[tomsawyer]

My friend asked me if I had 5-10gal of beer he could have to serve at a fundraiser.  The kicker (aside from the issues surrounding homebrew at a fundraiser) is that the event is Sept 7 and he asked me last Friday!  So I have exactly 3wks to go from grain to glass.  I told him not likely, but then decided to take it as a challenge.  So Saturday I brewed 18gal of cream ale, 75% Belgian pils 25% flaked corn with just a touch of light crystal and a little wheat malt.  Bittered to just under 20IBU with a 30min addition of Perle.  Watered the wort down to 1.042 to keep it light and reduce ferm time.  Fermenting with a generous charge of San Fran yeast cake from the 10gal batch of Cali Common we kegged just the day before.  I'm fermenting at 68F under pressure in the Brewhemoth so I'll have a leg up on carbonation when kegging time comes.  My biggest concern is clarity, and I might add some finings towards the end of fermentation.

Think theres a snowball's chance this will work?  If not I'll donate a case of wine.  I probably should've used a different yeast but this cake is the freshest and most plentiful thing I have, plus I'm assuming this is a BMC crowd so the recipe is sort of a light beer substitute.

[cornershot]

I have no experience with the San Fran yeast but I think you'll be fine. Not sure if this is helpful but I recently had a couple kegs freeze while conditioning. Not freeze solid, but they got slushy. One was a table strength saison and the other, a blonde. Neither suffered any ill effects, no carbonation loss, but both had absolutely brilliant clarity upon thawing.

[duboman]

My guess is it should be good! Assuming you are going to keg, get it to serving temp and add some gelatin for the last few days and it should clear nicely while you force carb it.

[majorvices]

HefeWeizen or Belgian Wit can be turned around in 2 - 3week easy. And re big crowd pleasers to boot.

[tomsawyer]

I havne't had really good luck with gelatin for some reason.  I'm thinking I might use a two part fining agent like Superkleer.  The stuff reacts and drops fast, might strip a little flavor but with this beer that could be a good thing.  Freezing is tempting as well, I do want to get it good and cold before I send them the kegs.

I figure I'll just tell him to call it "homebrew", that might get people to drink it more than calling it a cream ale.

I thought about a wheat beer, but figured this would be more universally appealing.

[hopfenundmalz]

I havne't had really good luck with gelatin for some reason.  I'm thinking I might use a two part fining agent like Superkleer.  The stuff reacts and drops fast, might strip a little flavor but with this beer that could be a good thing.  Freezing is tempting as well, I do want to get it good and cold before I send them the kegs.

I figure I'll just tell him to call it "homebrew", that might get people to drink it more than calling it a cream ale.

I thought about a wheat beer, but figured this would be more universally appealing.

Some of the local places love BioFine Clear.

[reverseapachemaster]

Three weeks is enough time to get most session strength beer carbonated into bottles (if you don't cold crash) so if you are kegging it shouldn't be a problem.

[kylekohlmorgen]

Sounds like a good time to invest in a kegging system.

Since its for charity, y'know...

[AmandaK]

Sounds like a good time to invest in a kegging system.

Since its for charity, y'know...

Sounds like he already has kegs.

But Lennie, I brew like this all the time. I've gone through about 25 gallons in the past couple of weeks just by brewing saisons, pale ales and ESBs for parties. 10 day ferment, force carb via shake method and boom, fresh beer in two weeks! 

[tomsawyer]

I'll look for Biofine, I've heard of it but never tried it.  If I can procure it in time I'll give it a go.  I already have the other stuff (Liquor Quick) for my winemaking efforts.

Amanda, glad to hear the testimonial.

I'm fermenting in the Brewhemoth and I had CO2 after 24hr, put the spunding valve on and running at 8psi for a few days, then I'll crank it to 15psi.  Hopefully this will keep the krausen down, this 18gal batch is the most I've done in the Brewhemoth that holds 22gal.  I'm assuming thats to the very top.

[Jimmy K]

Three weeks shouldn't be that much of a challenge, just make sure you pitch enough yeast.

[tomsawyer]

I had a full quart of slurry we harvested the previous day.  I really don't have a good sense of how fast the San Fran lager yeast goes, normally when we run a 10-15gal batch through the Brewhemoth we aren't in a hurry.

[chumley]

Three weeks is a lot of time.  I have made several beers that were kegged and served exactly one week after they were brewed: hefeweizen and bitter. Its all about the yeast: WY3333 and WY1968.

Cream ale, though, is a poor choice for a three week beer as it benefits from cold conditioning.

[tomsawyer]

I'm hoping it will have a week of cold conditioning.   The BJCP category says cold conditioning isn't usual for cream ales.

The use of a lager yeast (albeit the San Fran yeast) might make this something more like an American lager?

[AmandaK]

Three weeks is a lot of time.  I have made several beers that were kegged and served exactly one week after they were brewed: hefeweizen and bitter. Its all about the yeast: WY3333 and WY1968.

Cream ale, though, is a poor choice for a three week beer as it benefits from cold conditioning.

I wouldn't say that a cream ale is a poor choice for this exercise. I'm brewing another one for a quick turnaround with US-05 in the next few days, seems to work just fine for me. I'm sure Lennie will be just fine. 

Although, I'll say that most beer benefits from cold conditioning. Seems that the last pint of the keg is always the best!