Grain to Glass When Kegging-What's Your Average Time?

[Jiffster]

I know it's not a race but I'm just curious what your average grain to glass time is when kegging?

I read an article with a small commercial brewer doing 10 days with an IPA.

 

[standpoint]

I mostly do about 6 weeks - 3 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary (usually 1 week of this is cold crashing), and 1 week keg carbonating.

Occasionally I'll do 4 weeks on an IPA - 2 weeks primary, 1 week secondary (cold crashing) 1 week carbing.

I HATE sediment and yeast in my beer, I find I get the clearest beer with using a secondary and cold crashing for a week. For lagers, Blondes, Kolsches, etc I tend to do two weeks cold crash in secondary for extra clarity.

 

[BigMack]

Depends on the beer for sure, but generally around 3-4 weeks. If I am anxious to get it ready I hit it with gelatin when I keg it and it will be ready to drink at 3 weeks. If I have more time then I keg and let it clear naturally and it is good to go at 4 weeks.

That being said I have also had a beer go grain to glass in under a week. A simple pale ale with an english ale yeast to get it to flocc quickly

 

[passedpawn]

Ale: 3 weeks (10 days ferment, 2-4 days for dry hopping / cold crashing), week in keg.
Lager: 4 weeks (add a week to the fermenting).

 

[Rockn_M]

It depends on the beer. I've done the Centennial Blonde (recipe on HBT) in about 14 days from grain to glass and I've had an Oktoberfest that took about 3 weeks to ferment then another 6 months lagering in the keg.

 

[Psylocide]

Depends on the style, but your typical IPA can be drinking within 2.5 weeks of brewing.

10 day ferment, couple day dry hop (usually i'll hit it with one round around day 7, second around day 10).

So, say... keg on day 14. If you burst carb it, you can be drinking it the next day.

But I think it really takes a week or so under gas to get all those flavors to meld and the body where I want it.

So, could be drinking in 2 weeks, better at 3 from grain.

 

[BeardedBrews]

In my brewing, 4-14 days in primary, 0-14 days in secondary, 1-3 days cold crashing, 1 day carbonating, 2-365 days resting. A small beer hits the short end, so 4+0+1+1+2=8 days before I have "beer", add a week before I have "good beer".

All bets are off for a big beer, or a sour, or something that needs malt flavor development.

 

[HomebrewSupply]

Style dependent, but the pale ale I have on tap now was in the keg after 8 days. Brewed on a Sunday, added dry hops on Thursday, cold crashed Sunday, kegged Monday night. 24 hours later (at 30 PSI), it was pretty good, though not fully carbonated. Lowered to serving pressure (~13 PSI), and it was perfect in another couple days.

 

[Shockerengr]

Depends on the beer, but under 10-14 days grain to glass is typical. 3-5 weeks for lagers.

I can't hold my conicals below 45 for long periods, so it's better to just get the beer kegged off.

If I gelatin them, they do clear up after an additional week, but otherwise, not a lot of change from then on.

 

[PeteNMA]

My last couple of IPA have had 6 days in the fermenter (dry hops added on day 4), transferred into a dry hopping keg for 3 days (cold crashed after 2 days) then jumped to the serving keg. This puts them on tap on day 9-10 after brewing. I carb under high pressure whilst it's cold crashing.

I'm not bothered about haze in an IPA, I ferment in a conical so dump most of the yeast. Most of the haze is coming from the dry hops.

 

[jwalk4]

I generally go by the OG for fermenting time.

• 1.030 - 7 days
• 1.040 - 10 days
• 1.050 - 14 days
• 1.060 - 21 days

 

[Sailingeric]

2 weeks to keg, a week to carb but I would say give the beer a month beyond to get good.

 

[kh54s10]

Mine are averaging about 6 weeks. By that is because I get lazy and say "I'll keg it on my next day off... weeks later....

 

[specharka]

Ale: 3 weeks (10 days ferment, 2-4 days for dry hopping / cold crashing), week in keg.
Lager: 4 weeks (add a week to the fermenting).

This. Big beers might necessitate another week or so for attenuation and conditioning. Big lagers, sours, and anything barrel aged I will leave a little longer.

