Actually, you misunderstood what my rebuttal was to. The other poster claimed that everything is done in 3-8 days. My point was that information is specifically inaccurate. Further, the Wyeast section you quoted is talking about the third stage of fermentation, specifically "conditioning." You are ignoring the entire picture and time frame of fermentation by focusing on the final section. Finally, the lab guys state, and I agree, that ales do not need the long conditioning times like lagers do, but that is not to say you rush your beer from grain to bottle in 4-7 days as the OP originally inquired about. And it certainly doesn't say you don't need any conditioning time. Would I say four weeks of conditioning time, post primary and secondary fermentation stages(meaning appx 6 weeks total),like a lager? Certainly not. Would I say leave an ale on the yeast cake for 3 weeks before bottling (meaning 2 weeks for primary and secondary stages plus one week conditioning), absolutely. So, I think if you carefully read both the Chapter 8 of How To Brew and the Wyeast technical information, I think you might understand that I am correct.