[edward]

We didnt set out to do this....it just sort of happened.

Two weeks ago I fermented one gallon of beer in 3 gallon fermenter. It was the last bits of an American Blonde (the nasty break/Hops sludge that's the last stuff in a kettle) on 1/3 a packet of a kviek strain called Nornes from Maniacal Yeast.  The Nornes strain is from the same region as Voss and seemed to act similarly and give a somewhat similar character.  It fermented out quickly.  The finished gallon was slightly tart and dry but otherwise quite clean.

Last Friday I racked that off the gallon while brewing a Festbier (1.056 OG). We added a gallon of this Festbier ( again...the nasty break/hop sludge that’s the last stuff in the bottom of the kettle) on top of the yeast/trub. This sat in my garage at 90 degrees (that’s as cool as it gets this time of year). Fermentation started within an hour and was complete by the time I got up the next morning (about 14 hours).  Finishing gravity was 1.009.

On Saturday we brewed a 22 gallon batch of Sierra Nevada Pale (OG 1.058). After fermenters were full we added almost 2 gallons of break/hop sludge on top of that one gallon of day old fermented Festbier - seemed like a good idea at the time....there may have been beer involved.  Now we have three total gallons in the fermenter - about 2/3 gallon of which is sludge (break/hop matter/yeast).   The wort went into the fermenter at about 1100am at probably 90 degrees.  Again its 90-95 degrees in my garage and that’s where it sat.

The three gallons fermented to completion (1.012) in 18 hours. There was an open spot in the kegerator and the three gallon fermenter fit like a glove - cold crashing began.

Monday at noon the beer was kegged.  Yielded ~2 gallons into a 5 gallon keg.  Pressurized the keg to 30 psi and shook it up.  Repeated 2x.

Tasting notes:  Clean and maltly.  Citrusy/Floral hop aromas and flavors.  Carbonation is spot on.  Body is creamy.  The caramel malt comes through in a nice way.  Moderate bready malt profile - just enough bitterness to balance.   Moderate haze.  Its surprisingly good.  Much better than it has any right to be.  The Cascade hops from the SNPA and Hallertau in the Festbier make for a unique combination.  Kind of comes across with an English like hop character.

I've heard of others turning around beers this fast but none usually start off with an OG of 1.058 - some may have but I dont lurk on the forums enough to know.

I gave it to two of my buddies (both BJCP judges that I respect their opinions) and both were surprised on how clean it was and neither would have guessed that it was a two-ish day old beer. One of them noted it had an Orange Cream like flavor and that there was a slight twang at the back of the palate.  I'm hopefully going to bring it to our next local homebrew meeting (whenever that is) to share it and get some more feedback.

I'm definitely going to keep salvaging the trub/crap at the bottom of the boil kettle for more interesting experiments. I normally try to keep most of it out of the main batch so its easier to re-use and harvest post-fermentation.

After this experience, I honestly think I could go from grain to glass in 24 hours in the right circumstances AND get good results.



 

[ynotbrusum]

We are going through a paradigm shift in this hobby, to say the least.  Glad it worked out for you!

[TeeDubb]

I did a low OG (4.5%), low bitter ale one time from brew day to keg in about 6 days and it was OK. Then I had 5 gallons of 'just OK' that lasted too long. Admittedly, I think it got a little better, but was still just meh.  Since then, I've learned more about yeast and appreciate the goodness of time in the fermentation process.