I was rather amazed recently on how quick and how well Marshall’s et al lager fermentation method worked. Two side by side batches. Two weeks grain to keg, including crash and gel fining in primary.
Now im wondering what to do to get my basic ales to pick up the pace. Normally they are 21-28 day beers. What are you old pros doing, who are going grain to keg in two weeks or less? Same temp ramp as I did with the lagers?
I’m not an old pro but I ferment ales in the same fashion with good success
X° till 50% ADF then bump it up? How high for 1056 for example?
Yep, I always overbuild my starters so I get strong active fermentation within a few hours of pitching. With that said I ferment my Chico strain at 64f for the first 3 to 4 days (or until I see the krausen start to drop out to a bare minimum) and then I bump the temp up by 2 degrees Fahrenheit every 8-10 hours until I reach 74 and let it sit until I am ready to cold crash with gelatin and keg. I’m never really in a rush but when I am eager to taste what I just brewed I can go from boil to keg in 2 weeks easily with good results
Perfect, I have a 1056 APA and 1728 Scottish going now. Both brewed Dec 1. Pitched high krausen starters at 65. Yesterday I bumped them to 68. I’ll pull a sample tomorrow and if they are at or past 50% I will bump to 74.
Edit: Just got home from work and checked gravity. The 1.048 Scottish is at 1.012 and the 1.058 pale is at 1.020. Not bad for 4 days in… I set the temp to 74. Will check again in three days.
I’d say that this oxygenated high krausen starter method I’ve been using is finishing my ales faster than I am used to and I just haven’t been catching it. With stirplate starters, crashed and decanted, it would be two more weeks till I hit that level of ADF.
I may be up to speed now and just didn’t know it.
Its been my habit to not check gravity for at least a week, maybe two. I think I will start checking earlier just to see because my shaken starters are also going gang busters right away.
What does ADF stand for?
Apparent Degree Fermentation
My ales usually have hit FG in 3-4 days always less than a week with US-05. I usually rehydrate. WLP002 is even faster for me. Safale K97 was very fast.
I have BRY-97 going now. It is slower. The krausen started dropping about 1 week after pitch. It took 36 hours to have a krausen. PS. I am fermenting this one in a bucket. It may be at FG with a sticky krausen. I haven’t checked gravity.
I haven’t done any starters in a while, but, I moved to 3G batches. So I haven’t needed to.
I haven’t found any need to wait for a particular attenuation target. Start at pitching temperature (flavor-driven), then once I’m seeing linear attenuation, which for ales means ~2°P/day, I bump the controller to 22°C/72°F. Same as for lagers except that they only get bumped up to 18°C/64°F.
That sounds like a problem, actually. Could just be from fermenting too cool, but 65°F should be fine for both those strains. If an average-gravity ale was taking more than maybe 10 days to ferment out, I’d be troubleshooting.
I usually get to FG or damn close in 3-4 days. At that point I raise the temp to about 70-72 for a couple days or until I know FG is reached. Then down to 33F for maybe 3-4 days. Then carb and drink a day or two later.
Thinking of trying out Drew’s super fast brewing method to get an IPA ready in 8 days, and serve it to the club. I guess I may turn out to be the brewclown of the evening.
Keep it on the low side of the ABV spectrum (say ~6%) and you can probably do it (assuming force carbonation).
There are a few recipes that I go grain to glass in a little over a week. They’re all 4-5% Ales. You can go higher gravity, but just make sure you have a healthy pitch of yeast. So a starter is definitely recommended.
I will usually brew, pitch yeast, let primary fermentation go for 3-4 days, ramp up to room temp for two days, rack to keg and stick it in the kegerator for a day, I will then force carb, and drink later that day.
Very similar to what Denny described, minus my shorter cold crash because I don’t have room for a full size carboy in my fridge.
while many do, worth mentioning not all yeast finish up in a week. wlp400 which im using right now needs more time unless you go mid 70’s out of the gate and that results in an ester profile I don’t care fore. 66F for a week, swirl and ramp up to 70-72 for another 5-7 days to get the job done.
Most (if not all) of my moderate gravity ales are in the keg by week 2 (even IPA’s that are around 1.065-1070). That includes a cold crashing as well. As the OG of my beers increases, I start to leave them to condition a bit longer. 3 weeks for some stronger beers, and 4 wks (tops) for my really high ABV ones.
-this does not account for when I brew with WY 3724 saison strain which takes upwards of 6 wks in primary sometimes… :o
[quote=“denny, post:11, topic:21803, username:denny”]
This is my experience. I usually bump my temp on the 4-5th day. I will add that I’m having favorable results with pitching my starter at HK. When I can really schedule my pitches that is. I’m having better results vs. stir plate, chill, and decant. By that I mean I think the beers taste cleaner. The start of fermentation is faster. Might be a good split batch exbeerment.
All of my beers, ales or lagers, get 2 weeks in the primary. They’re usually done within a week (3-5 days), in which case I’ll ramp the temp up a bit (up to 65F for lagers and maybe up to 70F for ales if it’s that warm in my house) and let them clean up for a week.
I don’t brew much over 1.070 either, fwifw.
Exact same mode of operation here. I can only brew on Sundays typically so every two weeks works out well for my schedule. I have two ferm. chambers but brewing every week gets to be a bit much after a while.
Pretty much same thing I do for normal strength beers. It often goes to 3 weeks in my case, mostly due to work/family schedule. Big beers often get left in primary for a month.