From Grain to Glass how long?

[Rau71]

I have always wondered what the standard Grain to glass time is for each beer types? I am currently dry hopping an almost Double IPA and I was wondering what kind of time should it take to be drinkable. What I am worried about is the hop flavor fading if it takes too long aging. I have not gone to kegging yet so this will include bottle time.

 

[Jdk261]

In the case of your iipa, I would say dry hop for no more than a week, then give another 2 weeks for condition/carbonation. You'll probably enjoy it best while it's young; but the hop flavor won't go anywhere in 2-3 weeks time. No worries.

 

[schoellhorn82]

It depends. My standard mid range beers that have a starting gravity of 1.045-1.060 I will ferment and age for 1month before packaging. A double ipa could benefit with aging for a month or 2 in a secondary since the gravity is a lot higher. When I dry hop though, no matter what the beer is or how long I age it for I usually put the hops in 1week before I package. I have had a dry hopped beer age for weeks and months and mine do fade out on the aroma.

 

[tjpfeister]

That's the best part about anything pale ale! You can totally drink most of them in about 2 weeks (assuming kegging) because the fresh hop brightness covers up the young beer flavors. As the hops mellow, the beer comes of age. You just can't get away with that doing a RIS :-D

 

[onthekeg]

I would get a CO2 tank and carb it asap. You still have a couple weeks, but brewery fresh beer is better than fresh eggs.

 

[Monstar]

Almost all my beers are less than two weeks. Bottling I guess they would be four. Some dudes bottle, some dudes (like me) hate it and keg!

 

[Horseballs]

With bottles my quickest is 4 weeks with a hefeweizen. I made a 1.067 IPA that I bottled June 1, and it is just now getting carbed up, two months from when I brewed it.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

I like to dry hop for 10 days. Ive found my beers are usually good in about 2 weeks of conditioning, BUT...... I let the beer tell me when its ready. If after 2 weeks the brew isnt nicely carbed or is still green, I'll let it condition another week and try again. Ive found my darker beers need more time to condition. 18-21 day in primary is also my normal. I dont have a way to cold crash so I like giving the yeast time to clean up and fall out of suspension, with the exception of the hefe that I made. Guess that puts it at 4-5 weeks in total for me.

 

[jma99]

I go from grain to glass in three weeks for my session beers.
OG of about 1.050 of less.
2 weeks in the primary
Rack into the corny and set the gas at 12psi for a week

Tap and enjoy!

 

[amandabab]

Since the OP isn't asking about kegging, 7 weeks for my fastest to be sure.
3 weeks fermenting/clearing, 4 weeks in the bottle. occasionally I'll try one at 3 weeks, but 4 weeks in the bottle is always better even for IPA's .

 

[sonex]

Since the OP isn't asking about kegging, 7 weeks for my fastest to be sure.
3 weeks fermenting/clearing, 4 weeks in the bottle. occasionally I'll try one at 3 weeks, but 4 weeks in the bottle is always better even for IPA's .

+1 when I bottled years ago this was about my average time frame too.

 

[BradleyBrew]

5 seconds thereabouts if you drink it right out of the tun.

 

[BigSally]

I usually do smaller beers,1050 and below,so, i get 2 weeks in the fermenter and 2 weeks in the bottle.

 

[phoenixs4r]

From brew day till a keg spot opens up. Sometimes a month, sometimes 2 weeks. We don't buy beer anymore so we make sure there is something on tap at all times.

 

[Piratwolf]

I'm on the minority side here--when I bottle a I/I/PA, it's usually 17-20 days grain-to-glass. I'm not necessarily in a huge hurry, just that I don't see in the science or empirical evidence a benefit from leaving my beer on the yeast for more than 10 days, and my bottles carb within 7 days every time. (Full disclosure: they'll mature for for another 2 weeks or so, but are 90%+ of their full flavor on day 17.) then again, I pitch liquid yeast with a starter calculated per mrmalty and closely control my ferment temps, so I almost never have off flavors or problems with the right FG. FWIW.

 

[mjohnson]

I'm on the minority side here--when I bottle a I/I/PA, it's usually 17-20 days grain-to-glass. I'm not necessarily in a huge hurry, just that I don't see in the science or empirical evidence a benefit from leaving my beer on the yeast for more than 10 days, and my bottles carb within 7 days every time. (Full disclosure: they'll mature for for another 2 weeks or so, but are 90%+ of their full flavor on day 17.) then again, I pitch liquid yeast with a starter calculated per mrmalty and closely control my ferment temps, so I almost never have off flavors or problems with the right FG. FWIW.

+1. When I started managing fermentation and pitching rates carefully, I found grain to glass time went down substantially. Quality went up.

 

[Monstar]

+1. When I started managing fermentation and pitching rates carefully, I found grain to glass time went down substantially. Quality went up.

