Quick, Easy, Summery Brew - HELP ME!

We've booked a holiday at the beginning of June, we go away on Saturday the 4th. We're off with friends and kids to Wales for a week and I have been asked to bring some of my beers along. To be honest, me and my mate depleted my stocks quite severely this weekend when we had a barbecue, so I need to get something else on the go, pretty quickly.

I've got the usual suspects in stock already; MO, wheat malt, Vienna, Munich, various crystals, various darks, amber malt, etc.

Hops-wise I've got Cascade, Northern Brewer, Magnum, Ahtanum, Amarillo, Nelson Sauvin, Saaz, Goldings, Centennial, Pilgrim... maybe something else, but I'm not sure.

For yeast, I have Notty, US05 or MJ's M03 - Newcastle Dark Ale (now called M15 - Empire Ale apparently)

I've got less than 4 weeks and I might not get it done until Saturday, which will give me 3 weeks, so I want something which will be half acceptable in that time. I accept from the outset that it won't be crystal clear, as the only time in the cold it will get will be in the fridge for a day or two before drinking.

Not sure on some people's hop threshholds, so nothing too toe-curlingly hoppy.

Anyone got any suggestions? There is soooo much I want to try, I've got recipe blindness!
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Do you keg? As in, can you force carb?

machin05 said:

Do you keg? As in, can you force carb?

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Nope, bottles only. Could use a minikeg, but I've got plans for them already.

Keep it simple grain wise or just single malt as less complexity should help for quick conditioning, use the notty yeast, again for quick ferment and clearing. Recipe wise an english style pale/golden ale is a pretty safe bet and not face meltingly hoppy!

Summer Lightning recipe is a good base and you can swap out hops for whatever you fancy really if you adjust for IBUs.



Alternatively you could try something like this that is a bit lighter and mixes up some american and english hops but is still hopped fairly moderately (for my tastes anyway!). This one is only a few days in the FV and its my own recipe but I did a very similar batch for my water experiments and it was very good so should be nice. Saaz could work well in place of the Liberty or maybe be a bit more adventurous and use one of the more fruity options?




You could consider using some finings if you want a nice clear brew after 3 weeks, I have just used some gelatin for the first time and the results were pretty miraculous, what was a pea souper has dropped crystal clear after one week in the bottle. You need to be able to cold crash but otherwise its very simple to do, I used the following method:

Cold crash beer at end of ferment as low as you can get temp (I got to about 4c in my fridge), combine 1/2 a teaspoon of powdered unflavoured gelatin with half a cup of hot (not boiling) water and stir to dissolve. Chuck it in FV and swirl it round a bit. Leave 48 hours at cold temp and then rack and bottle/keg as normal.

Hoppy wheat beer for me.
45%wheat, 45%pale malt and 10% Vienna or Munich.
Hop to around 45 ibus with any of the really good American hops, plus an 80* steep for 30 mins.
Wlp001 yeast or equivalent.
I've down this a few times, I've actually had a nice bottle of it 3 weeks after the brew day, that's when I didn't cold crash it for a week.

I'm actually doing one of these for a BBQ coming shortly, it works well as a quick brew to get ready.

TheRedDarren said:

Hoppy wheat beer for me.
45%wheat, 45%pale malt and 10% Vienna or Munich.
Hop to around 45 ibus with any of the really good American hops, plus an 80* steep for 30 mins.
Wlp001 yeast or equivalent.
I've down this a few times, I've actually had a nice bottle of it 3 weeks after the brew day, that's when I didn't cold crash it for a week.

I'm actually doing one of these for a BBQ coming shortly, it works well as a quick brew to get ready.

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Good shout definitely a brew that can be drunk very early and no issue with cloudiness as its expected for a wheat

HisDudeness said:

Good shout definitely a brew that can be drunk very early and no issue with cloudiness as its expected for a wheat

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Even with the 40% wheat I've found this clears well, especially with the 001 yeast.
Did your FI clear well dude?

