to try and report back.... maybe I'll split the batch to be on the safe side.
afraziaaaa said:
Any session beer from austin homebrew supply.
Click to expand...
I'm sure they're good, but for some reason I have a problem with anything sold as a kit.
 
An English mild, or brown ale would fit your parameters. Since mild's (by style) top out about 4.5%... You could do a brown ale at ~5.5% too.

I've had solid results with Wyeast 1318 London Ale III yeast producing very clear brews. 1968 looks like another good choice, I just haven't used it yet. I do have a packet of 1768-PC on hand that I plan on trying sometime soon.

With a low enough OG, you could get it to complete in your time frame. Although you would probably be better off kegging this batch, so that it has more time to be ready. IF you make it before next weekend, it's going to be really tight (bottle carbonating). Since you'll want 3 weeks (at ~70F) to bottle carbonate, then 4+ days to chill down... If the people at the reception don't know how to pour homebrew (from bottles) you'll have a lot of people looking at you funny, and with cloudy glasses of brew. Keg it and that is pretty much a non-issue. Plus, you have more time to let the brew finish... You could chill and carbonate in a week in the keg too (to more precise CO2 volumes).

Unless you're planning on letting people take the brew home to enjoy, and include instructions on chilling and pouring, that is.
 
Congrats on getting married, but I think you really need a high Alcohol %. :rockin:
 
LOL wow my fiancee told me i have to brew some for our wedding in April. So I am saving to start kegging and hopefully get 2 diff 5 gals and some bottles. Then probably some ordinary domestic beer cause most of the family likes the light pilsner.

Congrats on getting married and the ABV should be attributed to the future inlaws... haha
 
DrJerryrigger said:
How was the 3711 for flocculation speed? I've seen it listed as "low". The WLp090 looks like just the ticket for me, but I'm not sure if I want to try it for this as few people have had a chance to try and report back.... maybe I'll split the batch to be on the safe side.

I'm sure they're good, but for some reason I have a problem with anything sold as a kit.
Click to expand...

Hard to say on the 3711 floc. I haven't watched it closely at all and I can take my sweet time with that batch.

I'm drinking a glass of pale I brewed that I bottled tonight using half the batch on the Super SD and half on Pacman. I prefer the Super. Hops shine through a little better. Seems very clean. I'd say use it with little hesitation.
 
Here is a link to transcripts of Jamil's recipes:
http://beerdujour.com/JamilsRecipes.htm

If you want a lot of 'mouthfeel' and body, I would mash at a higher temp and use the 1968. Using wl001 or 1056 would probably dry your beer out too much for your tastes. I wouldn't be afraid to sub your hops for whatever portion you feel like in the recipe to make it your own.

Make a good yeast starter to get your fermentation started off right:
http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html


Good luck!
 
So last night I slapped together this 4 gal batch in Beer Smith:

6lb pale Maris Otter
1lb14oz Crystal
8.6 choc. malt
1/2oz central 60min
1/2oz Sterling 10min
I may up the aroma hopping a little

28.2 SRM
1058 OG
24.8 IBU

Yeast: 1968

Golddiggie said:
An English mild, or brown ale would fit your parameters. Since mild's (by style) top out about 4.5%... You could do a brown ale at ~5.5% too.

I've had solid results with Wyeast 1318 London Ale III yeast producing very clear brews. 1968 looks like another good choice, I just haven't used it yet. I do have a packet of 1768-PC on hand that I plan on trying sometime soon.

With a low enough OG, you could get it to complete in your time frame. Although you would probably be better off kegging this batch, so that it has more time to be ready. IF you make it before next weekend, it's going to be really tight (bottle carbonating). Since you'll want 3 weeks (at ~70F) to bottle carbonate, then 4+ days to chill down... If the people at the reception don't know how to pour homebrew (from bottles) you'll have a lot of people looking at you funny, and with cloudy glasses of brew. Keg it and that is pretty much a non-issue. Plus, you have more time to let the brew finish... You could chill and carbonate in a week in the keg too (to more precise CO2 volumes).

Unless you're planning on letting people take the brew home to enjoy, and include instructions on chilling and pouring, that is.
Click to expand...
Yeah kegging would be good for this application, but it's just not in the cards. I'm not to too worried about funny looks about a cloudy beer. It's going to be rather casual, probably most people will drink from the bottle or a plastic cup. Also most people would are invited are degenerate college buddies, alcoholic relatives, or recovering alcoholic relatives.

samc said:
Congrats on getting married, but I think you really need a high Alcohol %. :rockin:
Click to expand...
Thanks. I was hopping to reduce the chances of people getting too sloppy :tank:

Hulud said:
LOL wow my fiancee told me i have to brew some for our wedding in April. So I am saving to start kegging and hopefully get 2 diff 5 gals and some bottles. Then probably some ordinary domestic beer cause most of the family likes the light pilsner.

Congrats on getting married and the ABV should be attributed to the future inlaws... haha
Click to expand...
Congrats to you too! I think a keg of PBR would be just the thing for many guests, but I don't want to encourage them.

ElDuderino said:
Here is a link to transcripts of Jamil's recipes:
http://beerdujour.com/JamilsRecipes.htm

If you want a lot of 'mouthfeel' and body, I would mash at a higher temp and use the 1968. Using wl001 or 1056 would probably dry your beer out too much for your tastes. I wouldn't be afraid to sub your hops for whatever portion you feel like in the recipe to make it your own.

Make a good yeast starter to get your fermentation started off right:
http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html


Good luck!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the links! I'm defiantly planning a to use a good starter. Using liquid I'd really need to anyway, but for quite fermentation it's a clear choice.
 
The good news is you have about the pefect ammount of time for this. The bad news is you need a recipe and ingrediants. If I were you, I'd probably order a kit, I'd poke around austin homebrew and find one that sounds good to you. This way you don't have to worry about recipe. I'd assume you mean MLT, those take about 30 mins to build. in fact, if you don't have the valve and stuff I'm pretty sure you can order those straight off AHS for simplicity too. You can probably choose any supplier you want, most of them have AG kits. Congrats on getting married, now RDWHAHB and start ordering what you need!
 
Honestly, it's time to get your priorities straight. Cancel the wedding and brew a big beer. Do you know how much more time you'll have for brewing?
 
I got my Brown Ale from grain to glass in about 3 weeks. Its under my recipes if you want to give it a whirl. I think I have the recipe listed with brewmasterswarehouse for quick delivery to. It doesn't really need to age much.

Have a great time at your wedding. It goes fast.
 

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