One week - Wort to Keg?

[BeWilder]

I was just told I'm expected to provide the beer for a 4th of July party next Monday, which gives me one week if I buy and brew tomorrow. I currently have 5 Gal. of Arrogant Bastard Ale ready to keg and have an extra keg available for this brew.

Anyone have a recipe that will be fit to drink in that time period? All suggestions are welcome!

 

[wolfman_48442]

Don't put yourself under that kind of pressure.
There are no good recipes that I'm aware of that you as a brewer would be proud to serve in just a week.
My advice - put 5 gallons of a local micro-brew in a keg and tell no one
Waiting is the hardest part of brewing, but it's also the skill that once mastered yields the greatest improvements. I'm still finding that out, btw.

 

[duckmanco]

most English style bitters would work I would think, something in the 1.035-1.040 range with a good floccing yeast, like Nottingham dry. It won't be a perfect beer in a week, but I'm betting it would be quite drinkable.

Maybe even Bier Munchers centennial blonde might work, I haven't made it yet, but it seems right for a rushed beer.

 

[KYB]

I was going to try this awhile back just to see if I could pull it off with my Kentucky Common, but never got around to it. Basically I was going to make a nice starter and put it in the keg once it was getting close to being done, finish fermenting in the keg to create high pressure to carbonate it at the same time, and hopefully not clogging the keg with trub. Of course there are so many variables in this. I've done 11 days grains to glass and it was fine. Definitely better after a few weeks, but it was alright.

 

[8rnw8]

don't put yourself under that kind of pressure.
There are no good recipes that i'm aware of that you as a brewer would be proud to serve in just a week.
My advice - put 5 gallons of a local micro-brew in a keg and tell no one
waiting is the hardest part of brewing, but it's also the skill that once mastered yields the greatest improvements. I'm still finding that out, btw.

+1.

 

[carnevoodoo]

See if the new White Labs WLP090 is available to you today. Supposed to ferment in 3-4 days. If not, you could do something like an English mild, use something like US-05, ferment around 70. It might be done in time. It also might not be the best beer ever, but you never know.

 

[bigbeergeek]

Lower gravity, highly hopped, brownish ale. Use hop bitterness and moderately high maltiness to cover flaws in flavor, brownish color to hide yeast haze. Overpitch in a massive way, 3 packets of US05 in a five gallon batch. Should ferment out in 3-4 days.

 

[scottland]

10 days maybe. 7 is a stretch. Choose something hoppy, it'll cover any flaws. And English Best Bitter would work well. 1.040 to 1.045. Hop it heavy in the last 10 minutes with goldings. Choose a quick yeast like S04, or WLP007. Pitch more than you think you need. Like 2 packs of S04. Ferment cool to reduce off flavors, and it should be done in 3-4 days, then chill and carb.

Now with that said. It won't be a great beer, and I personally don't like serving a sub-par product. It could be a great beer, but it would need 2-3 weeks to get there, not 1.

 

[SC_Ryan]

I'm currently trying to pull off a seven day beer myself. It's a 1.036 ale. I pitched Nottingham and started it @66*. I've been ramping up a degree a day. If the krausen drops and it tastes decent on day 7, I'm going to keg it. I won't need to actually drink it until day 9. Today is day three and the krausen has already peaked and started to recess just a bit. I might just be able to pull this off.

 

[gr8shandini]

A few weeks ago I entered a Honey Wheat into a local competition after just 6 days in the fermenter. It wasn't a great beer by any stretch, but it scored a 25, putting it squarely in the "good" range. Most of my friends can't tell the difference between "good" and "great" anyway, so I didn't have a problem serving them the rest of the keg. Your mileage may vary, of course.

If you brew "clean" to begin with, the only thing that's hard to get rid of in that time frame is diacetyl. I'd choose an English bitter or maybe a Scottish ale since diacetyl is allowable or even desired in those styles.

