Speed Brew - Thoughts?

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OppR2nist

OppR2nist

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So, I'm trying to get a speed brew together, and I want to see what anyone has to offer. Here's the recipe:

Fermentables:
Munton's Extra Light Liquid Malt 7 lbs.
American Crystal 10L 1 lb.

Hops:
Williamette (Usa) 1 oz. @60 min.

Yeast:
Safale US-05 Ale Yeast

Misc.
Yeast Nutrient 0.125 tsp. @15
Irish Moss 1 tsp @15
Corn Sugar 3/4C

I plan on proofing the yeast, and then pitching two packets, so that the yeast has its best chance to get to work fast. Can anyone offer some helpful pointers to make sure I'm doing this right?
 
you probably don't need 2 packets. Dry yeast packets should have plenty of cells for proper pitch into 5 gallons. Follow manufacturer's rehydration instructions.

Keep temps in low 60s for the first few days, then free rise. Check gravity after a week. If same after a couple days, bottle it.

If you let it get too warm, you might need another week or 2 in the fermenter to let the yeast work on the less desirable fermentation by products.
 
I'm a bit confused by what you are wanting to do. Are you wanting a brew that is quick to make on brew day, or one that ferments quickly?

If you're going for the latter, what are you planning to do, other than use two packets of yeast, to make a brew that will be ready to bottle/keg sooner? My experience is that the only things that help a brew ferment faster are higher temp (at the expense of beer quality) and low starting gravity (assuming aeration and pitching rates are good to start with). Pitching an extra packet of yeast won't make a big difference to fermentation time, it will only reduce the growth and reproduction faze.

If you're going for the former, you could increase the amount of hops and just have a 20min boil (same IBU's, shorter boil).

Otherwise, it looks like a pretty simple, tasty brew.
 
If what you want is a beer that can go from brew day to drinking as soon as possible I think you're missing the actual stuff that makes that possible while still having good beer.

First and most important thing about getting beer ready to drink as quickly as possible is to avoid causing off flavors that take time to clear up. Here's a few of the best methods for accomplishing that:

1 -- Pitch adequate yeast. (sounds like you're on top of that if not going a little beyond what's necessary)

2 -- Aerate really well. If getting your fermentation going and having it ferment fast but cleanly is a goal of yours you're gonna want to invest in a pure O2 system, no two ways about it.

3 -- Control fermentation temperature to the lower half of the yeast's recommended temp range, if not hugging the low end of that range.

Next step for getting your beer ready to drink MUCH faster is kegging and force carbing instead of bottling. If you'd like it to be clear you can add gelatin just after kegging or during cold crashing if you do that.

To speed up the carbonation process in the keg you can either set the CO2 up to about 30psi for a day or two, then drop it down to serving level or you can raise the CO2 to 30psi or so and sahke the hell out of it for 15 min and enjoy carbed beer right away.

While smaller gravity beers can be ready faster in general, recipe is one of the smaller pieces of the puzzle when looking to turn beer around quickly.
 
Well that's just it. I've seen plenty of stuff written about speed brewing, and I know out can be done without sacrificing too much quality. The limits come into play with style and gravity. I choose a style that and a recipe that's built on simplicity and a low OG so that I could achieve what I wanted to.

And to clarify, by 'speed brewing' I mean something that will ferment quickly (days vs. weeks). I was invited to a barbecue, and they asked me to bring something with nowhere near the time out would take to brew something more slowly.
 
latest episode of Brew Dogs, they brewed a beer while racing around the NASCAR track in Dover, DE

their top speed was 91 mph

good luck!
 
The best fast beers are low gravity ales. You can easily make a scottish light, dark mild, or ordinary bitter from flame to glass in 10 days or less (if kegging). Stick to something with an OG OF 1.040 or less.
 
A Hefeweizen using DME can be done in 10 days if kegging. Bottle conditioning will take longer. I did one for my brother last year that was boil to glass in 12 days. It was only 4% ABV and was just a nice little session beer. But I agree with Gameface, 2 weeks for a finished, bottle conditioned beer is asking to be let down.
 
It might be doable for a low gravity British style with low carbonation, but even then you will be pushing it. Maybe something in the 1.034 range with 1-1.5 volumes of co2 and rousing the bottle every few hours....bottle conditioning takes time.
 
Two week from brewing to bottle conditioning doesn't sound like a lot of time. Kegging maybe, you could probably have a hefe or american wheat ready in 10-14 days.
 