Also (this needs to be said), all of my beers taste better at 6 weeks than 3 weeks, IPAs included. So from my perspective there's no sense rushing things if I've got beer still in my pipeline that needs to be drunk.

 

[DeliriumTrigger]

3-4 weeks for most of my ales. I do primary only unless I HAVE TO do a secondary. Generally I do a 14 day fermentation, then 1 week cold crash and carbonate in the keg before pouring. I will do a 3-week ferment pre-keg if it's an IPA (dry hops), big beer that needs to mellow, or a Belgian/sour/etc that needs to have temperature ramping.

But 4 weeks is a max for me.

 

[gnef]

Average is 2 weeks for me, as that is what I typically try to schedule so that I can brew on the same day I keg, and reuse the yeast for that batch, and the yeast is still very healthy.

My range has been anywhere from 6 days to 8 months though. It really depends on the beer, the particular fermentation, and how lazy I feel!

 

[BobBailey]

My standard is 21 days in primary, including dry hopping and at least 2 weeks in the keg. Keg time is usually supply and demand. I can fit 4 cornies in the keezer, but have only two faucets.

 

[Natdavis777]

If its a beer that doesnt get dryhopped, usually 2.5 weeks. If I dry hop, 3.5 weeks.

As soon as a beer starts to drop krausen, I ramp the temp. From there I will let it sit for a few days, up to a week (as this is when I start dryhopping) and then crash for a few days before kegging.

 

[Gavin C]

I generally go grain to kegging in 2 weeks with some exceptions as the timing is usually dictated entirely by the yeast to allow the beer to reach FG. Crash cooling and gelatin fining as indicated. I've kegged a beer as early as 1 week and as late as 3 weeks as I was away.

After that it is largely style dependent. IPAs and Hefe's the fresher the better.

A Pils I recenty made was kegged at 14 days but I allowed it a full month of lagering at 34F before my patience ran out. Worth the wait.

I try to keep a pipeline going so that patience is easier to come by. Really important with lagers. I've experimented with a very well known fast lagering method but I gotta say that for lagers time is your friend. It's not something I'll bother repeating, mainly because I don't need to and I feel my lagers get really crisp after a month at 34F.

Tomorrow's brew is a dark English mild and I anticipate kegging it in a week and drinking some a few days later. Expected OG is 1.036 so an extreme beer toward the smaller end.

Sorry for the rambling response. Ignore as needed.

 

[NoIguanaForZ]

...apparently I'm the odd one out here. Normally I let things primary for 10 days to 2 weeks, optionally secondary (I'm moving more and more towards keeping this only for big beers, though) for about the same time, and then bottle-condition for at least two weeks after bottling (which may take a couple days after getting it out of primary/secondary).

 

[Gavin C]

Also I have found that beers with a reasonable inclusion of roasted malts in the recipe benefit from some time in the keg to mellow.

Stouts, porters and dark lagers; time will allow mellowing of flavors. (I am not talking about off-flavors, just mellowing of the expected roasty harsh bitterness that can initially present)

I think many a brewer will attest to the fact of tapping a stout/porter/dark lager and noting the improvement over time. I am always envious of big batch brewers in this situation, very often they have a second keg to tap that is likely in its prime.

 

[GCPHomebrew]

17-21 days. 7day primary, dry hop in primary 3-7days. Cold crash 24-48hours. Keg. Wait a week(or not). iPa and session ipa.

 

[bmbigda]

primary - when it's done. I take gravity after krausen has fallen and taste the beer. if ts done I keg. this is typically 10 days for me.

keg - I like to let it sit for several weeks lagering. this is especially easy with an established pipeline. whenever I shorten this phase the beer always seems to prove to me that I should have waited longer. I have an APA that I kegged last week and thought it was excellent. well after 1 week it's even better as the raw hop flavor and aroma from the dry hops starts to mesh together.

 

[Patrick87]

For a 1.055-1.065 IPA, it's 21 days grain to glass for me:

Day 01: Brew.
Day 10: Add 6-7oz dry hop.
Day 15: Cold crash fermentor.
Day 16: Fine with 1tsp gelatin.
Day 19: Keg @ 32psi.
Day 21: Turn regulator down to 10-12psi and serve.

