I usually dont rush my beers but ocassionally I do need to brew for a party or whatever where I need to turn the beer around quickly. The local brewpub has beers on tap just a few weeks after brewing and I think thats pretty common for brewpubs. I feel like there must be something Im missing. Anyone have any tips for getting beer on tap quickly that still tastes good?
Yes.
I’ll probably be ding’d for it but if you want a kegged beer to drink in 8 days this WORKS:
Use extract and cane sugar 60/40 and steep if you want to. Hop around 40 IBU. Or more. The trick is to use yeast with high flocculation characteristics like Nottingham. On the 8th day keg, chill and force carb.
This doesn’t do so well if you let it sit in primary for longer than 8 days. To do that you need to use 100% extract. Seems to me that with the cane sugar it tastes a little cleaner at that young age. However, let it sit too long it’s like Schlitz. Gotta halt that fermentation and retain a little sweetness and mouthfeel by chilling.
What euge is saying will definitely work. I prefer a different approach though 
If you’re in a rush and need something for a party, the first thing to do is think “low gravity ale”. A mild, Scottish 60/-, brown ale, Irish stout, even a lower gravity pale ale can be pulled off in less than a week. You’ll have time to dry hop it for a few days if you want. Pitch more yeast than you think you should, 1.5-2x what Mr. Malty says. Ferment should finish within 3 days if you keep the gravity under 1.045, or even higher. Let it clear, keg and force carbonate it.
I’ve done it a few times, it totally works.
Tom’s right I forgot to mention you’d be in the 4-5% alcohol range. Honestly, I think you could pull it off in 5 days but convention pushes me to go longer…
Try it. ;D
Tom’s right about the pitching rate. More is better.
Not sure why euge thinks it has to be extract. All grain will work well quickly also.
I like to start the ferment cool (60F) then raise the temp after three or four days for a diacetyl rest (70F), then crash cool it for a day to drop the yeast (40F) and then keg. I’ve had a regular strength APA done in a week like this. I call it particle accelerator pale ale.
I quite often brew on a Saturday and serve the following Friday.
English running beer is what you are after - ordinary bitter, London brown ale, milds, sweet stouts, etc…
Both Windsor and Nottingham yeasts can finish by Wednesday - Windsor finishes before Nottingham but doesn’t ferment as dry.
Two sachets of dry yeast for 20 litres does the trick. I ferment at around 18°C.
Rack into a keg Wednesday night and chill. Carbonate (and dry hop) Thursday night and serve on Friday night.
The beer may be a little hazy - ceramic mugs help - but fresh beer tastes great.
Ant Hayes
Tonbridge, Kent
I’ve done kegged ales in one week…most often low gravity ales mashed warm (154-156F) and fermented with highly flocculant yeasts…typically it goes into the keg on the 5th day. Add a healthy dose of dry hops to mask any “green” aromas, and you’ve got a respectable session beer. Called it a “Blitz Bitter”…even if not always technically an English Bitter; honestly, with a big dose of EKG, no one knew the difference anyway!
Here’s one of the simple recipes (for 5.5 gallons):
6.5 lbs Pale Ale malt
0.5 lbs crystal 60
1.5 ounces ~ 5.0% AAU hops 60 minute boil
0.5 ounce of awesome aroma dry hops in keg
Yeast: Safale S-04 or Windsor ale or White Labs WLP002 or Wyeast 1968 or Wyeast 1332
Good luck
Postscript: I guess I was typing while Ant was posting…so mine is a “Ditto” of what he said; and considering his locale, he should know session brews!
I have gone from grain to glass in 8 days using 1968/002, and that was withouit crash cooling. Milds and Ordinary Bitter are the choice for this.
It doesn’t have to be extract. But it’s quick and easy. 
AFAIC it all has to do with style. Certain styles lend themselves to being finished quickly. Some don’t. I can usually turn around an American IPA in 2-3 weeks. A wheat beer in 1-2 weeks. The tip about using a highly flocculative yeast is a good one. But another trick is brewing a wheat beer. For instance, during the summer I don’t brew much. So I often run low on beer. When the kegs start to run dry I brew my “hoppy wheat beer” - basically an APA with 50% wheat in the grist and US-05 that I drink cloudy.
Every time I’ve tried to rush a beer to have it ready by a certain date, I’ve been disappointed in the result. Doesn’t mean I won’t keep doing it, but I don’t expect perfection when I do.
I have never tried to rush a beer as I always have several beers in the pipeline. That being said, I think the yeast is the key here. The fast fermenting and high flocculating yeasts will enable this to happen. I recently made an APA using Pacman yeast with 50 GU’s that fermented down to 1.010 and was pretty darn clear in 5 days. It also tasted great out of the hydrometer tube.
And it depends why and who your audience is. A crowd of beer drinkers might not realize that it isn’t perfection (if it falls short of our expectations), but then again it might be just right for the situation.
We’re grimacing and sipping and they’re chugging it down… ;)
I find that “fixing” something after the fact causes more problems when the gambit goes awry.
I’ve done it in the past, too. I’m just always a bit disappointed. Always tastes ‘green’ to me. I should experiment with a huge pitch of yeast. I bet that’s something that breweries/brewpubs do (especially if they’re using something clean like american ale) to get good tasting beer quickly. I’ve also wondered if filtration might help.
So I guess my real question was not just how do you make beer quickly, but how do you make quickly produced beer taste great?
If I’m not happy with it, I have a hard time giving it to someone else.
Those are words to live by for sure!
I brewed my 1st all-grain 8 years ago and served it in 11 days for a Christmas Party. 4 days in primary, crash cooled and cold conditioned in a keg for a week. Sad to say it was one of the best beers I’ve brewed to date. Even more sad is the notes I took while brewing it. I’ve tried to recreate the beer twice with no luck. All I know is 2-row, crystal, and victory malts. A weird combination of Cascade, Fuggle, and EKG’s every 15 minutes, and WLP023 Burton Ale yeast. Maybe someday I’ll try again?
Pitch a lot of yeast cold and ramp up the temp as fermentation progresses. Give it a day or two attenuation/diacetyl rest after fermentation appears to have stopped. Crash cool with finnings for two to three days then bottle or keg. I do this with a 1.047 Cream ale and it’s ready in less then two weeks with bottle conditioning.
My light amarillo wheat pale (~4-4.5%) was very drinkable if not best at two weeks. I pitch a good amount of healthy, high flocculating yeast (Scottish), keep it cool for a day or two and then bring it up to about 70F for a week. Crash cool for a couple of days, transfer and then carb in the cooler.
If I had to I bet I could use the following schedule successfully:
Day 1: Brew and pitch yeast (keep cool)
Day 3: Raise to 70F
Day 5: Crash cool
Day 7: Transfer and force carb using 20 minute shake method, let settle for a few hours and drink
In place of a highly flocculating yeast, filtration or fining agents would be another option, I see getting the yeast out of suspension as being very important to a quickly turned-around beer. I’d also keep the SRM levels low as in my experience darker beers need some time (phenolic reactions and settling?).
I think a 10 day beer contest would be fun.
The keys are
- pitch lots of healthy yeast
- inject lots of O2
- start fermentation cool, then ramp up
Once I started doing all of these things, my beers started tasting better AND much sooner.
Aside from that, choose a lower gravity recipe. Select a yeast that either flocs well, or choose a style where a bit of haze isn’t an issue.
I find all beer will taste yeasty when fermentation first finishes… duh, there is a ton of yeast still in suspension. Then for a few days (up to a week, sometimes two), it will taste very grainy/doughy. You can somewhat mask this with a flavourful yeast (ie; weizen), or lots of late/dry hops.