Fast Conditioning Beer Style?

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Jeeperforlife

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What style(s) of beer is/are fastest to ferment and then condition to the point where it is good to drink? I have just tasted a sample from my primary that i took to check my gravity, and i can see that my first batch will not last long...:eek: I understand the theory of building a pipeline, but this may be a little difficult for me because the beer styles that I really like seem to take awhile to mature.
Thanks!
 
I think the fastest beer I ever made was a British mild. It went from grain to glass in 10 days. (That was part of our 10der and mild beer swap about a year ago)

The keys to a "fast" beer are to have a relatively low OG, so there is a low ABV. Also, nothing with a lot of complexity that needs time to meld.

So, let's see, that would be beers like American wheat, mild, hefeweizen, English bitter, and possibly a lower ABV pale ale (not dryhopped).
 
Milds, Blonds, 60/, Ordinary Bitters, English Brown Ales, Dry Stout...

really, anything you can keep the OG down on, under 1.040 or so, and has a balanced hop level... I usually shoot for quick turn around beers in the 1.035 OG with 17-25 IBU.

Pay attention to fermentation temperature and you'll be fine. Keep below 70°F and you keep ester and fusels down so that your beer doesn't have to condition as long.
 
I have had some basic brown or amber ales ready a week after bottling/kegging. Even faster with kegging because you can force carbonate.

So you could have a drinkable beer 2 weeks afters your boil.

That said, patience will reward your efforts. Stretching out your fermentation time in your primary or secondary will most always give you higher quality beer. For me, bottled beer is always better after at least 3 weeks or more. That doesn't mean I don't have a few sample bottles along the way.:mug:
 
really, anything you can keep the OG down on, under 1.040 or so, and has a balanced hop level... I usually shoot for quick turn around beers in the 1.035 OG with 17-25 IBU.
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+1'd. Wonderful advice, this.

Of course, for bottlers, you'll still need to allow an additional 3 weeks @ 70° to acheive proper carbonation/conditioning levels.
 
Well that works out well because my next batch is going to be a 60\ scottish ale! Just have to figure out what comes after that... Im really looking forward to making a barleywine but with the conditioning time and the complexity of the brew i know i need to get a few more under my belt before i brew something thats going to have to sit around that long.
Thanks for the quick replys!
 
Jeeperforlife said:
Well that works out well because my next batch is going to be a 60\ scottish ale! Just have to figure out what comes after that... Im really looking forward to making a barleywine but with the conditioning time and the complexity of the brew i know i need to get a few more under my belt before i brew something thats going to have to sit around that long.
Thanks for the quick replys!
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On the day I did my 1.114 OG barleywine I also brewed a 1.037 Mild.

The barleywine came in at 12.4% ABV and the Mild came in at 2.9% ABV.

flyangler18 said:
Of course, for bottlers, you'll still need to allow an additional 3 weeks @ 70° to achieve proper carbonation/conditioning levels.
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*doh* People still bottle? :drunk:

A mild might be quicker for bottlers if you go for a traditional carb level. Just a thought...
 
Revvy said:
Yup, it's different if you are kegging, but for bottles, you still can't speed up this process too much.
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Yea Ive been lurking on here for a few weeks so im aware of carbonation time as well...

Tom Petty was right...the waiting really is the hardest part!
 
*doh* People still bottle?

A mild might be quicker for bottlers if you go for a traditional carb level. Just a thought...
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While the overwhelming majority of beers that I brew go to the keg, I still bottle condition Belgians. :)

A mild might indeed be a touch quicker at those gentler carbonation levels - if your mild is green, you've done something wrong. ;)
 
Jeeperforlife said:
Yea Ive been lurking on here for a few weeks so im aware of carbonation time as well...

Tom Petty was right...the waiting really is the hardest part!
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During that time, get a few cases of beer that comes in brown pop top bottles. You can never had too many empties...
 
Jeeperforlife said:
Yea Ive been lurking on here for a few weeks so im aware of carbonation time as well...

Tom Petty was right...the waiting really is the hardest part!
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You're not the first one who's faced this issue...nor are you the 100,000th brewer on here who does. :D

But I have found that for the most part it's only new brewers who are that way, once you get a pipeline going, it really won't be an issue.

