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From grain to glass, what is your brewing timeline? Here's mine.

For an ale I brew and do a 3 week primary. I usually keep my ferm chamber at 16.5 C for most of that and raise it to 20 near the end. I'll then cold crash for 3 to 4 days and then keg. Set to 35 psi for 1-2 days (no shake) and then down to 12 psi for serving and finishing the carbonation. I'm drinking it in about 4 weeks from grain to glass.

I'm interested in hearing your schedule and what works for different styles and yeasts. I wouldn't mind having a couple "quick" brews as long as there's no off flavours involved.

Thanks, and I'm looking forward to the responses.

-Rob

It's not uncommon for microbreweries to have beer packaged and out to market inside of 7 - 9 days from brew day

Ale is a pretty broad term, I typically do something like a wheat beer in 8 or 10 days although if pressed they can be done in about 6 days, I did one lite-shit-ale in 3 days once, but it was filtered RIS on the other hand is more like 10 weeks minimum. Breweries have pretty efficient cooling systems which speeds the process quite a bit. So yeah, it depends on ABV, ingredients and yeast strain. Basically more flavour requires more time for those flavours to meld and become one.

According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency folks there's three types of beer - ale, beer and stout But really there's two types, ale and lager. If whatever you make is not a lager, then it's an ale. So.... my timeline from grain to glass for ales is 6 days to 12 months. Hope that helps

I have absolutely no schedule or timeline. Somewhere between 3 weeks to 5 years (and counting).

one of my better pale ales was tapped right around 2 weeks, but usually i take closer to a month (longer for darker or stronger ones that i want to let mellow).

having a beer bottled and ready to go at 7-9 days is crazy

Primary 1.5 to 2 weeks for a standard ale. Usually, I then like to rack to a secondary for 1 to 2 weeks to clarify/dry hop. Then it is to bottle or keg. So look like my standard time is from 2.5 to 4 weeks before bottle/kegging.

This is where the real time savings is. By kegging and force carbonation at this point, the ale can be very drinkable in days at this point, while with bottling, it will be another 3 weeks before the beer is really right.

This is just my standard though, like X, I've had a beer in the primary for over a year for the right style. It wasn't named "Can't Wait" for no reason.

About 4 weeks when kegging for me for Pale Ales and moderate gravity IPAs. Sometimes as soon as 2.5-3 weeks though depending on the beer.

A standard strength ale will usually be 5 - 7 days in the primary 1 to 2 weeks in the secondary, and a week or 2 in the bottles before drinking. Lagers will usually take 2 to 3 months, and strong beers take as long as they need to. My good barleywine is almost 3 years old, and my bad barleywine is almost 7. It has blueberries, so I may bring a bottle or two to fruit fest.

I try to keep things in primary for 2-3 weeks, then I'll keg them and leave them for anywhere between 1 week to 6 months depending on if I keg prime or artificially prime.

It really comes down to my laziness and when I get around to racking into the keg.

Virtually all of my beer sit in the primary for 3 weeks or more before it's kegged. I don't use secondary fermenters at all so it goes right from the primary to the keg. For typical ales, it's about 4 weeks for me. For higher gravity beers, it's always longer.

canuck wrote:Virtually all of my beer sit in the primary for 3 weeks or more before it's kegged. I don't use secondary fermenters at all so it goes right from the primary to the keg. For typical ales, it's about 4 weeks for me. For higher gravity beers, it's always longer.

I do pretty much this exactly - 2-4 weeks in primary then straight to keg.
I'll usually crash at 1*C for 2 days, see what gunk pours out into a pint or two, and start carbing. I usually just set at 11-12psi and wait a week, but sometimes i get antsy and give it a reallll good shake at 30psi (5-10 min of aggressive shaking - incredible workout haha).

from grain to glass?

depends on how much beer i have currently on tap. if i have no beer on tap then i typically drink the wort as its fermenting!

I've made an oatmeal stout and have it in the keg and force carbonated ready to serve in 8 days from brew day.

I typically do 4 weeks. I generally aim for 3 weeks in primary, 1 week priming in the keg on CO2. Although now that I have a good keg stockpile I have been priming in my kegs which adds another couple weeks. I also now have beer sitting in carboys waiting for empty kegs (going on 8+ weeks now). For those I rack off the yeast after 3-5 weeks. I find the flavors still mellow if its primed or not, so I like to get it on CO2 and watch how the flavor changes over time. I think I like my stout and my bitters best after 3+ months. IPA's I like younger, but I have never done a double or imperial IPA and I am just now experimenting with milds.

As a non-kegger I find 5 weeks the earliest I can get the beer brewed and bottle conditioned properly. I've had maybe one batch I found close to properly carbed after 2 weeks in a bottle so I usually expect three weeks of priming. Add time for bigger beers that I keep in the carboy longer before bottling.