Dry stout short fermentation

[WhiteDog87]

So I was trying to have a dry stout ready for st pattys day and I am cutting it very close. OG was 1.042. How short do you think I can cut fermentation? It's been a week and activity in the airlock has stopped. I plan on kegging, but I usually carb over about a week, I have never done the super fast high pressure thing. Any advice? 10 days too short? (assuming it has reached 1.010fg or lower)

 

[Stauffbier]

If it's at a stable FG you can package it after a week no problem.

It might not be as bright as you would want, but you can fix that with gelatin if you like.

 

[BigFloyd]

If you've got a couple days of constant gravity readings (or one at your target FG), I'd feel comfortable going to keg (but not bottle) at this point.

Before kegging, I'd crash it for a day to 38-40*F if you can. If not, I'd go with racking, purging the air from the keg and then cooling it to 38* (for 4-5 hours). Once it cools, hit it with 30psi for a day, 20 psi for two days and 12psi for a day and then check it. It ought to be pretty close by then to set to serving pressure.

 

[WhiteDog87]

Big Floyd do you vent the co2 each step down or just lower the pressure on the regulator? So You guys have kegged a beer after only a week with good results?

 

[BigFloyd]

You can let the psi drop by itself as the beer absorbs the CO2, but you have to keep an eye on it unless you know how many turns of your valve you need for the drop to the next step. The pressure won't drop right away.

I haven't legged one as early as one week and wouldn't be eager to do it unless in a real time crunch as you are.

 

[WhiteDog87]

Is that your standard procedure for carbing your beers? I have only tried to do it quickly once and it ended up with a super over carbed beer that I had to vent for a while before it was at the right level.