Here's an old discussion that might give you some insight. I had found in the back of my fridge a bottle of homebrew that had been in there for 3 months.

captianoats said:
How did you manage to keep a delicious chilled beer for 3 months? I'm lucky to keep a six pack cold for 3 weeks without downing them all.
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Revvy said:
It's called having a pipeline, beers at different levels of readiness. With a pipleine and a full fridge with many choices it is easy to not have a taste for a certain beer for a while, or just not grab it from the back..this was something I wrote a few months ago, it sums up my pipeline at the time....


I leave 99% of my beers in primary for a month...then I bottle...and right now I can't get 70 degrees in my loft to save my life...so I don't expect ANY of my beers to be carbed on time....so in the interim, I buy mix sixers of various beers to try as research for the next beers I plan on brewing and to build up my bottle stock.

For Example, I brewed my Pumpkin Ale for Thanksgiving on Labor Day...figuring at 8 weeks, I MIGHT have some ready for Holloween...But they were still green, so I only brought a couple to my annuual Halloween thingy, along with a sampler of commercial pumpkins...BUT come Turkey Day the beer was fantastic, and was a hit at the holiday.

Right now this is my current inventory...

Drinking....IPA, various bottles of Oaked Smoked Brown Ale, Smoked brown ale, Poor Richard's Ale, Biermuncher's Centennial Blonde (but as a Lager,)
Avoiding....Marris Otter/Argentinian Cascade SMaSH (It sucks)
Bottle Conditioning..... Chocolate Mole Porter, Belgian Dark Strong Ale, Peach Mead
In Primary.....Schwartzbier, Vienna Lager
Bulk Aging....Mead
Lagering....Dead Guy Clone Lager

Pretty much anything still in Primary or Lagering I will not be drinking til the end of March, but more than likely April....The Mole Porter needs a minimum several more weeks as well....but the Belgian Strong is prolly going to need 3-6 months to be ready...

The Swartzbier has 3 weeks more in primary, then another month lagering, THEN 3 weeks at least in the bottles...

Some weeks I take a break from my own beers to drink a couple sixers of samplers, so I don't drink ALL my current and other ready beers before the others comes online....Plus I'm craving a couple of styles that I don't have ready (like Vienna Lager) so I will make a bottle run....I also get to try new styles to come up with new ones to brew down the line.

And I'm also probably going to brew something this weekend...don't know what yet...maybe a low abv mild that I would only leave in primary till fermentation is stopped then bottled..so hopefully in a month they will drinkable.....

But do you see...you too one day will have a pipleine....and the wait will be nothing...you will have things at various stages...

This quote from one of my friends sums it up....

dontman said:
The nice thing is to get to a point in your pipeline where you are glancing through your BeerSmith brew log and realize that you have a beer that you have not even tried yet and it has been in bottle over 6 weeks. This happened to me this weekend. The beer was farging delicious.
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You can do it, I know you can. :D
 
Hefe is the fastest to keg I've had. I once went from boil to drink in 7 days but that came at the cost of a starter so big it didn't get a chance to develop any of the banana and clove flavors I like in that yeast.
 
I got the Hanks Hefe kit from Midwest and it was more than ready to drink after about 7-10 days in the bottle. It actually tasted better, the younger it was.
I will be doing this one again, great beer at a fast turn around!!!
 
Thanks for the replys and the encouragement! Fortunately i will be out of town til Tuesday so that will give me a few days away from staring at my airlock :eek:
Just cant wait til my pipeline is running full with brew!
 
You can ask the beer seller about the taste and the effect of it in your body and you can take one with help of them and enjoy.
 
One word of warning about kegging, and this is something I just experienced- just because you can force carbonate it quickly doesn't mean that the beer still doesn't need more time to mature. It's tempting to force carbonate and then try to drink it. Most beers still need a little (or a lot) of time. Having said that, I'm also looking for a fast beer, as we have friends coming for Thanksgiving, and I've fallen behind in brewing. So thanks for the thread!
 

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