Samesies

 

[Piratwolf]

Nice! I was expecting to get attacked by the 4-weeks-min crowd. Glad to see others are on the same page

 

[jbaysurfer]

I'll dissent (but not attack!). I think just about everytime a study is done on the subject, more support for bulk aging comes up. I much prefer to get a pipeline going (starting with blonde ales and Hefeweisens and other quick grain to glass beers) and then take my time on my higher gravity beers.

I make a ton of IIPAs and I like to ferment them low and slow and dryhop right in the primary. I leave it in primary for 3 weeks (minimum, 4 if I can), then I'll dryhop for up to two weeks. I then cold crash it for a week and transfer to keg. Still I'm patient. I basically lager/age it in the keg while the dryhop harshness wears off and usually, about 2 months in, the beer is fantastic. I think it all comes together at 10-12 weeks though, and after that the dryhops start to slowly fade off.

I personally believe all beers have a maturity/quality "arc" and the bigger gravity beers, including those with lots of hops, peak later in life then the lower gravity beers.

All my .02, and I totally respect those that do things differently. I just know what has worked for me.

 

[Piratwolf]

I'll dissent (but not attack!). I think just about everytime a study is done on the subject, more support for bulk aging comes up. I much prefer to get a pipeline going (starting with blonde ales and Hefeweisens and other quick grain to glass beers) and then take my time on my higher gravity beers.

I make a ton of IIPAs and I like to ferment them low and slow and dryhop right in the primary. I leave it in primary for 3 weeks (minimum, 4 if I can), then I'll dryhop for up to two weeks. I then cold crash it for a week and transfer to keg. Still I'm patient. I basically lager/age it in the keg while the dryhop harshness wears off and usually, about 2 months in, the beer is fantastic. I think it all comes together at 10-12 weeks though, and after that the dryhops start to slowly fade off.

I personally believe all beers have a maturity/quality "arc" and the bigger gravity beers, including those with lots of hops, peak later in life then the lower gravity beers.

All my .02, and I totally respect those that do things differently. I just know what has worked for me.

jbaysurfer, you've added an interesting fold here. I do agree that higher ABV usually means a longer arc to perfection. I was thinking of your PA or lower IPAs. Moreover, like you, my only real care is BETTER BEER--I was semi-joking about the attacks . Above all, I respect empirical evidence. If your system produces peak IPAs at 10-12 weeks, then I'm all for focusing on that time period!

Cheers to better beer for all!

 

[mjohnson]

I'll dissent (but not attack!). I think just about everytime a study is done on the subject, more support for bulk aging comes up. I much prefer to get a pipeline going (starting with blonde ales and Hefeweisens and other quick grain to glass beers) and then take my time on my higher gravity beers.

I make a ton of IIPAs and I like to ferment them low and slow and dryhop right in the primary. I leave it in primary for 3 weeks (minimum, 4 if I can), then I'll dryhop for up to two weeks. I then cold crash it for a week and transfer to keg. Still I'm patient. I basically lager/age it in the keg while the dryhop harshness wears off and usually, about 2 months in, the beer is fantastic. I think it all comes together at 10-12 weeks though, and after that the dryhops start to slowly fade off.

I personally believe all beers have a maturity/quality "arc" and the bigger gravity beers, including those with lots of hops, peak later in life then the lower gravity beers.

All my .02, and I totally respect those that do things differently. I just know what has worked for me.

Your nuanced view is probably correct. My earlier statement was true for the beers I make, which have tended to be modest ABV with OG's in the 1.040's to 1.050's. I was probably painting with too broad of a brush.

I like the idea of a maturity/quality arc - that is a good description of what is going on.

 

[jbaysurfer]

^ You guys!

Whatever works works, and I'm in no position to do anything other then say what's worked for me. TBH, after I got my pipeline full, I've not really been in a postion where I wanted a beer in a hurry, so I haven't thoroughly tried other techniques designed to get the beer to the serving glass sooner. That said, I've found blondes and Hefeweisens to be great candidates for quick grain to glass, and since neither require secondary or dryhopping, I would pull them at 10 days, leave them at room temp for a couple more (to clean up), cold crash for 2 more days, and have it in the keg after about two weeks, depedending of course. I've currently got a blonde that's been on the yeast cake for 4 weeks already, but that's more of a time issue. I've got to get it transferred soon.

 

[demuzik]

I try to plan most of my beers two months out - this gives time for:

2-3 weeks in the primary, the higher the OG the longer I'll let it go
3-5 days to carb up in the keg, but in a bottling situation, the remaining 4-5 weeks in bottles.

In my earliest brewing days, I would approach grain-to-glass in a "when is the absolute soonest I can drink it" mode.
Now that I fortunately always have homebrew on tap anyways, I'm not in a rush - so I allow as much time as necessary to let the beer arrive at its fullest potential. I try to avoid ever drinking/serving green beer... its often just drinking/serving ok/good beer that could have been great a few weeks later.

