short turnaround

I just realized that my birthday is soon and a week later I am planning on having a party. I have finals this week, so the earliest I can brew is this friday.

Unfortunately this leaves me with only 21 days. As of right now I am naturally carbonating. Is there anything that will come out drinkable in that short of a time frame? I was thinking a mild, based on the 10 day competition I saw from several years ago.

I know I didn't think ahead on this one, finals are kind of pushing brewing to the back burner. I might end up with a basic kegging setup for my birthday on the 6th, but I can't really count on that.

Any suggestions on this?

 

Maybe a wheat? Ferment for 7 days and then bottle for 14? I keg and can have my wheat from grain to glass in 14 days. Bottling is going to be the issue if you had a kegging setup you could do it.

 

I just recently did a heff 14 days grain to glass while bottle carbing.

 

i had this ready in about 3 weeks. 7 in primary, 14 in bottles. good stuff. easy too.

 

I actually have a case of hefe left from a few brews ago. Came out great. I definitely think that low flocculating yeasts might be the answer. More yeast in the bottle is acceptable, so no need to let it clear. And it should carbonate faster with more yeast in solution.

 

Another advocate for a hefeweizen...just bottled a batch I brewed about 2 weeks ago. I could have bottled sooner but got busy with chores and what not. For quick turn around, wheats are the way to go.

 

Only wheat i've done is a hefeweizen. And suggestions for some interesting wheat beers? Ir should I just brew them with K.I.S.S. in mind?

 

definitely do the wheat. Try the blue moon clone on this site here:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/blue-moon-clone-65328/

Read post #6. I've done this twice and turned out perfect. Nice easy and simple. Grain to glass in ~3 weeks.

 

Is this your first batch? Putting time limits on things just adds another level of pressure, which you don't need if this is your first batch. It takes the patience moto and throws it out the window, which isn't a good thing.

 

21 days is pushing it for bottling. If you kegged, most medium weight beers could be done no problem.

 

No, this isn't my first. I've got a fair amount of brews under my belt. Which is why I feel kind of stupid about this whole thing. I have a question for those of you who have way more experience than me.

Extract is much more predictable than a first all grain batch. I think I have a good enough grasp on the whole process to do this, but please tell me if I'm being stupid. I'm thinking of bottling when my gravity reaches a certain point. Before it stops fermenting, but with enough residual sugars to properly carbonate the beer. This seems like it would be fairly easy to calculate especially because extract tends to be pretty uniform in terms of fermentable and unfermentable sugars.

I assume I am not the first person to come up with this technique, it probably even has a name. It also seems like it would be safer with a keg, but with a keg it also seems pointless.

I'm really looking at this as a challenge to myself now. Can I brew on a time crunch.

Also i have a 1.5 gallon coors home-draft converted to use. And a couple extra cartridges. I think I could at least have that ready. And hey it's my party, so what if I only have beer for myself.

 

Theoretically, the math could work, BUT...

one small error OR if the yeast decide they are angry at you....BOOM!

 

Yeah, I figured that would be a risk. Things seem to carbonate within a week usually without any real problem. So I could probably brew and let it ferment out, bottle half of it at around 10 days, if it's done. And if i end up with a kegging system as a gift I can put the other half in there.

 

Also, I love the name. I play trombone, but still can respect my fellow low brass.

 

Yep, Euph was my primary in college, but I played bone in jazz band and pit. Flexibility gets you more gigs!

 

Yeah, I agree ferment for 7 days (if done), bottle for 14 days and get those bottles WARM while they are conditioning.

 

I know that this is done as a capped fermentation, but it's usually in the fermenter. There is a name for it but I can't get it to come out of my rusty noggin.

In the bottle it might be a bit of a risk and you will to be willing to accept a pretty wide range of carbonation. If you have a good place to store the bottles if a few decide to go pop then it my an interesting experiment. It's easy to be a risk taker with other peoples beer but I say go for it. At the very least it will make an interesting story and a good post on HBT.

 

I think I'm going to go for it. I'll risk losing a few bottles. I will probably put 24 in a box with dividers. So if one goes it won't trigger the rest. I'll probably sit down and do the calculations friday night. Definitely going to go with extract as I am not willing to risk messing up my first AG.

Should be plenty warm here in san diego. If not, I'll put it near the base of the fridge, by the exhaust.

