I recently made a trip over to Europe and had the opportunity to visit the Guinness Store House, Smithwicks brewery and Jamesons Distillery. My question regards all three. Smithwicks claimed the primary fermentation only lasted 2 days and Guinness claimed 3 days. After that it was transferred into aging vessels for 1 week to meld then off to the bottle. How is there yeast so fast to convert the sugars? Home brewing seems to be a minimum of 1 week but usually 2 how can they do it in 2-3 days. Jameson also said that they only ferment for 3 days before it is filtered before distilling. Do they have some kind of super yeast?
How is it possible
- Thread starter Izzie1701
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HausBrauerei_Harvey
Well-Known Member
They must! I just used WLP 007 for the first time, man that stuff is CRAZY fast. I've done two beers with it and it's finished ~1.055 wort in 3-4 days. I still leave it for 10ish days but checked the gravity when things seemed to stop at day 4, it was the same as at 10 days. This is supposedly an English yeast so I say with the right yeast and great practices, they can do 2-3 days.
estricklin
Well-Known Member
Under PERFECT conditions, I believe it for sure. As homebrewers we don't usually operate with absolutely everything being so perfect. That being said the actual fermentation itself is over a lot faster than you think in most cases, even in a homebrew setting.
Anecdotal: In the last two weeks I've pitched yeast for four 5.5gal batches of Summer Stout with WLP004, Irish Ale Yeast. 2 batches were done bubbling with Krausen having fallen in 3 days and the latest are still barely bubbling with the krausen gone in 2.
I haven't checked final gravity on any of the batches (since I'm leaving them in primary for a couple weeks) but it looks to me that this yeast works pretty quickly on low gravity (1.046 on both) beers when proper yeast volumes are used and pitched at the upper end of the recommended temperature range (67°F).
Again, this is anecdotal to my own experience but it is four batches.
I haven't checked final gravity on any of the batches (since I'm leaving them in primary for a couple weeks) but it looks to me that this yeast works pretty quickly on low gravity (1.046 on both) beers when proper yeast volumes are used and pitched at the upper end of the recommended temperature range (67°F).
Again, this is anecdotal to my own experience but it is four batches.
I guess that would make sense. Primary fermentation would be complete and I guess there would be no issue moving to secondary with a couple volume points left to drop which I'm sure happens in there aging vessels which actually looked like silos with a very large air lock on top.
Guinness, Smithwick's, and Jamesons are in the beer (or distiller's beer) business and maximize throughput. Breweries do things different than us homebrewers, including using giant cylindroconical tanks that suppress esters and pitch much larger quantities of higher viability yeast so they can turn out product consistently and faster.
I believe it. Pitch a lot of yeast and it only takes 3 days. I wouldn't bottle after that, but certainly I'd pump to bright tanks and cold crash.
However, I toured a brewery in Germany and they ferment 10 days before the bright tank.
I'm a 10-day guy. Then cold crash, in keg by 14. That's for ales. Add a week for lagers.
However, I toured a brewery in Germany and they ferment 10 days before the bright tank.
I'm a 10-day guy. Then cold crash, in keg by 14. That's for ales. Add a week for lagers.
