Brew day to lips in 13 days?

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dgez

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OK, I need two different 5 gallon batches of beer thats drinkable by Christmas Eve...so target date is 12-24. I wanted to brew both batches this past weekend on 12-4 that would have given me 3 weeks...easily obtainable. But now I cant brew until next weekend on 12-11. So I will have 13 days to ferment, condition, carb. I have never rushed a beer like this before. Here is my plan. I was hoping for input from people that have put their beers on the fast track before.

* Beers will be a pale mild ~ 1.038 and an english brown ale ~ 1.045.
* I will be force carbing / kegging. I usually do a three day carb schedule 30psi for one day, 20psi the next, 15 the third and its done. I'm sure I can tighten this up a bit...maybe a two day 30/30 with some shaking
* minus carbing, I will have 10 days to ferment and condition, which I will split evenly... I have a fridge I will use to cold condition. Maybe instead of and even split, I will do 6 days primary and 4 cold condition..or maybe a 7/3.

Please help! I need the beer to be drinkable because the in-laws will be in town and I will need to medicate. Failure is not an option, the target date must be met!
 
You should go buy some beer.

But if you're set on trying this I would go 10 days in primary, keg, then forcecarb/condition at the same time @ 38 degrees. Make sure you pitch the proper amount of yeast to get a good, quick ferment.
 
Have you considered a nice fruit punch or eggnog with a substantial amount of BourbonBrandyVodkaEverclear or something similar!!.. Sorry no help here, but it seems like you should be brewing and not on the internets!!

Luck!
 
It can be done. Don't mess up the fermentation. Pitch plenty of yeast. Start it cold and ramp up the temp to keep it going strong and end clean. Finings could help. Good luck.
 
Hell, Dgez, I like your spunk - but I agree with the others. Personally, I think you need 8 weeks, or 6 weeks if you are desperate.

Give them some spiked eggnog or a martini and tell them to come back in another month.
 
dgez said:
OK, I need two different 5 gallon batches of beer thats drinkable by Christmas Eve...so target date is 12-24. I wanted to brew both batches this past weekend on 12-4 that would have given me 3 weeks...easily obtainable. But now I cant brew until next weekend on 12-11. So I will have 13 days to ferment, condition, carb. I have never rushed a beer like this before. Here is my plan. I was hoping for input from people that have put their beers on the fast track before.

* Beers will be a pale mild ~ 1.038 and an english brown ale ~ 1.045.
* I will be force carbing / kegging. I usually do a three day carb schedule 30psi for one day, 20psi the next, 15 the third and its done. I'm sure I can tighten this up a bit...maybe a two day 30/30 with some shaking
* minus carbing, I will have 10 days to ferment and condition, which I will split evenly... I have a fridge I will use to cold condition. Maybe instead of and even split, I will do 6 days primary and 4 cold condition..or maybe a 7/3.

Please help! I need the beer to be drinkable because the in-laws will be in town and I will need to medicate. Failure is not an option, the target date must be met!
Click to expand...


I think the mild especially sounds reasonable. I'm planning on doing a mild on Friday that I'll be drinking around Christmas. There's a few threads around of grain to glass in 10 days. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f38/project-10der-mild-10-milds-10-days-month-10-a-77758/
 
Personally, I wouldn't want to serve them sub par beer and have them make nice comments about it while thinking "Man, this guy makes lousy beer".

With the beers your picked you have a shot, but I'd probably taste them myself and make the decision the day before on if I want to serve them or bite the bullet and pick up some beer instead.
 
Hefe! Force Carb! It won't be the best thing you've ever had, but it should still be good.
 
Make sure to pitch at or below fermentation temperature. That will help prevent off flavors that would require a longer conditioning period. Use a yeast that flocculates quickly. I would seriously consider pulling an all-nighter ASAP and brewing sooner than the 11th.
 
