Can a beer reach FG in a week?

[hoptoit]

A lot I've read up on is not to drop the temp to let the yeast clean up, but raise it a couple of degrees.
Im fermenting a apa at the moment at 18oc with us-05. Probably the lowest temp I've fermented as I now have my fridge sorted, and have to say it's the liveliest and biggest krausen I've seen at this lower temp. Once it's settled I'm going to give this one the last 4-5 days at 20oc.

 

[gamekeepa]

I've just taken another reading and It hasn't moved from 1.010.
Another strange thing is I tasted it just now and it doesn't seem to taste as good as when I took a sample for Gravity reading just a couple of days ago. Nowhere near as much flavour.
Also, I'm not opening the lid to get a sample I just drain a bit from the tap into the test jar.


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[geetee]

Very interesting - especially since its not what I do at all! Do you think that reducing the temperature to 14°C helps in the clean up of the beer? I normally let it sit for a week (or two if I use 2 FVs for a "double-dropping" technique) at around 20°C, when the fermentation is pretty well over and whilst the yeast gradually settles down, before casking ("plasticking"??) it for up to a fortnight before bottling.
Can't say I've ever been tempted by this new-fangled cold-crashing idea! (OK, I am closer to 70 than 60 :-() Would my old-fashioned English genuine top-fermenting yeasts be OK with this? Why shouldn't I just wait a bit longer? Is it preferable to finings? (gave up on these decades ago!)
Obviously, since I've never tried it, I don't know the answers!

I did the 10 week Brewlab course last year which is aimed at preparing for commercial brewing* and the course tutor with 30 years experience for S&N, Heineken among other breweries covered this in conditioning. The idea is to drop the temp to 14°C over 24 - 48 hours. This warm conditioning phase matures the flavours and avoids diacetyl ( allows it to be broken down). This is then followed by a cooling phase, as low as possible.This was part of the maturation and conditioning module of the course content. We were also given a flow diagram of all of the side reactions that occur to clean up the unwanted bi products of fermentation. During both the initial warm and then the cool conditioning the beer turns from "green beer" to mature beer for sale as the yeast cleans up with a series of chemical reactions.

All I know is that this has also been my approach for 10 years since I started brewing at home , was confirmed by the professional opinion and works really well in the shortest time if you have good hot/cooling equipment such as fridges and temp controllers. I find that crash cooling after 2-3 days warm conditioning gets rid of more protein and gives a haze free beer an is a main part of the physical rather than chemical maturation of the beer

I don't profess to being an expert but if you are fermenting at a temperature inside the operating range of the yeast and then increase the temperature is this not likely to produce more off flavours? Within the operating range the main job of the yeast is to ferment, it will start to clean up once the temperature is dropped as when fermentation is over.

Probably worth saying that this is MY standard approach for Ales. Lagers will require different procedure and may require warming up after fermentation as they are fermented as a much lower temperature.

*Remember that commercial brewers are trying to get the beer ready as quickly as possible and maybe do not have the time to allow conditioning times of 2 weeks warm, 2 weeks cold as some home brewers do. I'm far too impatient to wait that long so 12 - 14 days from start to bottling is my norm for most ales.