Kettle to Glass 3 weeks?

[BigBill]

Curious how quickly people brew/carb.... Noticed on twitter Shaun Hill mentioned releasing 3 weeks post brewing....

Starting to rethink my 3 week fermentations / 3 week carbing......

 

[joncapozzi]

Forced carbonation speeds up the process considerably.

 

[passedpawn]

Very easy with most beers if kegging. Pale ales are definitely getting poured after 3 weeks.

 

[b-boy]

Blonde ales, Cream ales, and Kentucky Commons are all good in 3-4 weeks.

 

[Horseballs]

I tend to turn around lower gravity beers in 9-14 days from grain to glass. I've even had a keg of ordinary bitter tapped and kicked after seven days for a party.

 

[plumber_bob]

I've found that my light beers are good to go in 4 weeks total. And they don't seem to improve much after that, but still taste great after a couple more weeks or even longer.

My bigger beers,... I still keep 'em 6 weeks before they get tapped.

pb --- that's all I got.

 

[IL1kebeer]

My pale ale and wheats can go grain to glass in 11-12 days with no of flavors. IPAs take a bit longer at around 14-15 days because I always dry hop them. Obviously I keg.

If you have a reasonable OG and a healthy ferment there is no reason why you can't enjoy a beer at two weeks from brew date. Fruit beers, dry hopped beers, double ipas, barleywines, RIS, etc. excluded. And by healthy ferment I mean that the proper amount of healthy yeast are pitched and the beer is fermented at the correct temperature. Oxygen/aeration is done as well.

This also goes without saying but certain styles also benefit from a little age, and most pale beers at a reasonable abv can be drunk young.

 

[dinnerstick]

smaller beers, english yeast (1968 for me), forced carbonation; very quick. my record for a slightly bigger ale was 11 days, a dry hopped 6.5% ale that was needed last minute for a festival.

 

[Warthaug]

Some styles of English browns & bitters can go from kettle to glass in a week. I frequently turn out bitters in 7 to 10 days (force-carb'd).

Bryan

 

[phuff7129]

I used to read these threads about getting beers from grain to glass in 2 weeks and thinking they must be drinking the greenest most off flavored beers, and I didn't think it was possible.

Now that I have dialed in my water chemistry, mash ph, and I oxygenate with pure o2, pitch the proper amount of yeast, control my fermentation temps, and have a legging system, my beers are ready in 10 days to three weeks, maybe 4 weeks for bigger beers. Before it was a minimum of 6-8 weeks.

Control and refine the process is what it's all about.

 

[iowabrew]

I also have routinely had beers from grain to glass in less than 2 weeks. Usually anything under 1.050 gets 7-10 days in the bucket and then 3 days on CO2 and it's pretty close to ready.

Even tho i can be drinking it that soon, i still feel a few more weeks in the keg is beneficial to the beer to bring the flavors together

 

[landshark]

I've done Hefeweizens in 7 to 9 days repeatably. Pale ales and even IPAs in 12 days. Healthy pitch rate and at the temperatures you want, then force carb and it's a breeze.

 

[Flomaster]

thats my standard ale process

Fement 2 weeks
Keg on Gas at 30PSI 2-1/2 days
drop gas to 12 Psi for 5 days
3 weeks after I brewed I'm Enjoying my beer.

Now would my beer taste a little better if I waited 2-3 weeks before drinking it might, but I don't have a pipeline and don't want to wait that long.


-=Jason=-

 

[RmikeVT]

Love this thread.

If everything goes right I am drinking my 1.050 house pale ale on day 13. No one has mentioned but I think gelatin aids considerably in getting a beer grain to glass quickly. In my experience it gets that yeast twang out of the beer.

My process:
1st Use a quick, neutral yeast. I use re-hydrated Nottingham as dry yeast is already packed with all the things it needs to get the job done.

Ferment low 60s -- I use swamp cooler method.

After primary looks to be over, let warm up to ambient, usually high 67s - 70 in my basement

Wait 10 days from pitching yeast. Taste. If good proceed:

Keg and crash cool in kegerator for 24 hours.

After 24 hours add Gelatin, reseal @ 30psi -- I think this aids considerably in
getting grain to glass quickly

Wait 36-48 hours.

Drink -- make sure your guests don't get the muddy beer from the crash and gelatin.

 

[kombat]

I've got a decent pipeline going, so I have no need to rush things. My standard schedule is 3 weeks primary (dry-hopping during the third week, where necessary), then cold-crash/gelatin for 4 days, then keg and burst carb to get the carb started. I then let it sit on gas, stealing a glass here or there, but it's generally another week or two before the carbonation and flavour peak.

 

[Wynne-R]

Even in the bottle, I’m drinking my pales at 2-3 weeks. 5-7 days in primary, 3-5 in secondary, 5-7 in the bottle.

