What's the quickest you ever had a beer ready

[eddieb33]

Hey folks - so a friend of mine who owns a food truck/restaurant is doing an event on the 28th and was wondering if I'd be willing to contribute some beer. Today is the 1st. I have nothing currently ready and I'm worried that doing something in ~3.5 weeks would be pushing it. Has anyone ever gotten a beer ready -- from brew day to drinking -- in that short of a time? If so, what kind of brew do you recommend?

(In case the legally minded folks here are wondering, the beer would be provided complementary, so we're pretty sure this is an acceptable use of homebrew.)

 

[robotinc]

10 days is my fastest from grain to glass. I'd stick to cream ales or pale ales

 

[poptarts]

if you keg you can go 10 days grain to glass very easily. stick with lower abv styles, ESB can be super fast turn around.

 

[solbes]

Wheat beers are pretty much best with 2 weeks primary. If you bottle carb your beers, you'd have to get started pronto as that will take at least a week and half (also go maybe 11 or 12 day primary).

If you keg, then you have a lot of other options. Plenty of beers would be great with 2.5 weeks primary and 1 week of force carbing.

 

[m00ps]

3.5 weeks is easily doable for anything under 6% alcohol I'd say. I usually can be drinking wheat beers less than 3 weeks from pitching. IPAs I can do 2 weeks with kegging, but they are better and fully carbed at 3 weeks. Fastest I've ever done was a cream ale in 11 days from pitching to serving from a keg. I had to rush it for a big festival where I was giving out beer. Wasn't entirely ready, but no one seemed to notice...

 

[PGEduardo]

I'd go with a fruity Heffeweizen. You can ferment them a bit warmer which speeds things up and you don't need to worry about clarity. Grain to glass in 14 days easy and lots of fruity flavor to hide off-flavors behind.

 

[TastyAdventure]

Kegging or bottling?

 

[eddieb33]

Thanks for the responses, folks. I should have mentioned, I bottle. No kegging equipment.

 

[Psylocide]

Plenty of time! 10-12 day primary, 14 day bottle condition... anything pale under 6% should be more than doable.

I would use notty. Beast of a yeast with quick turnaround and floccs nicely.

You should brew today.

 

[m00ps]

.

You should brew today.

I feel like that....every day

 

[permo]

You can do a bitter with Ringwood(WY1187) and go grain to glass in 6 days easy. 4 day ferment and carb it up in a keg.

 

[vincentAlpha]

I second the use of Notty here (or US-05, I hear it can be a beast too but never used it myself), sooner is better but ~3.5 weeks is plenty of time. Might help to have a warmer place for carbing up the bottles to try to get them all up to carb if you just use ambient normally.

 

[Brettomomyces]

8 days for a dry stout with us-04. 14# pale, 4# flaked barley, 2# roasted barley and neutral bittering hops to 40ibu. Kegged of course

 

[ImNoExpert]

(In case the legally minded folks here are wondering, the beer would be provided complementary, so we're pretty sure this is an acceptable use of homebrew.)

Just be careful and know your state laws. Here that would be illegal for you and your restaurant friend (even more serious for him). Even if he's giving it away at his event, it's still considered "selling". And we're pretty lax about beer 'round these parts.

 

[Saboral]

I got into a pinch and needed an IPA for a party. I had 14 days. It was a bad idea and you can't rush a good thing. It was an IPA for only the hardest core who didn't mind a high "free hop" content. It didn't even have time to settle. I think it could've worked out if I filtered it.

 

[schematix]

Consider your target crowd when selecting a recipe. The average food truck customer probably doesn't like mega IPAs. Further if you're outside in the heat something lighter would be good.

Something like a 20 IBU blonde ale, witbier, or 30 IBU pale ale (Ed Wort's recipe would be good). Restrain the ABV to max ~5%.

 

[OleBrewing]

I would do an esb with WL007. I like notty but in my experience the 007 finished quick and dropped out quickly with out cold crashing. 18 days without cold crash, but I kegged for a week.

For bottling I would say hef as it is a style that encourages yeast in suspension, but I have never made a hef.

Good luck.

 

[Yooper]

Just be careful and know your state laws. Here that would be illegal for you and your restaurant friend (even more serious for him). Even if he's giving it away at his event, it's still considered "selling". And we're pretty lax about beer 'round these parts.

Agreed.

Here in Michigan, it's legal to give away 20 gallons of beer now, but it used to be a six pack.

Check your state laws- in some states, homebrew must be served only at home- that is, the house in which it is brewed. You can't even take it out of your house for your own consumption, let alone share it so be careful of your state laws.

Most places that have food service require licensing for alcohol as well, unless it is BYOB. And if it's BYOB, that leaves out someone else's homebrew.

 

[treacheroustexan]

I went grain to glass in one week (kegging). You could tell it was still young and very hazy but it was definitely drinkable. Was just a 5 % raspberry blonde.

 

[rodwha]

I tried 2 small test beers (2.5 gals each) looking to see if I could have a beer (bottled) ready in 31 days (2 weeks ferment, 2 weeks conditioned, and 3 days chilled). Sometimes get togethers happen with short notice...

I kept the ABV around 5.2% if I recall correctly. The honey wheat was a little strange but the blonde was excellent.

I've wanted to continue with the experiment working towards darker beers, as well as hoppier beers, to see where I'd need more time.

 

[IslandLizard]

I pitched a Belgian Wit with ECY11 on Sunday morning. OG was 1.052.
This evening (60 hours later) it is already at 1.015. It will likely take another week to get to 1.008. This was fermented at 72°F. Moved to a bit warmer area to finish up. Sample tastes amazing!

Now it did take 3 days for the starter to crash clear in the fridge.

 

[Michigan_Wolfman]

I've had a cream ale kit from my LHBS ready in 3 weeks. One week primary, one in secondary, bottled and conditioned for another week. If I remember correctly, I used White Labs 080 Cream Ale Yeast Blend, and kept the temp at 65 with my swamp cooler the whole time. There was a slight smell of sulfur during primary, but by the end of week one, when I racked to secondary, the smell had pretty much disappeared. Going to have to buy another kit from my LHBS and brew another batch before long, it was pretty close to Heaven in a glass!

 

[Natdavis777]

Cream ale and Weissbier both in 14 days. Doing another 14 day Cream ale currently.

 

[ptrack]

I didn't plan well and realized I had an empty kegerator for a New Year's eve party we were hosting this year. I had everything I needed to make Yooper's House Pale so I went for it 11 days out from the party. Got it force carbed the night before and it turned out alright. However, it got much better about two weeks later. I felt bad doing it but you know what they say about desperate times.

 

[Rivenin]

Wheat beer, Saison, Pale Ale, session IPA, etc. Something low ABV, lighter side (no dark beers)

 

[dpatrickv]

9 days. EXP Pinefruit session IPA. 3.15%.