Anyone else cutting it fine for Xmas brews?

[fury_tea]

I've just moved house (with a garage which I've claimed as my brewery) so everything is a bit up in the air at the moment. Only unpacked my brewing stuff yesterday and I also ordered a new keg and pub gas, and I realised I had nothing to put in it. I ran to wilkos, grabbed a tin of the cheapest IPA and a bag of brewing sugar and light DME and made a low % brew (1.040 SG) in the quickest way possible (basically followed what it said on the tin). I had a spare pack of yeast from the same kit from a couple of months ago in the fridge so I threw that and the one that came in the tin into it and stuck it in the ferm fridge at 21c. It was bubbling away within 3 hours which is a good sign I guess.

My plan is to dry hop with whatever I can find in the freezer after 6-7 days (and test the gravity then too), then if all is good cold crash with geletin in the primary for 2 days then keg it and force carb and keep it fairly cold until Xmas Eve when my family arrive. So start to finish will be 20 days. I know it's cutting it fine but it should be just about drinkable, right? Right?

 

[Drunkula]

Yeah, 7 to 10 days fermenting if you've got your setup right then 10 days in the bottle.

I'm cheating and doing wheat beers. Probably do a side by side of cml kristalweizen vs belgian and maybe a blackberry wheat. 6 days brewing then bottle and they'll be ready to drink by the 18th.

Might fanny about with some biscuit malt and special X, too. I want to get something on a bit chocolately, too, after having success with chocolate wheat and pale chocolate malt recently.

 

[fury_tea]

after having success with chocolate wheat and pale chocolate malt recently.

Chocolate wheat? I've never seen that. What do you put it in? Sounds interesting!

 

[Drunkula]

I did a really simple split to test 4 different dark grains carafa special II + III, chocolate wheat and pale chocolate 82% pale malt, 10% crystal, 8% of the dark malts. Admiral, EKG, liberty bell yeast.

The chocolate wheat and the pale chocolate were the best. Sort of like milds that settled out to a nice chocolate - I'd bump them both right up next time because they were great. The carafas added little flavour.

 

[Snrub]

Haha, I'm brewing a SMASH IPA and a Mango Lassi IPA with the intention of serving on boxing day. It's gonna be tight!

 

[DavidDetroit]

I know it's cutting it fine but it should be just about drinkable, right? Right?

I didn't read the other posts yet but that will be totally drinkable in that amount of time. Nice and fresh.
Edit: As far as cutting it close for beers available for Christmas, miracle of miracles, I have loads of darker, sipping beers ready which is just my idea of a holiday beer. The best one so far is a "mistake beer" I made of an Old Ale--deep, rich and a little complex on the flavor. I am trying to refrain from calling my beers a clone of _____ because, to date, while they taste like the style, they have not tasted close to what I've tried to clone.

 

[fury_tea]

I didn't read the other posts yet but that will be totally drinkable in that amount of time. Nice and fresh.
Edit: As far as cutting it close for beers available for Christmas, miracle of miracles, I have loads of darker, sipping beers ready which is just my idea of a holiday beer. The best one so far is a "mistake beer" I made of an Old Ale--deep, rich and a little complex on the flavor. I am trying to refrain from calling my beers a clone of _____ because, to date, while they taste like the style, they have not tasted close to what I've tried to clone.

What was the mistake?
I did an Irish Red when i was just starting out. I messed up the recipe, used UK gallons instead of US gallons, but ended up with a very drinkable 3.5% session ale and was more than happy with it!

 

[Drunkula]

I'm putting on an imperial stout Christmas day with kveik putting it in with the turkey to take advantage of its heat tolerance, dry hopping it while we have the pudding then smashing right into it during the Queen's speech.

 

[fury_tea]

I'm putting on an imperial stout Christmas day with kveik putting it in with the turkey to take advantage of its heat tolerance, dry hopping it while we have the pudding then smashing right into it during the Queen's speech.

Hahahaha

 

[DavidDetroit]

What was the mistake?
I did an Irish Red when i was just starting out. I messed up the recipe, used UK gallons instead of US gallons, but ended up with a very drinkable 3.5% session ale and was more than happy with it!

Fortunately, those measuring errors aren't prevalent here. As you pointed out, even an error such as that isn't a major deal and sometimes leads to a good idea.
My error was thinking that 10oz of dark brown sugar was an equal replacement for 10oz of golden syrup. It is definitely not. The OG was jacked out the roof (1.120 instead of 1.090). I had a delayed panic attack when I realized that the S-04 would fail to ferment that, leave it far too sweet and make carbonating the beer in the bottle, at best, dicey. I added a vial of WLP090 which is a diastaticus strain known for fermenting sugars that don't normally get fermented with traditional yeasts and that did the job. I wasn't thrilled with needing to take such an extreme measure. After the fact, it turned out well, but it was utter, blind luck and a roller coaster ride that I wasn't interested in being a part of. I left the beer in the primary an extra week to accomodate. And if you are familiar with the diastaticus strain, you do know to be careful not to give it a chance to affect any future beers which means a lot of detailed sanitizing.
Edit: That's my abbreviated answer. You should have seen the original draft!
Edit #2: Here's a photo of the mistake beer (above):

 

[Harbey]

I'm going to do a wheat beer tomorrow. I've already got a fair stock but you can't have too much at Christmas can you?

 

[terrym]

I did know someone many years ago who used to dunk their glass straight into the still fermenting beer in the FV to fill it before drinking it, when supplies got a tad low.
Perhaps some of you will be doing the same thing over Xmas

 

[DavidDetroit]

I did know someone many years ago who used to dunk their glass straight into the still fermenting beer in the FV to fill it before drinking it, when supplies got a tad low.
Perhaps some of you will be doing the same thing over Xmas

That's desperate and hilarious and a great idea all at the same time.

 

[fury_tea]

I did know someone many years ago who used to dunk their glass straight into the still fermenting beer in the FV to fill it before drinking it, when supplies got a tad low.
Perhaps some of you will be doing the same thing over Xmas

I've drank large portions of homebrew cider straight from the demijohn. But that's flat cider (which was meant to be flat), and was ready to be bottled and tasted great! Beer straight from the fermenter is next level!

My dad makes kits, he uses king kegs and will often start drinking them at day 3 or 4! Not sure he's ever had a brew last more than 2 weeks from kegging it haha

 

[AlDaviz]

well my story ! I’m in Spanish Hospital and been here 2x weeks after an accident. Was planning a Pilsner and a NeIpa. All grains at home
Problem I’ve not been out of bed for the 2x weeks and have all paws in casts
Looks like I won’t be brewing for a while luckily I have a stockpile of a sherry aged red ale

 

[ACBEV]

I think there is a lesson to be learnt... Brew Christmas brews in January.

 

[fury_tea]

I think there is a lesson to be learnt... Brew Christmas brews in January.

All good and well until you run out in Feb and start dipping into your Xmas stash!

 

[Drunkula]

My wheat beer has brewed out from 1.040 to 1.008 in 36 hours at 24c. I just added 300g of sugar because my efficiency was only 65%. I've got tons of time. I put in 5.6% of biscuit malt for an experiment and I really think it's become close to the thing I've been trying to do, make a beer that tastes like digestive biscuits. Quite by accident.

 

[Sandimas]

I didn't think I was cutting it fine with my "just one last brew before Xmas" but Day21 and it's still going.

 

[dad_of_jon]

mango tango 2 - 1 week in bottle low fizz - it will be close! might get them down the shed around about the 20th