Issues with racking too early?

I'm in a bit of a dilemma, and can't find any good answers (I'm also a notoriously poor googler, so if you know that this has been answered elsewhere and can point it out, I'd appreciate it).

My brew day was delayed by a week, and I need a homebrew ready for Thanksgiving. I brewed last Sunday, and I plan to rack to a keg after 8 days, cold crash overnight, then force carb over 2-3 days.

What can I expect from my beer (a robust porter) if I haven't achieved my target FG yet? I assume it will still be cloudy - not a big worry in a dark beer, but I don't know what the other implications are.

 

So you're saying you would want to serve beer that hasn't finished fermenting yet to your friends and family? I can understand seeing that it's at terminal gravity, then force carbing and hope it doesn't taste green and nasty. But you're saying even if your hydrometer showed you the beer isn't finished yet, you would STILL go ahead and serve it?

If my beer's not ready I sure as hell don't serve it. I respect myself, my beer and my friends and family too much to serve them crap.

Go buy some nice micros, and tell your friends that you respect them too much to serve them beer that is not 100% at it's best yet.

We get variations of this all the time, someone wanting to rush the process so people at a party or gathering can taste the beer....And we usually tell them the same thing...BUY BEER, or bing something else...they will survive, but your cred as a brewer may NOT if you serve them green beer.

It does noone any good, whether they are knowlegable about homebrew or just like MBC's to serve them green, or sub par beers.

If you are serving green, yeasty, and nasty tasting beer to people who have never tasted homebrew then they won't understand..what it's supposed to taste like....

They will think that EITHER you suck as a brewer, ALL HOMEBREW SUCKS (and you'll prolly go blind anyway) or those BMC commercials were right, anything other than fizzy yellow beer, especially homebrew taste like a$$, and we should stick to bud light..."THat's what TV says, so it must be true, right?"

You won't be a great ambassador to the world of homebrewing beer you tried to rush through....and saying "Heh, it's just green, and not fully carbed yet, it will get better with time, really won't fly to someone who drinks bud with their born on dates."

Tell them they can have your great beer at Christmas and give it time to be that. Even in kegs many brewers let their beer mature for a few weeks before tapping it.

 

There should always be homebrew ready... always.

 

Darker beers as is need more time to mellow in my opinion. Let alone the fact that the yeast aren't even done doing what they do. If you had Professional Brewer Pitching rates aka a huge ass starter, you'd still be rushing the beer.

As is, kegging it and serving now would probably give you a beer thats sweeter than it should be with a tart/green acidity from it being so young. Whats your gravity at now? How long has it been there? What Yeast? Did you use a Starter?

 

And worse case scenario is you give everyone a massive case of the turkeyday sh!ts, and maybe a few stomach aches, because their digestive systems won't be used to all the yeast in there. You say you don't care that it's cloudy, but what do you think will be making it cloudy...lots of still active yeast.

 

It is a bummer but would you serve them turkey that was not cooked all the way just so you can serve turkey. Do not do it, bad idea.

 

Better yet, tell them to buy the Micros as you'll have beer for Christmas!

 

Good thinking!!!!!!!

 

I like that!

 

Cheers everyone, I'll now have a great porter for Christmas.

 

That's the spirit. Porters really benefit from some aging in my experience. It won't even be at its peak by the end of the year, but it will be infinitely better than it will be next week.

 

Hell, now that you have some extra time, throw in a pound of Maple Syrup!

 

Now that's an idea that I can get behind! You've got me toying with the thought of adding maple and bourbon.

 

That's a win win. Soak some oak in Bourbon and add that. I wouldn't add the Bourbon straight.