Best Course of Action

[Chefkeith]

OK, so Friday, I decided to brew an extremely last minute brew as a backup plan to make sure there was enough alcohol in an upcoming event. I've got 15 gallons of excellent brew to bring, but I thought I would brew an additional 17 gallons. Here's the kicker, I only have 8 days.

Brew day went great, I put 17 gallons of Mild Brown Ale into the fermenter (OG 1.050). It's now the fifth day and fermentation is complete - I used Safale 05 and yeast nutrients and plenty of oxygen.

I plan to keg it in the morning. My question is what's my best course of action? I'm sure it will be yeasty as hell. Should I cold crash after force carbonating? I have access to large, walk-in coolers and freezers with powerful convection fans.

Or should I try to filter my beer? I already have a whole house filter that I use to filter my brewing water. Should I pump the beer through a new charcoal filter, or maybe a paper filter? I'm not sure how many microns the paper filter would be. Would the charcoal filter completely strip all yeast AND flavor? Or would it even strip out yeast? Also, I could filter a portion of it and mix it back with the remaining unfiltered portion.

I know this is a crazy hail Mary pass, but any advice? I'm going to go read more about filtering now.

Thanks!

 

[512chief]

For what it's worth, since I'm new to short term brewing with kegs, I have been cold crashing.. I recently made 20 gallons of home brew for a buddy's college grad party on a tight schedule like yours and cold crashed them and it turned out fine.. Just my .02 cents

 

[binaryc0de]

Honestly I wouldn't serve beer that hasn't had time to mature especially since the yeast haven't had time to clean up after themselves (2 weeks on the yeast cake for that) but.... I have no experience in filtering beer but if you must I would say with S-05 a good cold crash around 32*F for 24 hrs would probably knock all the yeast down to the bottom. Then I would hook it up to a line and make sure to push all the yeast sediment out or make sure the dip tube is cut in length a couple of inches.

 

[lordbeermestrength]

From what I understand about yeast, you will be best off to leave it in the primary for at least a couple days after fermentation has subsided. I hate to say it but I think with an OG of 1050 you won't have time to let it finish.

I am usually grain to glass 7-10 days for mild, but I start at about 1038 and use S-04 so you may not be able to benchmark using my example.

If you absolutely have to serve it, I would wait until 2 days before to force carb, then the day before crash cool it, and on the day of pull as much yeast off the bottom as you can.

I don't know about filtering but I do know that people that rack too early will often get diacetyl flavors. I've heard that yeast, even after they are dead, help to re-adsorb some of the esters that produce that flavor.

Bottom line is, it's up to you. Serve the other beer first, and if this one has an off flavor most people probably won't notice anyway.

 

[Chefkeith]

Thanks for the quick replies! I think I might try filtering, I'll look into it today.

 

[electric_beer]

A good mild should be pretty good in 8-12 days, especially with a cold crash. US-5 is pretty damn clean if you kept good temperatures the whole time. Although I usually brew a smaller mild around 4.5% so my advice may be misleading based on your OG.

No filter experience here though.

 

[TheMan]

I've done this before, just cold crash it for a day and rack off into serving kegs to carb. The beer will taste good. However, I noticed it was much better after another week...then better after yet another week. But, gotta do what you gotta do when you're trying to rush a beer!

 

[scoundrel]

Thanks for the quick replies! I think I might try filtering, I'll look into it today.

I definitely think you should. A buddy of mine tried the same thing and there was tons of yeast in the kegs and they all were... well let's say not very popular.

 

[Chefkeith]

I tried filtering today with a whole house filter, at 2 and 6 microns. Both failed miserably and I didn't want to spend anymore money on filters or possibly aerating it anymore. I was attempting to filter it on the way to the kegs via my March pump, but it was taking forever even at 6 microns.

It's cold crashing now, and I won't need it until Saturday night. Got my fingers crossed. Is there any advantage to chilling it down to near freezing for a while?

 

[scoundrel]

I tried filtering today with a whole house filter, at 2 and 6 microns. Both failed miserably and I didn't want to spend anymore money on filters or possibly aerating it anymore. I was attempting to filter it on the way to the kegs via my March pump, but it was taking forever even at 6 microns.

It's cold crashing now, and I won't need it until Saturday night. Got my fingers crossed. Is there any advantage to chilling it down to near freezing for a while?

Crashing to near freezing wouldn't hurt but getting it off the settled yeast is the key. Transfer it to cold kegs Friday.