This batch failed. Need two quick recipes.

[subliminalurge]

Long story short... I'm just getting back into brewing after being out of it for several years for financial reasons. Recession hit my profession hard.

I don't have much at all for gear at this point, had to give up almost all of it when times were hard, but I can swing a few more carboys and associated little stuff.

My sister-in-law is getting married at Thanksgiving. Her fiance is in the Navy and they've been trying to get married for a while now but she wants to do it back home with the family, and his deployment schedule leaves precious few opportunities to get a week off to travel halfway across the country.

Anyway, I have been asked to make up some beer for the reception. The person that asked has had some of what I made back when I all my gear, and knows I can make good stuff, but she doesn't know I lost all my equipment. That said, I would like to come up with something halfway decent and honor the request.

I'd like to do two 5 gallon batches. Need to be ready to serve from the bottle on Thanksgiving weekend. Unfortunately, they have to be bottled, the venue doesn't allow kegs of any sort (and the contract says "of any size".)

So I need to brew, ferment, and bottle two batches by then. Also, I hate to use the word "redneck", but I'm dealing with a crowd of beer drinkers, but the BMC sort of beer drinkers. So I wan't something a little outside the box for them, but not too extreme.

I started a batch of my old standby basic wheat last Saturday, and I just pulled a taste out of the carboy, and it's all wrong. It's supposed to be a mellow wheat and right now it tastes like an IPA. Way hoppy, and not a hint of wheat. The exact opposite of how this exact same recipe has turned out in the past. Only difference is I bought the ingredients from my lhbs instead of the online place I usually get them from. Granted, it's young, but this is a recipe that I've done many times, and while I'll probably drink it myself, it's not something I'd want to share.

In fact, I usually use 3 lbs of wheat LME and 3 lbs of light barley LME in this one, and this time I used 6 lbs of wheat LME. Still doesn't taste like wheat.

So here's my question. What do I do now? I had a cool pumpkin spice ale in mind, but now that this simple wheat isn't turning out and is going to have to age longer than expected, I'm going to be short on carboy space.

Basically I need two foolproof recipes for something halfway decent that can finish fast. The good news is this is a BMC crowd, so the lighter the better.

At this time frame I think I'm stuck with wheats to be ready by Thanksgiving.

So.... Anyone got any good, foolproof, and FAST recipes? I'm realistic, I'm not expecting "great" at this point. But do I have enough time to get to "not too bad"?

This wheat that I'm doing has always been my "foolproof" recipe, and it seems to be going off in wild directions. I have nothing else in my arsenal that could possible be finished in time.

Ideas?

 

[PantherCity]

I would do a low gravity bitter with wlp002 or wlp007, something that will floc out and clear quickly.

Whet beer is not the only style you can execute quickly.

 

[subliminalurge]

I would do a low gravity bitter with wlp002 or wlp007, something that will floc out and clear quickly.

Whet beer is not the only style you can execute quickly.

Cool. Good thoughts.

I was also thinking an American Cream Ale. Any way to pull that off in that time frame?

I'm really disappointed that my plan for the pumpkin ale isn't' going to work out, but I just had a new idea... I could bring the ingredients and some gear, and me and the bro's in law could brew up a batch on one of those hungover days where nobody wants to do much anyway. Slap it in a dedicated carboy to age and be served at next Thanksgiving. Make a tradition out of it... Every year try to tweak it just a bit.

 

[terrapinj]

my bmc and craft beer friends really liked bm's centennial blonde, can be done in a quick turnaround as well

 

[subliminalurge]

my bmc and craft beer friends really liked bm's centennial blonde, can be done in a quick turnaround as well

Sweet, that's what I'm looking for. Doesn't have to make me happy, just something to make the bmc crowd say "Wow, beer can have flavor? I never knew that!"

 

[subliminalurge]

And I will definitely let this wheat age out a bit. It's definitely not "bad", it's just not anything close to what it's supposed to be.

Truth be told, I like it. A little more truth told, I just yanked a full glass out of the primary. Uncarbed and not quite totally done fermenting yet. I think it's frickin' delicious. But I also know it wouldn't be most people's "thing".

It's way hoppy. Like DIPA hoppy. And this was just from a standard wheat beer kit ordered online with vacuum bagged hop pellets. (Tweaked a little bit to match my regular wheat recipe, but no extra hop additions....) I really don't understand how it can be this hoppy.... But I like. I think I'll bottle it up and keep it around.

But I still need to come up with two batches for the wedding in short time.

Can I pull off the cream ale by thanksgiving?

 

[smagee]

I'd second biermuncher's centennial blonde. I know I have a fast cream ale bookmarked somewhere; when I'm not in the mobile client I'll track it down and link it. But yes, a cream can be produced fairly easily in your timeframe. Hell, depending on your bottle supply, you might be able to swing four batches if you wanted

 

[subliminalurge]

I'd second biermuncher's centennial blonde. I know I have a fast cream ale bookmarked somewhere; when I'm not in the mobile client I'll track it down and link it. But yes, a cream can be produced fairly easily in your timeframe. Hell, depending on your bottle supply, you might be able to swing four batches if you wanted

Hmm.... As far as the bottle supply goes I think I'm looking at about 10 gallons worth. (but then this is "winter sampler" season, so that number could riser very, very quickly if the place I'm working for would just get around to mailing me a damn paycheck already...)

Bottle supply isn't a big issue. Fermentor space is much more of an issue. I can deal with either one, but I figure with the tight timeframe I'd better aim my dollars where they will count. Definitely don't have access to an infinite supply of money at this point. I've got some, but I have to be careful and make the most of it.