I guess you could say I’m force carbing from the inside out. If you prime while the yeast are fairly strong you save about a week of lag and reproduction.

-disclaimer- Don’t try this at home kids. If you get bottle bombs it’s not my fault.

Just sayin’ it’s possible. I haven’t had a bottle blow up doing this. It takes a little longer in the winter, but right now my pantry is 80F +. And then there are all the normal caveats, good pitch, healthy fermentation, great temp control and a kickin’ set of precision hydrometers.

 

[Flomaster]

Love this thread.

If everything goes right I am drinking my 1.050 house pale ale on day 13. No one has mentioned but I think gelatin aids considerably in getting a beer grain to glass quickly. In my experience it gets that yeast twang out of the beer.

My process:
1st Use a quick, neutral yeast. I use re-hydrated Nottingham as dry yeast is already packed with all the things it needs to get the job done.

Ferment low 60s -- I use swamp cooler method.

After primary looks to be over, let warm up to ambient, usually high 67s - 70 in my basement

Wait 10 days from pitching yeast. Taste. If good proceed:

Keg and crash cool in kegerator for 24 hours.

After 24 hours add Gelatin, reseal @ 30psi -- I think this aids considerably in
getting grain to glass quickly

Wait 36-48 hours.

Drink -- make sure your guests don't get the muddy beer from the crash and gelatin.

so you leave the gelatin in the serving keg the entire time the beer is being served?

I ferment my ales at 68 using WLP001 Ca ale yeast and whirlflock in the boil

-=Jason=-

 

[NewJersey]

i don't have an obsession with speeding up the process, but could u ferment in a corny WHILE force carbing?
i will never do this, but you could have a 1050 pale ale ready in 5 days i would imagine.
lol

 

[plumber_bob]

i don't have an obsession with speeding up the process, but could u ferment in a corny WHILE force carbing?
i will never do this, but you could have a 1050 pale ale ready in 5 days i would imagine.
lol

I did this by accident one time and it worked. I use 1/2 bbl Sanke kegs for fermenters and have a standard coupler to hook the blow off to. The beer out end is plugged. Gas end has the blow off. One time all I got was some slight bubbling for part of the first day, then nothing.

I had the RDWHAHB attitude and waited 2 weeks. Went to keg and found the thing was highly pressurized! WTF?

I forgot to remove the check valve from the gas port! :smack:

Turned out great, and ready to go.

Haven't tried it again, but that note is in my book for fast tracking from kettle to glass.

pb

 

[badlee]

All of my beers under 1050, which is most of them, ferment for 14 days max(shoot for 10) and bottle. I can drink a fully carbed bitter/pale ale after an agonizing wait of 3 days in the bottle

 

[Warthaug]

so you leave the gelatin in the serving keg the entire time the beer is being served?

Yep; most of it comes out with the dregs in the first pint or two; after that its clear beer.

The biggest issue is to not overheat the gelatin while you prepare it - if you do, instead of clearing the beer you end up with a bit of beer-jello at the bottom of your keg.

I have a blog post on it if you're curious.

B

 

[plumber_bob]

if you do, instead of clearing the beer you end up with a bit of beer-jello at the bottom of your keg.

I never thought of that,.. Beer jello! OHHH Chit! Just what I need,... Another experiment!

pb --- headed to the store.

 

[RmikeVT]

so you leave the gelatin in the serving keg the entire time the beer is being served?

I ferment my ales at 68 using WLP001 Ca ale yeast and whirlflock in the boil

-=Jason=-

Jason,

Since the keg pulls from the bottom usually the first pint or two comes out like mud and I dump down the toilet, I am assuming that is most of the gelatin. After that I get crystal clear beer. I think this is pretty standard practice among home brewers who use gelatin.

I also use whirfloc in the boil too. Gelatin helps haze proteins and yeast drop out.

Ryan

 

[Yooper]

I keg, and I tend to make hoppy American style beers much of the time.

As an example of my favorite beer, I do a lower OG version of the DFH 60 minute clone I have posted. The OG was 1.055.

I brewed it on 9/1, dryhopped it on 9/9, and will start drinking it on Sunday (9/15). That's pretty common for me, for most non-complex beers.

I never use gelatin or other finings post fermentation.

 

[NathPowe]

Most of my beers are in the 1.05 - 1.06 range and are generally hoppy American styles, much like what Yooper mentioned. My schedule from brewday to drinking a pint is also very similar to hers. Most often I'm quaffing a beer 18-25 days from brew day.

I know it works well for many people, but I've never understood the long (3-4 week) primary thing that folks talk about. To each his/her own though.

Good luck with the brew and enjoy.

 

[Nightshade]

All the time if kegging.

3 weeks is easy to go grain to glass with an ale.