8 Day Brew

[Fish]

I've got a golf trip coming up and at very short notice thought I might brew a wheat beer. Is it possible to brew a beer and have it kegged ready to drink within 8 days? I have a 'heat pad' which will ferment at approx. 25C which should speed things along.

Fish

 

[pokolbinguy]

It is possible but at that sought of temperature you may get some funky flavours.

 

[Plastic Man]

Fish

BYO mag had an article about 2 years ago about brewing a beer in a week. I'm pretty sure Chris Colby was then interviewed on Basic Brewing Radio about the story and went over most of the info again. Check the Basic Brewing Radio Archives. It may help.

 

[Steve]

Is it possible to brew a beer and have it kegged ready to drink within 8 days?

Yes it is possible. Obviously depends on the yeast though....Nottingham is usually done in 3-4 days but you wouldnt use that in a wheat. Cant remember how long my last WB06 brew took. Maybe a week? Give it a go.
Cheers
Steve

 

[glennheinzel]

Reducing the OG will help the yeast finish up quicker too.

 

[chovain]

Not sure if you're an AGer or a KKer, but here's what I'd do:

For AG, go for a 50/50 wheat/pale or wheat/pilsener, w/ very light bittering (perhaps 8-10 IBUs of your favourite high-alpha hop), no late additions. (Edit: As Rukh says, go for a lower OG, maybe around 40-42 points for a 4% abv)

For KK, just grab a wheat kit, and throw out the yeast that comes with it - it's not going to do you any flavours (Edit: Wow - a freudian typo!). Don't add hops. (Edit: Use dex, not malt for your kilo if you don't mind having reduced body/head - it will take away from the body, but get your fermentation down).

Use K-97, or similar yeast. Make sure you rehydrate for a couple of hours before pitching, and aerate the wort well. Lots of people will tell you neither of these steps are necessary, and they're generally right, but this will get your lag time down a bit. Pitch at about 23-24, and ferment around 21-22. Knock it up to 25-26 to completion once fermentation slows down.

Rack to keg from primary (with 12 hours of cold conditioning if you want to knock some haze out, but I wouldn't bother), chill, and force carb (be careful not to overcarbonate - it's far easier to put more CO2 in than it is to take it out!).

Let us know how you go!

Edit: Various inline clarifications.

 

[KoNG]

Fish....
i just brewed a wheat, which i pitched last monday and i then kegged it on saturday night... so 5 - 6 days..!
used WB-06 dry yeast, with an OG of 1041. Fermented at around 19-21*C (so no need for heat pad..!!)
FG was 1009. Its chilled in the keg fridge now, just havent carbonated it.

You could also look into "spunding' it (Warren and Co discuss that in the WB-06 thread i think) which could save you another day or 2.

Are you AG or K&K..?

 

[warrenlw63]

Yeah very possible fish.

With WB-06 the beer can be ready to drink in a week. Just as long as your mates don't mind a cloudy beer.

Pitch the yeast, ferment around 18-20 degrees. Keg the beer with around 4 gravity points remaining. I kegged at 1.020 which was probably a tad too high but worked well. (OG 1.054).

This means the beer can finish fermenting and carbonating at the same time. You'll get your 8 day turnaround no worries.

Warren -

 

[Fish]

Thanks all.

Plastic Man - Just listened to the BBR podcast which re-iterates what you guys are saying:
- Pick an appropriate style (Wheat beer / small ale)
- go for a lower gravity beer (approx. 1.040)
- pitch lots of yeast
- aerate wort well

In answer to your questions
- I'm an all-grainer and will keep it simple re. 50/50 Wheat/Pilsner malt
- I'm not sure which of the dried wheat yeasts I have (just grabbed one as a backup a while ago). I might even do a starter and have it going on my stir-plate while I brew the beer.
- will try to ferment around 20C.

Will report back.
Fish

 

[Sammus]

I think i read in the first issue of the aussie Beer mag about the barons wheat beer - 5 days from grain to brain.

 

[drag]

Will the beer taste green?

 

[Steve]

Will the beer taste green?

it'll taste like a fresh wheat. :chug:

PS. Fish....K97 is renowned for taking 2-3 days to kick off - try and get WB06.
Cheers
Steve

 

[pint of lager]

Kit based brews always seem to need more time to mature, or they end up with that green flavour.

Some AG brews can be pushed out very successfully in your short time frame. Chiller called it "seven days from grain to brain." Not sure if he invented the phrase but it would make a great t-shirt.

Styles such as ordinary bitter are also suitable. Like the others said, keep the recipe simple, 25 IBU's, lower og.

A filter will help too.

If you do a search on the forum using the keyword brain, you may come up with some more ideas.

 

[chovain]

PS. Fish....K97 is renowned for taking 2-3 days to kick off - try and get WB06.

Thanks for the correction - I'll try and remember that one...

 

[PostModern]

You can make other styles in a short time as well. I brewed a "guest beer" for the NSW comp in 7 days. A basic pale ale (ale malt, plus 10% wheat, nothing more), 1.052 OG, 25IBU with a US hop, plus a single late Nelson Sauvin hop addition. Fermented with US-56 for 5 days, crashed to 0C for a day then kegged and force carbed on the Friday night. By 2pm on Sat, the whole keg was finished

I think it was OK for a quicky. A touch cloudy but certainly drinkable and not too green.

 

[ausdb]

Thanks for the correction - I'll try and remember that one...

K97 is also an extremely poor flocculator so you will be drinking mud or taking extra time to filter it.

Go with the WB06 or WY3068 if its a wheat beer then it's meant to be cloudy

 

[Fish]

A quick update:

This is a brew of firsts for me so may be a bit hard to judge the results:

1. Did my first overnight mash. Mashed in at midnight on Monday night. Reading previous threads on this topic there is some concern about leaving wheat in your mash for too long, however all smelt fine at 6:30am Tuesday morning (proof will be in the tasting though). Temp had dropped from 68C to approx. 45C. Did a 30 minute decoction for no real reason on Tuesday morning. This lifted the mash temp back up to approx. 70C.. Sparged, boiled, etc.. as normal. Yeast pitched by 10:30am (22C). All going well this will be my new routine.
2. Using K-97 yeast. Made up a starter on Monday night and there was significant yeast activity when I pitched Tuesday morning. Some activity in the fermenter this morning so hopefully the lag advised with K-97 has been avoided. As Im brewing a hefeweizen Im not stressed re. flocculation or lack thereof.

Hope to keg Monday, Carbonate Tuesday, Drink Wednesday!

 

[crozdog]

Hope to keg Monday, Carbonate Tuesday, Drink Wednesday!

Force carbonate & you'll be drinking on Monday too :icon_cheers:

 

[NRB]

I'm looking forward to hearing how it turns out John. I've played around with the overnight mash thing with good success but admittedly haven't used a wheat majority (yet). I've found it much easier to slot in a brewing session using the overnight technique.

 

[RobboMC]

Delay the golf trip,
life's too short to rush making good beer!