Beers end up commercial-quality clear with crazy fresh hop character.

 

[thadeus_d3]

4 weeks for me. 3 weeks in primary then 1 week in the keg.

 

[beersk]

I'm in the 3-4 week range. 10-14 days primary and 1-2 weeks keg. This is for both ales and lagers. Lagers might get a little longer in the keg before I tap them. But I usually sample everything along the way (more than I should).

 

[iijakii]

Repitching a good amount of slurry has my 1.05ish and under beers at FG in about 2 days. If I'm not in a hurry I usually bump the temp up a few degrees a couple days after that and then keg at 1 week. If It's a Mild and I'm thirsty it's kegged day 5 or so, drinking day 7. For anything bigger it's usually a good 2 week ferment, 3 if I'm lazy and don't feel like racking and cleaning.

 

[m00ps]

this thread reminded me...anyone know what happened to that dude that was drinking samples from his fermentor on like day 3, bottling, and then drinking them on like day 6? He complained about stomach issues from his homebrew

 

[brewcat]

4 weeks. Usually do three weeks in primary then keg for a week.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

7 days primary
4 days dryhop in primary
cold crash 1 day
2 day force carb

Grain to glass 14 days carbed and ready to drink
(IPA and American Ale)

Funny how when I first joined ANYTHING under 6 weeks was green.Lots of things have changed since then

 

[SeraW]

Any reason to exclude bottlers? I average 7-10 days in primary, 10-20 days in bottle before serving. So most in 3-4 weeks.

 

[Jiffster]

Any reason to exclude bottlers? I average 7-10 days in primary, 10-20 days in bottle before serving. So most in 3-4 weeks.

Appreciate the info, but..... Created the thread specific to kegging to see/learn what keggers are doing since I'm new to kegging.

[emoji482]

 

[Sailingeric]

this thread reminded me...anyone know what happened to that dude that was drinking samples from his fermentor on like day 3, bottling, and then drinking them on like day 6? He complained about stomach issues from his homebrew

HE DIED!

 

[Transamguy77]

Most of my beers are 2 weeks in primary, anything over 1.065 gets an extra week, dry hop in the keg, sit overnight at 30psi and drink in a day or 2 more.

I like to dry hop in the keg it gives it a "fresh" hop flavor. I did blueberries last year it was a great blueberry flavor.

 

[drgonzo2k2]

It really depends on the specifics of the beer for me (is it a big beer, does it need dry hopped, etc.), but in general since I've been kegging (last October), I've split my beers into 3 categories:

Short
Medium
Long

Short beers are generally low ABV and require no dry-hopping. For those I am grain to keg in 9 days:

Ferment at low end of yeast tolerance for 5 days. Then ramp temp to high end of yeast tolerance for 2 days. Then cold crash (fining with gelatin if you want) for 2 days prior to kegging. I then do the carb at 30 PSI for 36 hours and reset to serving pressure method, so I can be trying it at about day 11.

Medium beers are generally low/mid ABV and require dry hopping. For those I am grain to keg in 14 days:

Ferment at low end of yeast tolerance for 5 days. Then ramp temp to high end of yeast tolerance for 2 days. Then set temp to 65F and dry hop for 5 days (I use about 20% more hops here than the usual 7 day dry hop method). Then cold crash (fining with gelatin if you want) for 2 days prior to kegging. I then do the carb at 30 PSI for 36 hours and reset to serving pressure method, so I can be trying it at about day 16.

Long beers are generally higher in ABV, require dry hopping, and/or have significant amount of kettle hops. For those I am grain to keg in 21 days.

Ferment at desired temp for 14 days. Then set temp to 65F and dry hop for 5 days (I use about 20% more hops here than the usual 7 day dry hop method). Then cold crash (fining with gelatin if you want) for 2 days prior to kegging. I then do the carb at 30 PSI for 36 hours and reset to serving pressure method, so I can be trying it at about day 23.

Please note though, that while I can usually be sampling a beer at 11, 16, or 23 days, in almost every circumstance I've found that the beer tastes better (less "green") after it's spent an additional 3-4 days at serving pressure in the keg.