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Quick Brew?

BeerSmith

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Brew fans...

What do you brew when you need to restock quickly?  I shook some of the kegs in my fridge this afternoon and they were alarmingly low.  

We're having some friends over in about a month, so I need something that I can brew, ferment and age relatively quickly to replenish the stock.

Thoughts??

Brad
 
If you're doing all-grain and are interested in a "semi-tough" brew day, give this a try. It's an all wheat brown porter (the name NBW = Nothing But Wheat). The keys are (1) to use a lot of rice hulls in the mash, (2) lautering slowing, and (3) using the Wyeast 1026 strain, which ferments quickly and settles well. Let me know if you have any questions.

==========
NBW Brown Porter (version 1)
(American Brown Porter)
5.5 gallons (7.5 gallon boil)
75% mashing efficiency
OG = 1.054; FG = 1.014; Color = 19.24 SRM
Bitterness = 42 IBU; Alcohol = 5.2%

9.5 lb German wheat malt
14 oz Caramel wheat malt
8 oz Chocolate wheat malt

0.75 oz Northern Brewer (whole, 6.5%) for 60 min
0.75 oz Willamette (whole, 4.8%) for 45 min
1.0 oz Centennial (whole, 6.5%) for 30 min
0.75 oz Mt Hood (whole, 3.6%) for 5 min
0.75 oz Liberty (whole, 4.6%) for 5 min

Mash with rice hulls at 150-152F for 60 min. Sparge with 170F water.  

Wyeast 1026 British Cask Ale

==========

NBW Brown Porter (version 2)
OG = 1.053; FG = 1.016 (at kegging); Efficiency = 80%; IBU = 40; SRM = 25.5

6.5 lb American wheat malt
2.5 lb Weyermann dark wheat malt
13 oz Weyermann crystal wheat malt
7 oz Weyermann chocolate wheat malt
1 lb rice hulls (in mash to aid lautering) [Note: I will probably add more next time I make this beer.]

2 oz Willamette whole hops in mash
1 oz Cascade (4.3%) whole hops, first wort
1 oz Centennial (6.2%) whole hops, first wort
0.75 oz Northern Brewer (6.3%) whole hops for 60 min
0.5 oz Liberty whole hops for 15 min
0.5 oz Liberty whole hops for 5 min
0.5 oz Liberty whole hops at flameout

0.5 oz calcium chloride in mash
0.5 ml phosphoric acid in sparge water
1 whirlfloc tablet for 15 min
0.5 tsp Wyeast yeast nutrient for 15 min
Wyeast 1026 British Cask Ale, 4th generation slurry (350 ml)
2.75 oz rock sugar (candi sugar) for keg priming

Mash in with 11.6 l hot water, hold at 40C for 15 min, add 2.6 l boiling water and heat, hold at 60C for 15 min, add 1.3 l boiling water and heat, hold at 67C for 60 min, then mashout at 77C.
==========
 
 These both look great, but a Porter is the only thing I do have ready to go on tap...I made a nice keg of it this summer and it just made it into the fridge as my others ran out...

 Any other suggestions for a quick to brew crowd pleaser?

Cheers!
Brad
 
Cut the chocolate down to an ounce or so, and you'll have a nice brown ale! Or, make it more American by using Cascade and Centennial!

I have a pale ale going right now that I'm sure is going to be a crowd pleaser, but it's not quite ready and I used different yeast from usual, so I don't want to post any recipe for that yet. My IPA (Rising Sun IPA/Broken House IPA/Hop Hourglass IPA/House of the Rising Sun JPA) recipe is posted over in the HBA forum. That's also ready amazingly quickly, as long as you use the Cask Ale yeast.

Whatever you do, though, get moving man! Time is wastin'!!! 8)
 
Brad, any of the recipes I've posted so far are fairly quick turnaround...especially if you're going to keg them.  All are extract (with adjuncts) and will ferment in 3-4 days, another 2-3 in a secondary for clarification, into the keg to artificially carbonate and presto, you have a new brew in just over a week.  I've had my kegs taking about 3 days to fully carbonate, but you can supposedly bump the CO2 and shake it every so often to speed things up (haven't tried it yet tho).  If you have a porter already it sounds like you need a good IPA!  ::)

Good luck...and please let me know how it turns out if you try any of mine, ok?
 
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