5 day extract batch = possible?

[natural320]

my wife and I had been kicking around the idea of going with my parents to West Virginia next week for the 4th...

yadda yadda we're now definitely going! here's the kicker, my 2 brothers are now able to get the weekend off, so they are meeting us there as well. so of course I got the: "so are you bringing any beer?" question.

I've got a full keg of a helles bock, but I think it'll be too warm for this big beer to be enjoyable, plus I don't really wanna cart around my kegging stuff and pray that there is a fridge available.

other than that, I'm left with some straggling bottles and near-kicked kegs because I planned on getting a few batches in AFTER the 4th.

so, for the sake of speed, I was thinking about grabbing a can of Sparkling Amber LME tomorrow (which is Saturday) morning and a pack of WY 1968 London ESB or WLP 002 (same difference) from the LHBS (errrr! and pay the extra $).

do a quick 20 minute boil with 3.25 gallons of water
1/2 oz of Willamette @ 15'
1/2 oz of Cascade @ 10'
1/4 (or 1/8) oz of Citra at flameout

should be ~ 1.040 - 1.042 OG, 20-25 IBU, and finish ~ 3.6-3.8% ABV

if I ferment around 70°, you think it would be ready to bottle by Wednesday night? I was going to put the beer into 2 liter bottles, chill overnight, then force carb using a carbonator cap thursday afternoon, literally right before walking out the door for the trip.

I don't want to waste $20 and the time/effort if the consensus is that this "American Bitter" would not be ready to go in this ultra-tight time frame

 

[Beer-lord]

I love my homebrew but if it were me, I'd grab some good craft beer and be happy with that.
I know that's not answering your question so I'll just say that it's not likely to be very enjoyable to take a 3 week plus recipe and have it be very enjoyable in such a short time but, tastes vary so you may find it very rewarding.

Have fun on your trip either way.

 

[m1k3]

I believe you can buy beer...

But seriously, I wouldn't do this rush batch. You may not be proud of the results.

 

[m1k3]

I love my homebrew but if it were me, I'd grab some good craft beer and be happy with that.
I know that's not answering your question so I'll just say that it's not likely to be very enjoyable to take a 3 week plus recipe and have it be very enjoyable in such a short time but, tastes vary so you may find it very rewarding.

Have fun on your trip either way.

Beer-lord beat me to it. Just what I was thinking.

 

[CBelli]

+1 with Beer-lord....

While it is possible, it will not be tasty..... grab some good craft beer

 

[kh54s10]

IMO = no. It might be finished with the initial fermentation but I generally go by 3-5 days for the initial (active) fermentation then another 3-5 minimum for it to finish up. I have had many that were still filling the blow off container at 5 days. Fermenting warm may make the time shorter but could give off flavors. The shortest I have ever fermented was two weeks.

I don't know about force carbonating in PET bottles.

Since you are not bottle conditioning you could go warm and bottle at the last minute but I wouldn't hold out much hope that the beer would be very good. Drinkable - probably.....

 

[hannibalmdq]

my wife and I had been kicking around the idea of going with my parents to West Virginia next week for the 4th...

yadda yadda we're now definitely going! here's the kicker, my 2 brothers are now able to get the weekend off, so they are meeting us there as well. so of course I got the: "so are you bringing any beer?" question.

I've got a full keg of a helles bock, but I think it'll be too warm for this big beer to be enjoyable, plus I don't really wanna cart around my kegging stuff and pray that there is a fridge available.

other than that, I'm left with some straggling bottles and near-kicked kegs because I planned on getting a few batches in AFTER the 4th.

so, for the sake of speed, I was thinking about grabbing a can of Sparkling Amber LME tomorrow (which is Saturday) morning and a pack of WY 1968 London ESB or WLP 002 (same difference) from the LHBS (errrr! and pay the extra $).

do a quick 20 minute boil with 3.25 gallons of water
1/2 oz of Willamette @ 15'
1/2 oz of Cascade @ 10'
1/4 (or 1/8) oz of Citra at flameout

should be ~ 1.040 - 1.042 OG, 20-25 IBU, and finish ~ 3.6-3.8% ABV

if I ferment around 70°, you think it would be ready to bottle by Wednesday night? I was going to put the beer into 2 liter bottles, chill overnight, then force carb using a carbonator cap thursday afternoon, literally right before walking out the door for the trip.

