I'm heading to my hometown in 2 weeks and he wants me to bring some homebrew. I dont have co2 so I was thinking something like an English mild put in mini kegs before fermentation is done. They are meant to drink fresh and lower carbonation levels. I have never done this as normally I dont check gravity for at least 2 weeks. Any help on this would help, I dont have a recipe yet.
Some of this won't be relevant depending on what you mean by mini kegs, but check this out... https://www.brewersassociation.org/articles/cask-ale-expanding-your-beer-offerings/
Al Reece has this bit on how to serve homebrew in a cask-ish style: http://www.fuggled.net/2015/10/real-ale-homebrew.html (You can stop at the cubitainers rather than going through the whole routine with the handpump if you want...) Putting stuff in casks before it's finished fermenting and letting it come in to condition that way seems to be standard practice at big cask breweries, but be aware that they're generally knocking out the same brews repeatedly with a very consistent process and very predictable attenuation. For homebrew, I'd far rather wait til fermentation is done and then add priming sugar rather than risk over or under carbonation. Also, I'd never discourage anyone from brewing a mild, but I'm not sure that they're particularly better for drinking very fresh than many other styles - I know that the name "mild" literally originally meant "fresh", but that was compared to beers that were aged for a year or two.
They are like the 1 gal mini kegs you can get like Heineken in. I have only used them once I have put an ipa in them and it took 3 weeks and was a little less carbonated than the bottled ones with a bit of added priming sugar. That beer was 4.5 weeks from brew to drinking and my buddy like it better than the bottled ones. I was gonna do a 3 gallon batch, 2 gal in the mini kegs and bottle the rest in 1 liter bottles. I will read those articles and see if anything there helps me.
You are trying to get a beer brewed and ready to drink in 2 weeks? No can do my friend. Packaging any beer prior to complete fermentation is not something you should try without having a very good feel for how the recipe plays out. It's just asking for trouble. If it were me I would explain to my friend that every brew takes planning and time. Yeast just do not care a wit about our schedules. They will not bend on this. In the meantime bring some of your favorite local instead. Cheers.
I'm not entirely sure about that - I've got a Patersbier on the go at the moment using M31 which seems to have hit FG and stabilised within four days of pitching. I'm probably going to leave it in the fermenter for a few days anyway, but if I had to I reckon I could probably bottle it today and have it tasting basically like beer (if not at its best) within two weeks of brewday. Obviously with other yeasts and other recipes you could still be SOL.
You can definitely go grain to glass in under two weeks with the right wort and the right yeast. Might not be the best beer in the world, but it'll be drinkable.
Is it possible? Sure, if hitting FG were the only consideration then most beers below 1045 would likely be fermented within a 4 or 5 days. FG is not the only consideration. Pugsley systems with the infamous Ringwood yeast turn over in about a week. It is a highly specialized system making questionable beers requiring a specific set of circumstances. And they generally suck. And they force carbonate to get it out the door quickly. You want to make a low gravity yeasty diacetyl mess with little to no carbonation? 2 weeks. Yes it will bmalt, alcohol and hops. I would not recommend showing it off. I would not advise rushing anything in the brewing process. It never works out. Especially if the brewer intends to bottle prior to achieving FG. That's gonna be a mess, don't you think? Cheers
I have turned over beers grain to glass in a week, with great results. Pitch the proper amount of yeast and spund the beer 3-4 points out from FG (verified with a forced fermentation test). Beer will likely be ready to go into a keg in 3-4 days, keg/spund to desired pressure for the CO2 volume you are after for 2-3 days and then chill and serve a day later. I personally have not had issue with flaws that I could detect in the ones I've turned that quickly. They get even better after another week or two in the keg of course, but are perfectly acceptable so young. Just make sure you pitch lively yeast... Something like WLP007 prepped with a starter so it's already going strong. I've had fermentation going within 3-4 hours after pitching a few times. On the flipside, most recently used US-05 for the first time in a long time and that beer took a solid week to hit FG, slower than my lagers! So it just depends, you are really at the mercy of the yeast so you can only hope for the best.
I'm gonna go ahead and try it. I like the idea of wlp007 yeast and that would be a good yeast for my next batch as well. It will be low gravity so if yeast can finish good I like the first article about saving some wort and starting it a little sooner and add it at keg time at high krausan and let it carb for 3 days then let it condition at a lower temp. I think it can be a good beer, if not it's only 3 gallons and a learning experience.
What happens if you misjudge it badly? I mean, apart from a wasted batch, is there a risk of explosions and mess if your FG goes a couple of points lower than you expect? How much pressure can the mini-kegs handle? If I was in your situation, I'd brew with a yeast that's known to work fast, but prime as normal and bottle - that way you're probably going to end up with something decent in the end, and if the first couple of bottles that you open early are green or undercarbed then you can always just shrug and leave the rest for a bit longer... Also, not sure whether this tallies with other peoples' experiences, but personally I'd steer clear of recipes with significant amounts of crystal malt in - I've always found that more crystal-heavy beers take a lot longer to clean up.
For a quick turnaround Mild I would suggest Danstar Windsor. Just pitch 1 sachet of rehydrated yeast and your primary fermentation should be complete in 3-4 days. Best of luck with your Mild. Cheers!
I was just about to say the same. I had 1 g of dry kviek with a small starter (like half a pint) finish 2.5 gallons in 7 days or less. I imagine a pouch of Imperial's Loki, with a 200 billion cell count, might have no problem with the time table. I'd bet with the right malt selection you might even get it near an English mild (mind you, I never brewed with this one). I'll echo minor cautions, that getting stuff perfect (like priming optimally in a mini-keg and avoiding off-flavors that accompany unfinished beer) may be more of a trial and error exercise, so this is where I see the greatest potential for flaws. My advice is to pick up a six pack of something good, as a backup plan.
2 weeks is actually not that uncommon in the big cask breweries. I worked under a guy who brewed at one for years. Standard grain-to-glass SOP was to pull fementing beer at a certain point above terminal gravity (2.5 plato, I think?), which was about 5 days after brewday, add isinglass and bung and place on stillage for 5 days. 3 days cold conditining and the cask was ready to be tapped and vented. However, these breweries are making the same beer over and over again and have very precise understanding of their yeast's fermentation schedule and terminal gravity. This isn't a method you can just implement first time around. You really need data from a dozen turns or so.
