In the many years I have been a pro brewer and one at home, I had never encountered a time crunch of this magnitude. Beer takes weeks to brew, right? Well, I was tasked with brewing a friend a beer for her birthday that I was only able to brew 11 days beforehand.
Kveik strains are known for brewing beer at obscene temperatures and lightning-quick fermentations. This post is not about Kveik, however...
I used Fermentis Safale US-05. Tried and true. I do plan on experimenting more with Kveik soon, but my previous experiences have left an unsavory taste in my mouth (ironically from its mushroom, sulfur, and savory off characters that were dischordant with my botched blonde ale). But enough on my past indiscretions. Let's talk about how I brewed a beer as quickly as possible with no "gimmicks," secrets, or poor brewing practices.
First off was recipe design. My parameters for brewing were that the birthday girl wanted an IPA that was "citrusy and bitter." So I decided to work with that and with my limited time decided to not dry hop this beer. This makes it more of a pale ale, but you can certainly get hoppy outside of BJCP borders. And it worked like a charm! The resulting beer was quite bitter, hop-forward, and a delight to drink. By eliminating the dry hop, I reduced the total beer time by at least 3 days due to contact time with hops and giving the hop matter time to settle. This also decreased concerns with diacetyl and hop creep. Could it have been more hoppy with a dryhop? For definite, brother. But this was about creating the best beer possible and not being tardy in a constrained timeframe.
Second was the alcohol content. If this were a different person who was adamant about having a 7.5% double IPA, this story would have been writtenly differently and with a much more troubled tone. But because she condoned a more drinkable and light beer, this was a no brainer. I set the alcohol to 4.9% ABV in my design, and I hit 4.8% in practice. This allowed the yeast to fully attenuate in just over two days and have right around a week to condition and reduce any acetaldehyde and/or diacetyl present in the beer. And a forced diacetyl sensory told me that the beer was ready to chill on day 7 of fermentation, leaving me plenty of time to cold crash, settle, keg, and carbonate with my remaining 4 days.
Now I'm not going to say it was perfect, as much as I would love to present it so. Carbonation is a tricky beast, and any attempts to conquer it in a day on the homebrew scale without specialized equipment is not recommended or prudent. However, I was able to get enough in there without it tasting "flat." It was by no means up to snuff with how a beer like this should be carbonated (around 2.5-2.6vv CO2), but it had bubbles and tasted and smelled fantastic with a beautiful mirangue head on top that lasted forever. The beer was slightly hazy, even though I fined it cold with Biofine, and smelled like a vibrant grapefruit with a zippy bitter thwing when placed on the tongue. I was overall happy with the result, and I would brew the recipe again.
Speaking of, here it is! I know it's what you've all been waiting for. This was for a 70% total brewhouse efficiency. It's a bit lower because of all the hops that don't make it to the fermentor and absorb a lot of liquid.
Grain Type | Amount [lbs] | % |
Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner Malt | 8.5 | 83.3 |
Crystal 60L | 0.2 | 2.0 |
White Wheat | 1.5 | 14.7 |
I mashed at 155°F (68.3°C) with 4 gallons of water for 45 minutes, vorlaufed, and sparged until I hit 5°P in the wort coming out of the mash tun. I then let the wort drain into my kettle until either dry or the outlet wort hit 1.5°P as to reduce tannin extraction. I mashed at a hotter temp with a European malt variety with the aim of hitting a higher final gravity ~4°P to allow more malt to be packed into this beer for a smaller ABV. Pre-boil gravity was hit at 10.5°P. I then boiled for 60 minutes with the hop schedule below. I fined with whirlfloc and added a touch of yeast nutrient (mainly for the zinc). Original gravity wound up to be 12.7°P.
Amount | Variety | AA | Time | IBU | AA in grams |
1.5ml | Columbus (extract) | 55 | 60 min | 14 | ~.8 |
28g | Idaho 7 | 12.5 | 30min | 30 | 3.5 |
57g | Idaho 7 | 12.5 | WP | 10 | 7.1 |
28g | Ekuanot Cryo | 25.5 | WP | 10 | 7.1 |
This totaled around 60IBU calculated. I was concerned about this being too bitter for the ABV, but it came out quite nice. It is bitter, but not in that aspirin-chewing type of way that some of the beers out there can get (looking at you Stone IPA. Yeah, I said it. I guess I'm just a big ol' wussie). I added some gypsum (CaSO4) to the party during the boil to get a bit more "snappiness" from the bittering, and it did the job. Ferment your wort at 68°F (20°C) with the highest dose recommended by Safale for US-05 yeast, which is 0.8g/L. I did not worry too much about oxygenation of the wort prior to pitching because of Safale's E2U guidelines and lazily let atmospheric oxygen permeate into the liquid through the complex technology of running the wort through a clean and sanitized strainer prior to its final destination into the fermetor. This yeast has low esters, is quick, and relatively low in diacetyl when compared to other yeast strains; which is why I chose it for this application. Fuss free, simple, and clean.
Overall I think the beer came out deliciously vibrant, balanced, and quaffable: my ideal beer to have in the pipeline. The fact that it is so easy and quick to make is just the cherry on top. Luxardo for me, please and thank you.
Give this recipe a try, and you will be rewarded with a hoppy, citrus, refreshing beer to always have on tap. Mix up the hops a little to give it some variety; and, if you're the daring type, add some dryhops to the mix and see how it turns out. I'd love to hear about it! Cheers
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