See, but then there's this, that says the exact opposite of what some of you are saying.
https://byo.com/stories/item/1397-speed-brewing
I'm not asking if it's possible. I know it is. I'm just looking for pointers to help me make it work better. The recipe I have here is a Blonde, which fits in that subset of beers that lend themselves to this methodology.
 
OppR2nist said:
See, but then there's this, that says the exact opposite of what some of you are saying.
https://byo.com/stories/item/1397-speed-brewing
I'm not asking if it's possible. I know it is. I'm just looking for pointers to help me make it work better. The recipe I have here is a Blonde, which fits in that subset of beers that lend themselves to this methodology.
Click to expand...

Actually that article clearly says it is possible if using a cask or kegging, but bottle conditioning doesn't always finish in 8 days.

"Bottle Conditioning
You can spend a couple of weeks waiting for a bottle conditioned beer to develop the proper carbonation level as the yeast cells left in the bottle slowly consume the priming sugar and produce the carbon dioxide needed to achieve the carbonation."

As I said, I did an American Orange Wheat Hefeweizen that I brewed on 12/14 and served on 12/23. Even in a keg it wasn't fully carbonated, but was drinkable. It was better by 12/31.
 
Maybe use yeast nutrient and yeast energizer. PLENTY OF AERATION!! Ferm at 65. Keg if u can, if not, bottle 48 hours after term gravity is reached. Let the bottles sit at room temp until 2 days before serving, then chill to cold crash. And me, personally, I wud use Nottingham.
 
The bitter extract recipe from the article was done fermenting in three days. After that, he recommends 6-8 days for bottle conditioning. That fits my time frame perfectly. And my recipe isn't too different.
 
Why are you asking for help on here? Sounds like you're gunna do what your're gunna do anyway.
 
I was asking if anyone had any tips to make this work better, not whether or not sucg a thing would work.
 
So you don't want to speed up your brew, you want to speed up your fermentation.

Instead of US05, I recommend S04 to speed up fermentation. You don't need 2 packets. If you have slurry from a previous batch, that will take off faster than a brand new packet. Oxygenate well, ferment at 65. I typically get my Blonde Ales and Cream Ales done in under 7 days but I leave them for at least 10 days before cold crashing then kegging.

I recently made a low gravity Blonde Ale that I kegged at 10 days. 2 days later, I opened the keg, added gelatin, sealed it. It was carbed and cleared by day 17 but it didn't hit it's prime for another week.

My point is that under the right process, a beer can be done fermenting in a week but I can't see how bottling can finish carbing in another week. Even kegging takes 1 week to carb and 2 to really balance out.
 
OppR2nist said:
The bitter extract recipe from the article was done fermenting in three days. After that, he recommends 6-8 days for bottle conditioning. That fits my time frame perfectly. And my recipe isn't too different.
Click to expand...

Seriously man, beer won't be fully carbed in the bottle until 2 weeks. There will still be more carbonation left to develop in week 3.... But if you are ok serving beer that's a little flat, then go for it.
 
Well, I brewed on Monday, and it is sitting in the fermenter. It only bubbled for like a day, and I'm going to do a gravity test tonight to see how far along it is. If it finished already, I will get into some detail about what I ended up doing. I may do that anyway.
 
So here's where it stands:

On Monday, I brewed and the OG was 1.052. I took a reading today, and the gravity was 1.015, exactly where it was supposed to finish up. I tasted my sample, and it tasted great.

I went from brew day to bottling in 5 days. For the next week, it will be conditioning. Considering that it hit final gravity, I'm not too worried that there will be exploding bottles, but anything can happen.
 
OppR2nist said:
So here's where it stands:

On Monday, I brewed and the OG was 1.052. I took a reading today, and the gravity was 1.015, exactly where it was supposed to finish up. I tasted my sample, and it tasted great.

I went from brew day to bottling in 5 days. For the next week, it will be conditioning. Considering that it hit final gravity, I'm not too worried that there will be exploding bottles, but anything can happen.
Click to expand...

Carb your beers a little warmer than usual and you should get ok carbonation...two weeks is usually my minimum. Warmer it is the quicker that yeast will eat, not too warm or youll get some nasty flavors.