I don't want to waste $20 and the time/effort if the consensus is that this "American Bitter" would not be ready to go in this ultra-tight time frame

My beers in the 1.040 to 1.050 range all seem to finish active fermentation in about 3 days when fermenting around 65 with a neutral yeast. 5 days doesn't leave a lot of time to clean up and floc but it could work.

Diacetyl is generally increased when fermenting at higher temps and it's cleaned up during the stationary phase so depending on how quick your yeast works it may or may not be noticeable. The a strong hop bill might cover up any other flaws.

I guess what I'm saying, is I have no clue how it would taste, but I totally believe you could make that beer on that timeline.

With a nice healthy pitch I wouldn't even bother with the higher temp right off the bat. Just keep in down for 2 days (maybe 2.5 or 3 depending on attenuation) then raise it up. The yeast shouldn't have any trouble grinding through the minimal amount of sugar at normal ferment temps.

If it were me, I'd probably do what most everybody is recommending and buy something nice to take along. But it's still an interesting question. I know there are a lot of people who thing you can go from grain to glass in under 10 days for certain styles and with force carb.

 

[dobe12]

Agreeing with everyone else. Not enough time. Maybe it will be done fermenting that quick with the right yeast and warmer temps, but how do you plan on carbing in 2-3 days? And in the end, you're talking about no conditioning time or even time for the yeast to clean up. Why bring crappy beer?

Bottle off a few of those Helles Bock and a few of the other randoms you have around and supplement with some good craft beer. I'd rather bring a few good beers to a family function / get together then a bunch of crappy beer.

 

[Summerland]

I do agree that it would be very fast and probably not ideal, but if you do it I would use WLP090. I just used it in an IPA and it was completely done fermenting about 48-60 hours after pitching. That would leave you with a couple days of conditioning at room temp before chilling and carbing. May not be ideal, but it would certainly be beer!

But I agree, just buy some this time around.

 

[kaconga]

Bottle some of the helles bock off of the keg. Take 6 or 12 of them so they can try it. Ask them to bring some of their favorite craft beers so you can learn what they like better. Win win!

 

[Beer-lord]

Wow, I'll have to tell my wife someone, for once, thinks I'm right.
Tonite I came home from work, had 3 of my beers then 1 craft beer. My beers beat the craft beer even though 1 of mine is not something I'm really happy with. But you know what? The craft beer was better than BMC. Just sayin!

 

[natural320]

I kinda figured that would be the concensus. But I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask if there were any magical tales of speed fermentation with the 002. No biggie though! I appreciate the opinions. I'll just grab a case of local micro and bring a mix of whatever I can scrounge up from my home brew fridge

 

[Pelted]

Well you could take the keg and pickup one of those Cool Brewing insulated fermentation bags. With a couple frozen one gallon jugs you can keep the keg temps way down for the day and not need a fridge. I just started kegging and used the bag once for a similar purpose and it worked well.

Or just grab some growlers and fill them up.

 

[Nickyssix]

Agreed, i did a rush batch once, OG 1.042 ( actually a double batch - doh ) and I'm pretty sure it fermented properly - but was really awful to drink. It took 3 months bottle conditioning before it was drinkable. And by then it was quite nice.
I really believe in leaving in primary for at least 3 weeks. The yeast cake seems to clean up the off flavours.

 

[fuelish]

I'd brew it and leave it ... buy some good craft beers to take along, save the empties, and bottle or keg the brewed batch sometime after you get back ... win/win

 

[edb]

The quickest I got a brew done was kettle to keg in 8 days. I think with proper aeration and a good sized yeast starter you can do it a little quicker, but I dont think by much.

 

[solbes]

A wheat beer with a big yeast pitch and a ramped ferm schedule might be decent in 6 or 7, but 5 is pushing it. Still in cleanup mode I would think.

Agree on bottling off of the helles keg being your best bet to share homebrew.