CYBI Clone Times Vs. Long Primary

So, we have heard of Tasty's 8 day beers and all the other crew pumping out beers in approx. 8 to 10 days and cloning commercial beers with high standards.

How does this compare to the long primary and aging theory?

How can we justify what we say here everyday when they are doing this?

Is filtering the secret?

 

Proper pitching rates, 02, and filtering can turn beers around quite quickly. Tasty always talks about filtering - I think he filters basically all of his beers.

Even without filtering, you can turn beers around pretty quickly especially when using a high floc'ing yeast like 002/1968. Most of my bitters are being drank by day 14 (best when young). With yeasts like 001/1056 I'll typically add gelatin when kegging and leave it for about a week in the kegerator before I start drinking it, so those are grain to glass in closer to 21 days.

 

The longer (3-4 week) primary time is not a steadfast rule adhered to by everyone on this site, in fact I think some of the moderators have weighed in saying they have had plenty of beers that finish in 10-14 days.

That said, a lot depends on the beer, higher abv, fruit additions, etc... can all increase the amount of conditioning time a beer requires, as can poor techniques like high fermentation temps or low pitch rates.

That said, I think 3-4 weeks in the primary generally gives me a very clear and well conditioned beer with no risk of having a "green" beer. The extra time doesn't make that much difference to me and I would rather let it sit than pull it early, I'm not in that much of a hurry.

jmo

 

I don't listen to BN or use long primaries. The so called conditioning phase is just a few days not weeks. Beyond that the yeast is dormant and your just clearing out small partials by gravity. Sure there is flavor maturation but most well brewed ales don't really need much.

 

Excellent replies

 

I am brewing my first lager this weekend. Does your opinion hold true for lagers, or is that a separate matter?

 

Here is a quote from John Palmer.
http://www.homebrewersassociation.o...g/pages/lets-brew/ask-the-experts/john-palmer

He is talking about both ale and lager. Not to sound dumb, but lagers do need to be lagered. If you understand the primary fermentation you can get them lagering sooner and then have them ready in less time. My lagers are best at six weeks. That's nearly five weeks at 32F.

 

Agreed all around here. Im at 2-3 weeks primary, straight to keg. I never did trust the krausen gunk on the sides of the fermenter.

Awesome replies people

 

I got sucked in to the 1-month plan for a little while (21 day primary, 7-10 day bottle carb) but have gone back to my earlier practice of 8-10 days + 7 in bottle. My beer definitely improved when I went to longer primary, but since changing I don't see any quality decrease. It may be as one post said: my beer got better b/c i learned to brew better, not b/c of the extended primary. My guess is that it has been using starters and careful temp control that made the difference; both practices became standard for me at the time I began extended primary.