So, simple beer would be best. Probably SMASH of some sort. Any suggestions for a yeast? Something that regularly takes things to 1.000 would make calculations much easier. Or just a very predictable attenuation?

 

I just did a mild in 5 days with good results. Although I used wyeast 1028 which put out a bit of diacetyl and since it only fermented for 3 days it didn't re-absorb it. I am force carbonating though but if you have 7 days of ferment time do a mild it's a great drinking beer with plenty of complexity.

 

A mild sounds great. It was my first thought. When say 5 days, was that the fermentation time before you kegged or how pong it took you to start drinking it?

 

Would a stout or some other dark beer not be best? us-05 would be done in a week, and bottle condition for the rest? the roasty flavour could hide the "green"

 

The only reason i'm avoiding a darker beer is that some of the "unfermentable" just take a little longer to ferment. I'm not sure id I could accurately predict how much of that there is. If I'm going to have fun with this partial fermentation bottling thing i need predictability. If it does go that quickly though, I may just dl it to see the best way to cover up that taste.

 

I was drinking my mild on the 5th day. If I had time I would have given fermentation more time at least another day or two. I also wouldn't worry about the unfermentables in the darker malts because you have 6-7 days of ferment time which is plenty. On the 6th day crash it down to as close to freezing(if you have access) to drop out some of the yeast.
But a hefe is still a good choice because clarity doesn't matter.

 

What about a nice session style IPA with a lot of late additions, if you can get your hands on White Labs San Diego Super, it ferments out pretty quick. I got from 1.036 to 1.001 in 4 days with super clean beer and very little esters. I left mine on the cake for a bit longer, but the yeast is a beast. Also consider making a nice healthy yeast starter to pitch at high krausen and that will really help the fermentation.

 

Oh. Didn't even think of an IPA. With sd super yeast. I'll call my LHBS to see id they have any. Damn guys, so many ideas. I appreciate all the support. Maybe I'll spend all night brewing and do 5 or 6 small batches.

I honestly don't know what I'm going to do yet. God, I love this stuff.

 

A wheat IPA for the win

 

I'm sold. Wheat IPA with what yeast, though? If I can get sd super yeast I will probably go with that. I'm thinking some sort of interesting yeast would be fun.

 

Thinking about it more. 2 packets of S-05 should work pretty quickly and would cost next to nothing.

 

I like Wyeast 1010 American wheat for a wheat IPA, it's not phenolic and estery like a typical wheat yeast

 

Finals are done. Time to start this thing. I'm going with either a wheat ipa or a mild. Haven't decided still. Leaning toward the ipa though.

 

I did a Brewers Best English Bitter kit recently. It was in primary for 8 or 9 days, kegged and carbonated in 3, and then on tap. I think it was 2 weeks from grain to glass.

 

Just left the LHBS. On the advice of the owner, a very experienced brewer, I went with a mild. Randomly decided to do my first partial mash on this one, BIAB. I'm pretty excited, I picked up some rhizomes too, Zeus and cascade. Not sure of anyone is really interested in the recipe, but here it is.

6lb pale DME
.5 victory
.5 special busing
.5 wheat

30 minute boil
30 min .5 oz kent golding
10 min .5 oz fuggle
Finish (whirlpool) .5 oz kent golding

Fermenting with a smack pack of wyeast1318.

Anything I should change? Also what temp should I attempt to mash at? Forgot to ask before I left.

 

I guess I am too late here but if anyone is looking to turn out a beer quick I'd say use wlp007. I had beer down to fg in 3 days and clear in 6.

 

Wow. That's fast!

Mash in at 160 ish. Dropped to 155. And I'm going to let it sit for maybe 30-40 minutes. While it's sitting there I think I'll plant my rhizomes.

 

Forgot to mention the 1 lb marris otter. Wouldn't be much of a mash without it, would it?

 

That looks like an extract recipe with specialty grain, not a partial mash.

Edit: right, you need that base malt. That's a bit more like a mash.

 

I just realized today that in my post final, RDWHAHBing, I may or may not have forgotten to take an initial gravity reading. I don't think that this will be the batch to try the early bottling technique out on. It had significant airlock activity within the hour and had a full krausen on top when I peeked through the bung a few hours later. I don't think I'll be pressed for time on this one at all.

Anyway, sorry to have an exciting experiment be stopped, but I plan to attempt it again in the near future. I will probably dredge up this thread to give you a heads up when it happens.

 

Mild