Fastest from grain to glass

Aren't most "basic" (Pale, IPA, Amber, Blonde, etc) Ales in the 14-21 day range?

 

Apa, kettle to keg in 7 days.

 

If one is talking historically I would think that certain top fermented types of beer from the 1800s which were served unaged would be in the running for the quickest turn around time. A couple of days of primary fermentation and no aging before being sent out to the taverns basically, as opposed to being turned over to secondary/cask fermentation or long aging. With bottom fermented schenk or winter beers back in the 1800s the primary fermentation might last a week or two whereas the secondary fermentation might be skipped entirely in favor of kräusening at the tavern, or a few weeks of secondary fermentation (matched today by some large name brand lager beers), either way it would be a longer turn over time than for the equivalent "young" top fermentation beers.

 

yes

 

I've never heard of it being that quick. I've heard 9-10 days as being about the quickest.

 

Ordinary Bitter or Mild. Those can be fined so that tey clear quickly.

 

I can't remember what time the guide said on the Fullers tour, but Chiswick Bitter was done quickly, and when going into the cask it got dry hops, a dose of priming sugar, and the finings. The publican would wait a few days for it to condition and drop bright, then it was ready for serving. It was not very long.

 

Lagering time in the US for AAL's in the post-Repeal era were continually being shortened. Immediately after Repeal lots of brewers implied in ads they were still lagering around 3 months or so.

Former AB masterbrewer, George Reisch, explained it like this in a interview on a now defunct website about his family's brewery Reisch Brewing Co. of Springfield, MO (closed in 1966):

They (whoever "they" are*) used to say that the cheapest US beers were referred to as "7-7" - seven days to ferment, seven days of lagering.

*I should go searching for that...

Addendum: Oh, yeah - here's one example, from (the real) Pabst Brewing Co., circa 1970s, bottom line:

 

I'm reminded of this promotional video of Timothy Taylor:



Where the narrator says:

"One of the things that Taylor's do that sets them apart from alot of other breweries is mature their beer for longer than most. Like wine, beer that's been matured taste better. It may be more time consuming but that's the Taylors' way."

Then the brewmaster chimes in:

"If you don't mature you tend to get an astringent harsh sort of flavor and we believe that again it adds to the finesse it gives that little bit of quality which makes our beer different from others. Well this is beer ready to be put into casks tomorrow. It has been fermented for seven days, matured for three."

So a ten day turn around time for a contemporary, respected English ale brewery.

 

Hmmm... somehow I had to 2 reply tabs opened and hit "SEND" on the wrong one and this info didn't make it into my post #11 up there.

According to a letter in All About Beer from Mitch Steele, still at AB at time (1990s) one of the reasons Budweiser's lagering period was still relatively long (compared to other AALs) was because they combined it with the krausening process.

 

It's worth noting I think that those cold temperatures was the result of ice cellars from the 1840s and onwards, and later artificial refridgeration. Lager beer brewing in the 1800s went from brewing in winter, storing through summer in incrementally warming cellars simply cooled by being dug into the earth or a cave (early to mid 1800s), over to brewing in winter and storing through summer in cellars with lower and stabilized temperatures by way of ice cellars, over to year round brewing with cellars which had lower and stabilized temperatures by way of ice cellars, over to year round brewing with cellars with lower and stabilized temperatures by way of artifical refridgeration. Storage times were longer pre-artificial refridgeration due to necessity, Bavarian brewers had to brew their summer beer from December to April for it to last until the end of October when the winter beer would be ready.

With ice cellars and artificial refridgeration lager beers could be turned out with 1-3 months of storage for most of the year, and with artificial refridgeration, all year round. By then demand starts to influence supply whereby a brewery might age their lager beer for a longer amount of time in the winter time, when demand is lower, compared with the summer when demand is higher, so that the winter brewed and sold lager might be three months old, whereas the summer sold and spring brewed lager might be only one month old.

 

I did it at home. 5% abv, pils and Munich base, low mash Temps, 149 with a 1hr rest, pitched 1056 and let her rip. Threw it in a keg at day 7 and quick carbbed it. Wasn't my best, but wasn't my worst apa.
I could have spunded on day 5 maybe and cut it to 6 days maybe.

 

I'm not sure that would scale up though.

 

@honkey may have some input. Maybe @dauss as well.

 

"That oughta do it".

 

I don't know the answer to this, but I would think kettle sours would be really quick, with the control and intentional pitching of exactly the bugs needed.

Anybody know the time range on these?