Good luck
 
I might still be a little concerned. From using a couple recipe calculators, you are correct the predicted FG is around 1.015 assuming an average attenuation of 72%. Though, on the Fermentis site, all of their S-05 numbers are calculated based off an 81% attenuation, and many brewers here are seeing as high as 85% with S-05. If you were to end in those areas you could be seeing at low as 1.008 or 1.010. I know I have gotten those numbers with a similar recipe (all-grain) using S-05. After priming sugar, you're talking about 7-8 pts per bottle, which is much too high. In the short-term, since you're wanting to drink them all at a BBQ in just a couple weeks you might be fine. Long-term, storing them in a sealed box might be a safe idea.
 
Anything that doesn't get drunk at the BBQ well be kept in a safe place to be sure it does its work. Since I'm going on vacation, I'm gong to keep the bottles in my bath tub to make cleaning up possible explosions easier. I'll be drinking my first one the night I get home (after any possible cleanup).
 
Bottle bombs. According to your "desired/calculated" Attenuation, you hit your OG, but I would bet big money the yeast would've taken it to 1.012, maybe 1.010. There's extra residual, fermentable sugar in there that will get eaten in the bottle. Dangerous. I don't understand why you ignored everyone's advice.
I guess the best thing to do at this point is check a bottle everyday, and once you've hit a decent carb level, put all of them in the fridge and DON'T take the out until you are about to drink them.
 
Why would you suggest that. Everything I've done has been according to the advice I've Goren from just about every source EXCEPT what people have said here. What makes you think it would ferment lower?
And, most importantly, what happens when and if I have a beer that didn't explode and tastes great?
 
OppR2nist said:
Why would you suggest that. Everything I've done has been according to the advice I've Goren from just about every source EXCEPT what people have said here. What makes you think it would ferment lower?
And, most importantly, what happens when and if I have a beer that didn't explode and tastes great?
Click to expand...

I honestly get the vibe that many here would be happier to see you fail than to succeed.

That said, many are just giving you the facts based on their experiences.

5 days from brew to bottle? Sure you hit your target F.G., but many of us here have gone beyond our target F.G. a time or two. In fact, depending on the yeast and the recipe I sometimes expect to hit a lower F.G. than the software tells me. I certainly don't just check at day 5 and if it's at my target F.G. assume it's done.

Seems like a big risk.

I get that you have an opportunity to show off your beer and you've challenged yourself to hit the mark in an extremely tight window. I wish you the best! Level of difficulty on this one is pretty high. It can be done, but there's a lot of room for error.
 
Thank you for the more level-headed approach.

After talking to a few people, I realize probably would have been better if I had taken readings on days 3 & 4 to be sure that that fermentation had slowed down or stopped before I bottled. Given the circumstances, I should have done that, but at this point I'm left with needing to take the risk and hope for the best. I bottled on Friday night, and there's been no disasters yet. We'll see how things look when I get home.
 
If it does not work its not the end of the world :p You could always use it for a depth charge drop a shot of Drambuie glass and all into a glass of the beer. It stays seperate like oil and water it looks cool and tastes good just don't plan to drive.
 
That was my idea, too (minus the Drambuie). If it fails, I haven't lost much (even the ingredients were fairly cheap, so money wasn't as much of an issue). If it succeeds, though, it will be a great thing to have in my back pocket when I need to brew something up quick and want to have something of my own to bring along.
 
OppR2nist said:
Why would you suggest that. Everything I've done has been according to the advice I've Goren from just about every source EXCEPT what people have said here. What makes you think it would ferment lower?
And, most importantly, what happens when and if I have a beer that didn't explode and tastes great?
Click to expand...

Oh I get the feeling this is going to turn out just peachy for you. LOL...writing's on the wall. You against the world. Every source you've consulted says that the collective experience of your repliers is worthless. You're golden.

I'll come back in a week to read the post where the beer turns out awesome.
 
So, it's been a week, and the beer is fantastic! It's a little green (to be expected, given the short time it's been conditioning), but it's doing well, and it's ready to go. If anyone is interested, I'll post about how things worked out. As it stands now, we've got beer. And it's pretty damn good.

1406947776991.jpg
 
Well, it doesn't look like you going to have problems with it being over-carbed.

If you are having a problem with foam retention, check into LME that includes carapils. I know that the LME from Northern Brewer includes carapils. They have a number of convenient (fast) LME combinations.

BTW, for a brew like this I would have used Cascade hops. About an ounce for bittering and then an ounce at 10 min and an ounce at 5 min. That would give you nice bitterness and hop aroma.
 

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