Quickest to brew-enjoyment?

[redwing_al]

Hi, I was talking to a professional brewer who said he could turn out a batch very quickly, I believe the term he used was "cold crash".

Anyway, I'm going to be kegging my next batch and was wondering how quickly after fermentation I could enjoy my beer? I "suspect" that the only reason to rack to secondary is to allow the beer to continue to settle for clarity (Am I correct?).. So if another week or two isn't going to do anything significantly different to the beer, then why not carbonate and enjoy?

If I'm correct, then what would be the ill affects of a 2 week(or so) fermentation period, racking to a corny keg, carbonating and enjoying two days later?

Thank you!

 

[Rockn_M]

Unless I'm dry hopping, I never use a secondary. Once fermentation is complete rack to a keg and enjoy.

 

[carluchi]

Agreed, I can generally go from grain to glass in 10 - 12 days. You have to make sure your recipe will support this. For example, don't expect an IIPA to be ready in 12 days - an APA or wheat probably will.

 

[paperairplane]

Brew 3.5-4% beer, give 2-3 weeks in primary, keg, carb and go. English mild, small pale ale, wheat beers are all good candidates for a quick turnaround.

Cold crashing is a way to clear before bottle / kegging - you take your finished fermentation beer and drop to 30* for about a day. I have been using my unheated garage for this lately. Forces all the yeast, etc to drop out. Also gives the advantage for force carbing that beer is already cold and will readily accept CO2.

 

[Yooper]

Some beer styles are extremely fast from grain to glass. Hefeweizen, American wheat, mild, lower OG pale ales, etc, all can be consumed quickly. I'm typically drinking many of my beers on about day 14-20 or so.

A few years ago, we did a mild swap where we had 10 days to brew and then send out our milds. They were pretty good! Here's the thread on that: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f38/project-10der-mild-10-milds-10-days-month-10-a-77758/

At this moment, I"m drinking a pale ale that was brewed on 12/16. It was dryhopped for 5 days after fermentation ended, and it's still ready and quite good. I've been drinking it since Sunday. So it was 20 days old when I was drinking it for the first time.

There are a couple of keys to making a quick beer. One is to have less complexity in the beer. For example, a beer with roasted malts and smoked flavors will take longer to meld together and smooth out. Also, a lower OG beer will generally be ready that a higher OG beer (but not always). It's crucial to pitch the proper amount of yeast at the proper temperature, as if you don't create off-flavors in the first place, the beer doesn't need time for those off-flavors to age out.

 

[LLBeanJ]

For most of my brews, I take a gravity reading around day 10 and if it's at or near expected FG, I'll keg at day 14. Most of those will sit in the keg for a month or two (or longer) before they find an available tap, but I've tapped a few within 2 weeks of brewing. Pitch enough healthy yeast and keep your ferm temps under control and there's really no need to go any longer for your typical average gravity brews.