While the beer is totally drinkable from week 3/4+, it's nowhere as smooth and melded as a 6-8+ week beer.
Only after 6-8 weeks do I feel the different ingredients all get a fair shot at your tastebuds... before this, you will generally get one ingredient (hops, quite often ) taking center stage and drowning out everything else out. Fine if you strictly want a hop bomb, but even with a good IPA you will generally want to taste some malt backbone, biscuity/bready and yeasty flavors you went through the trouble to make.

 

[landshark]

I made a 10 gallon batch 1.068 Imperial Wheat Beer, went to 1.008 in 7 days, force carbed and was drinking 1 day later. 8 days grain to glass. Fermented at 64 and had 1/2 gallon starter, tasted great. Control your temps and pitch large active starters.

Ruination clone brought to an event was 11 days primary, Hopped in Keg, and was drinking 5 days later at the event. little over 2 weeks.

Lagers are lagers, so I bulk lager 1 month.

Stouts and Porters I typically go 3 weeks primary, then keg.

Most Ales I run 2 weeks in a primary, then keg.

 

[Spartan1979]

I recently made my second batch of Gumballhead Clone. We were drinking it in 16 days, mainly because my wife wanted more after the first batch ran out. The yeast started dropping out after about 5 days so I threw the dry hops in. I gave that another week or so then kegged it. Two days at 30 psi and we were drinking it.

Normally, I would have cold crashed it and let it sit for a few days, but I had another beer in the fermentation fridge and couldn't do that. The first couple of glasses were pretty clouded with stuff floating in it, but after that it was fine. And my wife is happy.

 

[MrTheKing]

Once I got my processes dialed, and started paying close attention to pitching correct sized starters into well aerated wort with closely controlled fermentation temps, I found that extended aging was only necessary for some of my more specialty brews. Generally for everything "standard" I make 1.070 and under, it's ~10-14 days in the primary before I keg (if the gravity readings are stable), then a couple days carbing up before i'm drinking it. I'll dryhop in the keg so for IPA's and the such they seem to really come to life a week or so after that.

There are exceptions of course where I ferment/age longer - but for my standard ales I can rip them out pretty quick and my friends keep coming back for more, so i'm doing something right. And worst case scenario if they need more time, I just let them age in the keg so the carboy's are freed up for something else. I tend to think of a keg as more of a brite tank - if they're ready to drink then you're all set, otherwise let them ride for a while.

 

[Don_Coyote]

Some of the times being posted here are amazing! It usually takes me over a month just to malt my grains... ;-)

A question for those who have a stopwatch on your primary fermentation; are you just going by the look of the yeast settling out? I was thinking about testing for FG but it seems like if it isn't actually done and i put the airlock back on the carboy, i've introduced more oxygen and possibly wild little critters. I've decided to just rely on patience to make sure the process completes before bottling...

 

[GregChambers]

I guess I'm pretty slow compared to most.

3 weeks primary.
2-6 weeks secondary depending on style (some beers don't get a secondary).
If kegging: at least 2 weeks in keg (I carbonate slowly).
If bottling: at least 2 weeks.
Either kegged or bottled: I try a sample weekly until I'm happy with it. I find beer usually hits its straps at around 3 months post-brew, longer for lagers and high gravity beers.

My beers are all drinkable at 2-4 weeks after bottling/kegging, but they get even more drinkable if I am patient and wait a few more weeks.

NB I brew such that I have a good stockpile so there is no hurry to rip into each batch.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

Some of the times being posted here are amazing! It usually takes me over a month just to malt my grains... ;-)

A question for those who have a stopwatch on your primary fermentation; are you just going by the look of the yeast settling out? I was thinking about testing for FG but it seems like if it isn't actually done and i put the airlock back on the carboy, i've introduced more oxygen and possibly wild little critters. I've decided to just rely on patience to make sure the process completes before bottling...

Fermentation should be done in about 10 days. I wouldn't worry about testing it, if you want to do it, be sanitary and go for it. At this point the yeast have done their work and theres alcohol present to kill just about anything. I don't have anyway of cold crashing so in my case I know after 17-21 days when my yeast has mostly fallen out that fermentation is over(confirmed with a FG reading) and I'm good to bottle.

 

[Piratwolf]

Some of the times being posted here are amazing! It usually takes me over a month just to malt my grains... ;-)

A question for those who have a stopwatch on your primary fermentation; are you just going by the look of the yeast settling out? I was thinking about testing for FG but it seems like if it isn't actually done and i put the airlock back on the carboy, i've introduced more oxygen and possibly wild little critters. I've decided to just rely on patience to make sure the process completes before bottling...

I wasn't including the planting & harvesting of my grains & hops...my bad! That makes 4 days g-2-g

I never bottle w/o hydro readings. Just sanitize strictly, and you should be fine. If fermentation's not done, the CO2 blanket will rebuild. If it is done, you should be ready to bottle so no problems. In 50+ batches, I've not had an infection. EDIT: I'm also not in a particular hurry, even though my timeline tends to be short. I just don't see waiting when the beer is ready.