I did a batch of BM's Centennial blonde to the glass ready for Thanksgiving and it was very well received. I used US-04. With the ground water here I can only get my wort to 75* but I use a chest freezer for my fermentation chamber with the probe taped to the side on the carboy and that will get the wort down to 64 before the yeast really start working.
 
It might not be ideal, but since you are kegging, it's possible with the styles you have chosen. You just need to use a very flocculent strain (S-04 would be my choice) and ferment it cool and steady so you don't need to age anything out.

I would still keep commercial beer as a backup.
 
TheDom said:
First off, read this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/aging-beer-facts-myths-discussion-84005/

I've done EdWort's Haus Pale Ale grain to glass in 14 days, so it is totally doable. I will say that it tasted better by the day until the last glass. You can do a very good beer in a short timeline, but it will most likely become much better after a few extra weeks' time.
Click to expand...

+1 Grain to glass here in 14 days and very drinkable. Buds were drinkin this 3 days out of carboy after 10 days in primary. Day 13 - good/ok. Day 14 better. Day 15 - getting better Day 16 lets get drunk and ....! Ya its a good brew for quick turnarounds.
Gets better by the day. But your behind the power curve if your reading this and still planning this. :)

edit: didn't see that recipe was not linked: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/bee-cave-brewery-haus-pale-ale-31793/
 
Sure, it's all "doable," but why?
A super cleaned-up system (per your link) is "doable," but hope you have the process & procedure in place to make it work.

For a typical homebrewer, it will take 6 weeks (1-2-3 rule) for good results, but about 8 for great results.

I don't want to poo-poo someone's assertiveness to serve homebrew in 2-3 weeks, you just need to pay the price for the outcome...

And, that Edworts recipe, is brilliant after 8 weeks. Good planning will reap good results.
 
As others have stated it is doable but the beer will obviously improve with age. However with In-laws I've always had to go straight to very dry Martinis for the fast acting medicating benefits.
 
I made a mild that might have been good to go around day 13. I didn't drink it until week 5 though.

Hefe is your best shot.
 
Sparky said:
Sure, it's all "doable," but why?
A super cleaned-up system (per your link) is "doable," but hope you have the process & procedure in place to make it work.

For a typical homebrewer, it will take 6 weeks (1-2-3 rule) for good results, but about 8 for great results.

I don't want to poo-poo someone's assertiveness to serve homebrew in 2-3 weeks, you just need to pay the price for the outcome...

And, that Edworts recipe, is brilliant after 8 weeks. Good planning will reap good results.
Click to expand...

Turnaround depends on the style and process more than on any arbitrary number of weeks. Many styles are meant to be drank young or even very young and suffer from aging. I'd posit mild is one of those styles. I made one a few weeks ago and a month after brewing, it started to go downhill. The low alcohol and hopping rates mean that it doesn't keep well.
 
jfr1111 said:
Turnaround depends on the style and process more than on any arbitrary number of weeks.
Click to expand...

Agree. It would be interesting to take this to a new thread and do a taste test on varieties, with a pre-determined style(s) with commentary. Is there a "science experiment" section here !
 
I'm having a three week old 1.056 bo pils and it's much better than the micro brew commercial bo pils I had last night--and it's even clearer. I had to throw every trick I know at it to get it ready. I need to serve it to 20 people I've never met. It's very good and only needs another week to reach it's peak but it has only three days.

People that think it takes exorbitant amounts of time don't understand fermentation. Temp control is of the essence and it's not all about keeping it cool. The right temp at the correct time along with filtering or finning can reduce weeks.

It takes time to reduce fermentation mistakes. They don't go away. "Clean" happens in the first few days. "Clear" and "crisp" happen later.
 
Why all the nay-sayers? If you pitch enough clean healthy yeast, especially one like WLP-002 English Ale, which would be perfect for a mild, fermentation will probably be done in 4 days. I would pitch two fresh vials without a starter. You could still give it 7 days, keg it and then just crank up the pressure for a couple days to speed up the carbing or do the "crank n' shake" method.