 

[bjarkith]

I pulled this off in early june this year, my gf desided a week before her birthday that I was going to brew for the party, I made a mildly hopped apa with honey, the og was 1.052, what I did was I fermented a bit hot and used a ****load of wy1056 slurry, way to much, then the day before when the fg was around 1.015 I crash cooled it with ****loads of ice to get the yeast out of suspension and kegged. The beer was a big hit with the girls since it was mildly sweet and with a scent of citrus and honey and some fruity notes from the hot fermentation.

 

[SC_Ryan]

My experiment is going well so far. It's the morning of day 4 and krausen has fallen. I gave the carboys a swirl and I've ramped up to 72* The yeast have a full 72 hours to clean up after themselves. I don't think diacetyl will be an issue with this one. I'm hoping I kept it just cool enough though to keep out the fruity esters, but we will see.

 

[barrooze]

I brewed a Bavarian Weizen on Friday and ramped it up a few degrees last night. I'm going to keep ramping it up until Thursday night. Then I'll sample and if it's what I want I'll keg it. Pretty excited about trying this out with the weizen. Normally I let my beers sit in primary for 3-4 weeks.

 

[brewit2it]

most English style bitters would work I would think, something in the 1.035-1.040 range with a good floccing yeast, like Nottingham dry. It won't be a perfect beer in a week, but I'm betting it would be quite drinkable.

Maybe even Bier Munchers centennial blonde might work, I haven't made it yet, but it seems right for a rushed beer.

I use Notty frequently and it never drops out for at least 10 days to 2 weeks. The only beer I would even consider trying to make in a week is a wheat simply because it is supposed to be cloudy anyway and you could ferment it at higher temps which would help it finish faster. But still, 1 week is at least a week too little to really get it ready so I would just keg your other beer (I assume you mean Arrogant Bastard Clone unless you meant you have a keg of Arrogant Bastard) then buy a couple of cases, maybe 1 case of BMC for the non-craft drinkers and something else not too hoppy since you are set for the hop heads with the AB clone.

 

[cjb]

Make a wheat beer. They taste great fresh, and clarity won't be a concern. I did a wheat grain-to-glass in 7 days once - it still got better over the next couple weeks, but it was perfectly drinkable after a week. You'll have to do the shake method to carb it, of course.

 

[stamandster]

6 days left... what're you gonna do!?!?!

 

[makomachine]

Green beer.... The homebrewers natural laxative!

 

[HARDHEAD]

I was just told I'm expected to provide the beer for a 4th of July party next Monday, which gives me one week if I buy and brew tomorrow. I currently have 5 Gal. of Arrogant Bastard Ale ready to keg and have an extra keg available for this brew.

Anyone have a recipe that will be fit to drink in that time period? All suggestions are welcome!

YOU CAN PULL OFF A ENGLISH BROWN IN 7 DAYS
10 lb. British pale ale malt
1/2 lb. brown malt
1/2 lb. Special B malt
1 lb. medium crystal malt
2 oz. chocolate malt
2/3 oz. Northdown or Wye Challenger hops (bittering)
1/2 oz. Fuggles or Willamettes hops (flavoring)
1/2 oz. Fuggles or Willamettes hops (finishing)
1 pkg. Burton water salts
Yeast: Dried - 1 pkg. Windsor or Safale S-04 ale yeast
Liquid - Wyeast #1098, #1968 or White Labs English, British, Burton)

 

[TheMan]

I wouldn't even bother with this. I've become strict on the beer I make available to others. If it is not of a certain quality I do not serve it to others, except my brew friends. And in no way will a 7 day old beer be up to my standards.

You'll be serving green beer and others take this as how your beer tastes...I'd only want to give them the best.

 

[BeWilder]

My thanks to everyone for their comments. As it happens the event has been cancelled so my keg of ABA (clone) will suffice for the immediate family who care to partake. I think if the situation arises again I'll likely do a wheat. I might just try one soon to test the results out...

Thanks again!