Input needed - 7 day IPA

NCSU_Brewer · Aug 11, 2016

I've had my first-ever request to brew beer for someone else. A buddy's wife asked if I could brew something up for his birthday, which is in 2 weeks. My buddy is a huge IPA fan, but 2 weeks isn't going to be long enough for me to brew, ferment, dry hop, and bottle. With that said, here's what I came up with.

5.5 Gal batch
1 lb Vienna Malt (steeped)
7 lbs Light DME
1 oz Centennial 60 min
.5 oz Amarillo 45 min
.75 oz Amarillo 30 min
.75 oz Amarillo 15 min
2 oz Citra 0 min

Does this hop schedule look ok?

Will the Centennial, Amarillo, and Citra play nicely?

Is the 2oz Citra FO addition large enough to give me some good hop aroma?

Am I insane for even trying this?

kh54s10 · Aug 11, 2016

Do you have a keg setup to burst carbonate then fill the bottles from there? If not there is no way. It takes a minimum of a week to get any carbonation when bottle conditioning. 3 weeks is more normal to get fully carbonated bottles.

For me it would be 7-14 days for fermentation, another 5 days for the dry hop, then try a bottle at 2 weeks bottle conditioning. Some are carbonated, all taste better at 3 weeks or longer.

So, 24 days would be my minimum. 14 - 18 days if I burst carbonated a keg.

Bowtiebrewery · Aug 11, 2016

^^^ Only way is to Force Carb with a Keg. Tell his wife to buy you a keg setup and co2 regulator and you can get it done

paperairplane · Aug 11, 2016

You can do it - but not with bottle conditioning.
If you try it I would overpitch a ton of yeast - ideally a big ass starter at full krausen. Give it from day 2-5 to ferment and package on day 5, leaving days 6-14 to bottle condition.

I would brew the beer and tell your buddy his birthday beer will be ready a week or two after his bday.

If you have access to kegging it's totally acheivable - you could brew let primary run for 10 days, cold crash and dry hop for 3 days and burst carb for a day.

LarMoeCur · Aug 11, 2016

First. Only way will be forced carbonation.
Second. If he likes clear beer, I'd say no. If he likes hazy East Coast IPAs then it can be done.

Here's how I would do it. I'd make a giant starter today of WLP001 and brew tomorrow. I've had WLP001 finish in 7 days. I'd dry hop right at 7 days, give that 5 days, keg right at day 12. Chill keg to 38 degrees on 12-15 psi, then shake the ever loving **** out of it. Let rest for 1 days at 10 psi. If you have time you could bottle from the keg if you need bottles but that takes some time to do.

55x11 · Aug 11, 2016

NCSU_Brewer said:
I've had my first-ever request to brew beer for someone else. A buddy's wife asked if I could brew something up for his birthday, which is in 2 weeks. My buddy is a huge IPA fan, but 2 weeks isn't going to be long enough for me to brew, ferment, dry hop, and bottle. With that said, here's what I came up with.

5.5 Gal batch
1 lb Vienna Malt (steeped)
7 lbs Light DME
1 oz Centennial 60 min
.5 oz Amarillo 45 min
.75 oz Amarillo 30 min
.75 oz Amarillo 15 min
2 oz Citra 0 min

Does this hop schedule look ok?

Will the Centennial, Amarillo, and Citra play nicely?

Is the 2oz Citra FO addition large enough to give me some good hop aroma?

Am I insane for even trying this?

I would move all Amarillo to 0 min, or maybe 5min, or even to dry-hopping. You can use almost any bittering hops of basically any variety at 60min. Amarillo and Citra will give you a great citrusy aroma, but you have to use it towards the end of the boil, or in dry-hopping.

Otherwise I feel it's a waste of magic of Amarillo - especially at 45 and 30.

If you are planning on bottling, it is very difficult to see how you can turn it around in 2 weeks. More like 3 weeks probably.

Even if you have a starter ready to go and a great active yeast, it will take 5-7 days to ferment, then a few days for dryhopping (could be done at the back end of fermentation in principle) but then you have to cold-crash it, and bottle - while it's possible it will carb in 1 week, it will be more like 2 weeks. But you could give it a try - when I used to bottle some of my beers would be perfectly carbed in 5-7 days.

With kegging you could do it in 2 weeks, no problem. I have done it in ~8 days for IPA with kegging, about 5-6 days of fermentation including dry-hopping for 48 hours, then cold-crash, gelatin and keg, force-carb for 1-2 days (continue to dry-hip in the keg) and its ready to drink.

jerbrew · Aug 11, 2016

2 Weeks is cutting it pretty short. Do you have any brewing friends that keg that might let you keg a beer? I think if you brewed a session IPA and dry hopped with about 3-5 points left you could get into a keg in ten days. Or let it ferment for ten days and dry hop in the keg. I'd use san diego super WLP091 for this with a big starter. That sucker could tear through a 1.045 beer with no problem in a few days and still have time to clean up its mess. It might be hazy and not as aromatic as you would want but it would be a beer.

55x11 · Aug 11, 2016

jerbrew said:
2 Weeks is cutting it pretty short. Do you have any brewing friends that keg that might let you keg a beer? I think if you brewed a session IPA and dry hopped with about 3-5 points left you could get into a keg in ten days. Or let it ferment for ten days and dry hop in the keg. I'd use san diego super WLP091 for this with a big starter. That sucker could tear through a 1.045 beer with no problem in a few days and still have time to clean up its mess. It might be hazy and not as aromatic as you would want but it would be a beer.

I agree. But with solid starter WLP090 (not 091) San Diego Superyeast has fermented even 1.070 IPAs in just 5 days for me.He can dry hop on the back end of fermentation or in the keg and get it ready to drink well before 2 weeks but needs a keg. Or be lucky with fast carbonation.

jerbrew · Aug 11, 2016

55x11 said:
I agree. But with solid starter WLP090 (not 091) San Diego Superyeast has fermented even 1.070 IPAs in just 5 days for me.He can dry hop on the back end of fermentation or in the keg and get it ready to drink well before 2 weeks but needs a keg. Or be lucky with fast carbonation.

right wlp090 thanks.

Input needed - 7 day IPA

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