(EDIT: Scratch that. I just did a quick count and I think I could get the better part of 3 5 gallon batches bottled. I have a much bigger pile than I thought. Just a lot of label removing and sanitizing to get some of them into shape...)

 

[SarahMatt]

I haven't made biermuncher's Centennial blonde, but I have made a successful (and quick) cream ale. I'd vote for that. I can post the recipe, if you want.
Good Luck!!
Sarah.

 

[Yooper]

Besides the centennial blonde, what about doing a "dark" beer that isn't really dark or heavy- like a Newcastle type clone? There is a super easy (beginner) recipe under my avatar for it, and it's ready in 5 weeks. It's a good beer for people willing to try "dark beer" but it's very mild and very Newcastle-like.

Another thought I had is a simple hefeweizen. I'm not a fan of them, but many people like them. It's 100% wheat/barley DME, a few hops, and yeast. You don't even need any steeping grains, and it's ready fast. That would especially be good for people who don't know how to pour homebrew! Or, something similar- a Blue Moon type clone.

I saw someone (I think Revvy) had little bottle "hang tags" on how to pour a homebrew. They were nice, and would really be a good idea for a few of them to have a "how to" on pouring appropriately.

 

[smalliewader]

Blue Moon Belgian styles can be ready in 6 weeks, easily. 3 primary, 3 bottle.

Cream Ales for sure in 5-6 weeks 2-3 primary, 3 bottle and the flavor is acceptable to the BMC crowd. You have plenty of time to add an extra week in primary and a little extended conditioning time if you brew now.

I would think you could even pull off a fruit wheat in the ~10 weeks you have.

 

[pm5k00]

Search for orfy's mild recipe, that's a quick turnaround beer that isn't too out there for the BMC crowd, also if your in need of more fermenting space, you should go to home depot or lowes and pick up a 5 gallon bucket with lid (food grade) they are less than six bucks and make a great secondary fermenter for 5 gallon batches or primary for 4 gallon batches or less.

 

[Fatcougar]

Hey , I just did a 5 gallon batch of what I would describe as a mix between a pale ale and an american Amber. It was all grain but youcould substitute LME for the grain pretty easy. This beer is nice and mild, malty with just a bit of hoppyness and is very smooth and easy to drink, but has a lot of flavor.
10LBs Pale 2 row malt (152 Deg for 60, single stage batch sparge -170 deg), Could sub 7-8 lbs light LME
1/2LB Carapils, 1LB Crystal 40
1oz Casdcade - 60 min, 1oz Saaz 15 min.
Here is the key to it being quick: Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale. Don't let the name fool you, this is a very nice clean neutral yeast and is very fast with high flocculation. I usually primary for at least 3 weeks , sometimes 4. This stuff knocked it down from 1.062 to 1.010 in a week. I let it sit in primary for 2 weeks and it had cleared very well by then and was staibilized at 1.010... ahh what the heck, lets bottle this stuff! 5.6 oz of DME for priming... 10 days later the bottles had cleared completely with a nice tight sediment layer on the bottom of the bottles. The best part was how the beer tasted... after only 11 days the beer tasted very clean and mature with no off flavors... very suprising, I usually wait for 3 weeks before sampling. I love this stuff and can't quit drinking it even though I know I should let it sit longer... Can't say enough about this yeast, it is my new favorite for a "house " yeast.
Ooops forgot to mention... kept fermentor at around 66 degrees.

 

[smagee]

Here's the cream ale I was thinking of--clears up fast as well, and is very cheap.
Here's BM's blonde, which is again, very cheap and fast.
I'd second Yooper's suggestion of a mild brown ale; I haven't tried her recipe for one, but I've tried several of her others and have never been disappointed. So if you're feeling adventurous, you could probably do the brown and either the cream or blonde first, bottle the cream/blonde after 2-3 weeks, start up whichever of the two you opted to wait on, and then bottle that one and the brown at ~6weeks in.

Or just stick with 2 batches. Just figured I'd point out you have options .

 

[subliminalurge]

Sorry I haven't been back to this thread for awhile. I definitely appreciate the input and will be using a couple of the recipes posted here.

The "failed" what batch is actually coming along nicely now that I added about a gallon of pureed peaches to it a week into primary. Now I just have to figure out a way to rack it without bringing all that pulp along.

I also have an APA going that I haven't tasted yet, so I don't know if it will be a keeper or not.

I did a little more asking about the venue, and everyone seems to think we'll be fine slipping one or two corneys in. The keg restriction isn't as black and white as I initially thought.

So I have kegs on the way, which should provide an opportunity to speed up the pipeline a bit.

So right now the plan is to bring along a corney each of the peach wheat, the APA, a cream ale, and one other. I'm liking the sounds of fatcougar's recipe, but even in my basement I'm having trouble keeping the carboys that cool. Maybe I'll move one that I have going now all the way to the basement floor and see where the temp stabilizes....

 

[Zamial]

The "failed" what batch is actually coming along nicely now that I added about a gallon of pureed peaches to it a week into primary. Now I just have to figure out a way to rack it without bringing all that pulp along.

use a fine mesh muslin bag. stick the auto siphon inside the bag and that should filter the majority of the pulp out. That is my plan for my cherry braggot in a few days...

 

[subliminalurge]

Excellent idea, I'll give that a shot.

 

[azscoob]

If you are still looking for quick turnaround recipes, I have a couple in my recipe pulldown, the Bitter Brit ordinary bitter is one of my favorites, I have had that one judged in a competition 11 days after the brewday.