My latest English Bitter was seriously done fermenting in about 3 days. Now I let it go longer, but I would have been perfectly fine kegging at a week. Now the OG is below 1.040. That is part of the key. Keep the gravity low, which looks like you are, and pitch plenty of fresh yeast that are ready to go and you are golden.
 
Sounds good to me. And even if the brew isn't great, it will probably be better than 90% of what your family brings over (if they're anything like mine :)).

I bottle hef's after about a week and drink them a week later. They seem to taste great to me (almost as good as franziskaner ((sp?)) and anyone who gives them a taste. I brew beer primarily to have a cheaper source of hooch, and I don't think I've ever waited more than about a week in the primary and a week in the secondary to bottle. I've never made anything super high alcohol like a barley wine, but this method yielded decent results with a porter I'm just about to polish off.

Honestly, people get too technical with this hobby. Get the mash temp in the 150s, try to ferment at a constant temp and keep everything sanitary. You're product will be somewhere in between BMC and Dogfish Head.

I used to run into this issue when I was an airline pilot. I'd fly with engineering types who had a thousand different opinions and minute details on how to land the plane. Then I'd talk to my dad who has 30,000 hours and 300 carrier landings. He told me "put it in the first third of the runway and on center line and otherwise I don't give an expletive."
 
KeithMoonsLiver said:
Make sure to pitch at or below fermentation temperature. That will help prevent off flavors that would require a longer conditioning period.
Click to expand...

If time is of the essence I'd consider pitching _above_ fermentation temps. Off flavors will be minimal before the yeast really get going, and higher temps (along with a starter and good oxygenation) will lead to a rapid fermentation start, which will be important with this effort.
 
I agree with the last post. I'm lucky enough to have a mini fridge as a fermentation chamber, so I have control over my temps. But I personally chill my wort to about 75-76, re-hydrate dry yeast, then aerate a lot, then pitch the yeast.

It goes directly into the ferm chamber set at about 60-62*. I get signs of fermentation in about 2 hours, and right at about the 2 hour mark, the wort is usually down to about 65*. At that point i set my fermentation chamber to 65* and let it go.

I feel like I get greatly reduced lag times when i do this, like 4+ hours sooner. Although it might just be in my head. And yes, I feel like pale ales, milds, and wheat beers can go grain to glass in 2 weeks.
 
If it were me I would primary for 10 days
Keg it, shoot it with 20 psi let it sit at room temp. for 1 day.
Chill it and boost psi to 30 for 2 days then back it down to serving pressure on christmas eve
 
Brewsmith said:
If you pitch enough clean healthy yeast, especially one like WLP-002 English Ale, which would be perfect for a mild, fermentation will probably be done in 4 days.

Now the OG is below 1.040. That is part of the key. Keep the gravity low, which looks like you are, and pitch plenty of fresh yeast that are ready to go and you are golden.
Click to expand...

+1

WLP-002/WY1968 can make perfectly drinkable beers within 2 weeks. I'd go with a low gravity bitter and ferment for 7 days at 68F and keg thereafter. I'm not really a fan of young hefeweizen as I find they often need a little time to let the yeast and esters mellow a little bit.
 
OK, so I did both my brews yesterday.

I did the brown ale first. Was shooting for an OG of 1.045, came in a little above at 1.048. Pitched with a yeast starter of Wyeast 1335. It had signs of fermentation by the time I was done with the 2nd batch

The 2nd batch was a pale mild OG 1.040, it too was a little above my target of 1.038. Pitched with a starter of Wyeast 1187. I did not have any signs of fermentation before I went to bed, but I just checked and it looks like it will take off any minute. Im a little suprised its not churning away by now.

My plan is to let both sit in primary for 7 days. Then rack to 2ndary with dry hops and finings at room temp for 24hrs. Then crash cool it for 3 days. Then carb it in 2 days.

I think I have a good plan, and I fully expect the beers to be drinkable by Christmas Eve.

I will post a follow up sometime after Christmas.
 

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