So I’m going to participate in a homebrew competition for the first time. Problem is that I have exactly four weeks between brew day and competition day, and three weeks to handing in my bottles. Is this possible without losing quality? I may have to reduce the dry hopping period. It’s going to be a Hop Fu like IPA with bottle conditioning. I was thinking of making sure the beer is ready in two weeks, then bottle condition for a week at home, and then hope that the beer will be optimal after another week on somebody’s porch…
Is there any way you can force carbonate the beer prior to bottling?
I have found that every time I try to rush a beer for a comp I get disappointing results. I do the best when I have a beer that I think is fantastic and enter that.
3 weeks for an American IPA is not that rushed provided it’s a recipe you actually have experience with and you have a solid process. I probably wouldn’t try to rush it otherwise.
No forced carbonation, no experience with recipe and quite a few new things I want to try out (e.g. using gelatin) so it looks like I’m going to hit rock bottom here 
It’s gonna be my first entry so there is no pattern yet [emoji12]
Then I would advise you not to set a bad precedent!
What would be your second best advice? :-\
And even then, its hit n miss. With my limited competition experience (6 beers into 3 comps) I’ve come to the conclusion that the reasons to enter competitions are
- Support a club (competitions are basically fun fund raisers)
- Just for fun
I honestly dont expect good feedback anymore. Your Scottish isnt smokey enough, your lambic isnt cheesey enough, your dunkel is like sour 2% milk (while the other judge says its too malty, use more munich malt). You just have to ignore that stuff I think. Once in a while they get it right and you win, LOL!
This would be the plan:
- Make smallish yeast starter from two vials of WY 1056 on brewday - 1 (I want to pitch on high krausen)
- On brewday, brew 15 liter batch - gravity 1068 and 85 IBU, and add yeast starter
- Let ferment at 67F for 7 days
- On brewday + 7, chill,
- On brewday + 8, remove yeast, dryhop
- On brewday + 12, chill beer
- On brewday + 14, add gelatin
- On brewday + 15, bottle with sugar to reach a CO2 level of 2.4 volumes
- On brewday + 20, deliver bottles and let them be stored Saint Arnoldus knows where
- On brewday + 28, have the beer evaluated and curse at not following Denny’s advice?
Would that work?
Most of the plan looks solid except I feel like you may be jumping the gun on chilling the beer on day 7. This may not have provided the yeast enough time to fully condition the beer and you may find that it still has remnants of acetaldehyde in it which judges can easily pick up.
When I brew my IPA, I typically dry hop on day 7-9 for about 4-5 days. Then I cold crash for 24 hrs, then keg with gelatin. The beer tastes great at 1 week in the keg and improves up to about 4-6 wks. in the keg. Mind you I use a closed transfer method which minimizes oxidation and keeps the hops nice and fresh. So, I am drinking these in well under 21 days.
To make your method work, I would skip step 4 (initial chilling to dry hop) and simply just add your dry hops directly to the primary at this point (more or less- your fermentation will guide you). Skipping this step will save you a day or two and allow your yeast to continue to work and clean up after themselves while you are dry hopping. I understand your methodology for wanting to drop the yeast out before dry hopping, but if you are rushed you may not be able to pull that off successfully, at least with this first attempt. Plus your gelatin may need 2 days or so to work really well.
I can tell you IME, I allow most of the yeast to drop out of suspension and settle on the bottom prior to adding my dry hops (typically 6 oz for a 5 gall batch) and I get a huge aroma from this. YMMV. Either way you choose, good luck and most of all have fun!
If it were me, I would hold off until day 9 or 10 to transfer off the yeast. I’d rather only get 3 or 4 days of dry hop rather than 7 without letting the yeast clean up after itself fully.
+1
Just another note for you. From what I’ve read here, small starters may not be helpful/ detrimental to fermentation. I’m not sure what you mean by smallish, but with 2 smack packs (up to 200B cells) you will want a largish starter to get any benefit. S. Cerevisiae states max density of 200B in 1L. You are starting out close to that 200B already, so you want to go bigger, but the with this schedule, you don’t have time to chill and decant so you will be pitching a 2L or more starter into your 15L batch, which will at least cause some dilution if not other issues. Just the way I see it, I’m no expert
In addition to all the good points made, my biggest concern wouldn’t be having it done in three weeks, but not knowing if it was any good before entering.
Huh? That’s not what the judges are for?
I got the idea from the Hop Fu talk by Kelsey McNair: on MrMalty dial the growth factor all the way to the left - use smaller starters. Then I have to use 2 packs. Not sure how big the starter should be for 15 liters, though…
To paraphrase that game-testing boy from The 101 Dalmatians: the purpose of the game is not to win, but to annihilate. 8)
So this?
4. On brewday + 7, chill
5. On brewday + 9, dryhop
6. On brewday + 12, chill beer
7. On brewday + 13, add gelatin
8. On brewday + 15, bottle with sugar to reach a CO2 level of 2.4 volumes
And maybe use some more dry hops since the contact period will be shorter. The original recipe asks for 5 grams per liter. So I’ll bump that up to 8 or 9.
In Belgium and the Netherlands a lot less dry hops is used than seems to to be common on this forum. Last year’s winner used only 3.8 grams per liter dry hops for a 1067 gravity - 78 IBU beer.
Are you sure your yeast will follow the schedule?