6 week beer

[Cardassian]

As a next step in becoming a better brewer I am looking at entering a local homebrew competition in 6 weeks time.
I am not looking to win but rather to get honest feedback that I can use to improve my beer.
What kind of beer do you think would be good to brew for a competition like this?
Cheers

 

[treacheroustexan]

Just enter something you enjoy drinking/brewing and want to improve on.

 

[MaryB]

Many ales are drinkable at 6 weeks, some of the lower gravity ales 4 weeks. The Block Party Ale from NB(extract kit with grains) is a 4 week kit and I am enjoying it at 3 1/2 weeks...

Sorry for the smudged glass, greasy fingerprints! I should have polished it before the pic!

 

[worlddivides]

Most beers are drinkable in 4 weeks or less. Granted, they will generally taste better with some bottle conditioning and aging, but how about an IPA or an APA? Those are best drunk young, and if you use a clean yeast like US-05 or White Labs California Ale yeast (which are typical for West Coast IPAs, APAs, and general pale ales), you could have the fermentation done in 2 weeks, bottled at the 2 week point, then give it 2 weeks to carb up with the priming sugar, then voila! 4 weeks from the brew day and you have a fresh and delicious beer that is best drunk young.

Just as an example, you might want to make a 5% ABV American Pale Ale (a session APA, so to speak) that showcases a single hop variety. One of my personal favorites is Citra. You could either do it entirely with Citra or you could use a different hop for the 60 minute (or 90 minute) bittering and use Citra for everything else (even some dry hopping). I mean, my example uses Citra but there are tons of different hop varieties you could choose from.

Anyway, just an idea. If you don't like pale ales, then obviously this idea won't work. Haha.

 

[Cardassian]

Cheers guys.
I have been brewing a lot of IPAs so might go with one of them.
Am also planning on brewing a RIS but think 6 weeks is too short a time.
Also I normally keg, should I bottle from keg or bottle condition the beer?

 

[NTexBrewer]

If the competition posts past winning recipes choose one of those. That way you know you have a solid recipe. When you get feedback you can't fault the recipe so it will help you look at your process, water, etc.

 

[Rhetorik]

Cheers guys.
I have been brewing a lot of IPAs so might go with one of them.
Am also planning on brewing a RIS but think 6 weeks is too short a time.
Also I normally keg, should I bottle from keg or bottle condition the beer?

6 weeks is definitely too young for a RIS IMO.

Blonde ale, IPA, or pale ale would all be done within 6 weeks no problem. US-05 or S-04 would be good yeasts (S-04 ferments fast and drops like a rock... it's nice that way)

 

[troglodytes]

Picking the right yeast is key here. I made the mistake of follow some of the HBT recipes to a T down to the yeast used (my first experience with Nottingham) and it turns out that even with a very light beer (Centennial Blonde) it took weeks more to clear up than I anticipated. Granted it turned out great, just required more time than I thought it would for a 4% beer.

My go to yeast for most IPAs, APAs, Red/Amber Ales, and Nut Browns these days is WLP007. This is the yeast that looks like cottage cheese on a stir plate in about 18 hours because it clumps and flocs out as soon as its done munching those tasty sugars. I've literally had a 4.5% Amber Ale with a compacted yeast cake where I was pulling close to clear hydrometer pulls within 72 hours of pitching when using pure O2 at 65-68F. Granted I would never advocate bottling after that short amount of time. Give the remaining yeast time to clean up the beer and slowly finish what its doing, but if your looking for fast turnaround, yeast choice is just as important as the recipe.

The other choice would be brewing a Wit due to the fact that a majority of its flavor comes from the yeast, hence, having a cloudy beer with a lot still is suspension is a desirable trait and not a flaw. I personally use Ommegang yeast I harvested for my Wits as I love the speed and flavor profile it gives. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the commercial equivalent would be WLP410, and they use it in most of their beers (Wit, Hennepin, Art of Darkness, etc.)

 

[Dozer71]

Cheers guys.
Am also planning on brewing a RIS but think 6 weeks is too short a time.

You can brew the RIS but that is 6 months, not 6 weeks. Can go 1 year and have it for next year.

 

[WI_Wino]

If you pitch enough yeast and control fermentation temperature you can have a drinkable RIS in 6 weeks. Especially if you keg and bottle from the keg.

 

[eric19312]

If you pitch enough yeast and control fermentation temperature you can have a drinkable RIS in 6 weeks. Especially if you keg and bottle from the keg.

Yes but you will be compared to beers that have proper age. Go with a faster style. IPA or APA are perfect but be warned the categories are normally pretty competitive with lots of entries.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

Just enter something you enjoy drinking/brewing and want to improve on.

This would be the first criteria I would apply in your (OP) situation. Its lame to brew an IPA just for competition if you hate IPAs.

Anything relatively low gravity (less than 7%), and relatively lightly colored (less than 30SRM) are good candidates. Of course there are exceptions, but usually darker beers need more time to condition to lose their green-ness, and the higher the alcohol the longer it needs to mellow and blend.

IPAs in the 6-7% range are good candidates if you have a good stable ferment with good pitch rate/temp control since the biggest factor in what makes a good IPA is freshness. If you are the freshest IPA in a flight you have a good head start over everyone else (freshest and still conditioned/carbonated).