TheRedDarren said:

Even with the 40% wheat I've found this clears well, especially with the 001 yeast.
Did your FI clear well dude?

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Wasn't around for long enough! It was getting there but my missus (with a little help from me) smashed through the stock in about 2 weeks :lol: Was a great brew :mrgreen:

Wheat beer is a good shout, I didn't think of that.

If I was do a wheat beer, should I use one of the yeasts I've got already or is it worth popping into the LHBS for a proper wheat beer yeast?

My LHBS doesn't stock liquid yeasts, so it would have to be a dried one... isn't S33 meant to be decent for a wheat?

Use a standard ale yeast if you want a cleaner 'American style' wheat beer, better if you want the fruity hops to be more prominent. Go for a proper wheat yeast if you want the more European wheat beer taste with the banana/bubblegum/spice esters more prominent

HisDudeness said:

Use a standard ale yeast if you want a cleaner 'American style' wheat beer, better if you want the fruity hops to be more prominent. Go for a proper wheat yeast if you want the more European wheat beer taste with the banana/bubblegum/spice esters more prominent

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Cheers Dude, US05 or Notty it is then. I'm thinking Notty because its so reliable.

Thinking of bittering with the NB, then Ahtanum and Amarillo late on. May use a bit of orange peel late in the boil too.

Sounds good, should give you a nice citrusy wheat. A little coriander seed in late could work well too, been looking at Blue Moon recipes recently and this is used with the orange peel for that beer

I would go for a simple Weissbier. It will be at its best in 3 weeks. I used the Greg Hughes recipe and the best bottles were the first ones I opened. Adding American hops may add flavour but may take more time to blend.

How does this look?

Still can't t decide between US05 and Notty. What do you think?

I'd do the Greg Hughes Witbier.

Half and half pale ale malt and wheat, saaz at the start of the boil to 15 IBU, and some bitter orange peel and crushed corriander seeds for the last 15 mins.

It's a great brew and is as good as it gets after 3 weeks.

I've used Safbrew WB-06 with great success but I'm trying the MJ Witbier yeast next for a change :)

HisDudeness said:

Keep it simple grain wise or just single malt as less complexity should help for quick conditioning, use the notty yeast, again for quick ferment and clearing. Recipe wise an english style pale/golden ale is a pretty safe bet and not face meltingly hoppy!

Summer Lightning recipe is a good base and you can swap out hops for whatever you fancy really if you adjust for IBUs.

Alternatively you could try something like this that is a bit lighter and mixes up some american and english hops but is still hopped fairly moderately (for my tastes anyway!). This one is only a few days in the FV and its my own recipe but I did a very similar batch for my water experiments and it was very good so should be nice. Saaz could work well in place of the Liberty or maybe be a bit more adventurous and use one of the more fruity options?

You could consider using some finings if you want a nice clear brew after 3 weeks, I have just used some gelatin for the first time and the results were pretty miraculous, what was a pea souper has dropped crystal clear after one week in the bottle. You need to be able to cold crash but otherwise its very simple to do, I used the following method:

Cold crash beer at end of ferment as low as you can get temp (I got to about 4c in my fridge), combine 1/2 a teaspoon of powdered unflavoured gelatin with half a cup of hot (not boiling) water and stir to dissolve. Chuck it in FV and swirl it round a bit. Leave 48 hours at cold temp and then rack and bottle/keg as normal.

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Gelatine is the future Dude! one teaspoon and boom job done never had to cold crash using it

Maybe a Black IPA?

BigDave345 said:

Gelatine is the future Dude! one teaspoon and boom job done never had to cold crash using it

Maybe a Black IPA?

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Interesting! So you just throw it in at normal fermenting temp and it still does the job? Everything I had read suggested it needed chilling first, will be very happy if thats not the case!

HisDudeness said:

Interesting! So you just throw it in at normal fermenting temp and it still does the job? Everything I had read suggested it needed chilling first, will be very happy if thats not the case!

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What i do i chuck it in 500ml of hot water stir the hell out of it, let it cool lob it in give it a gentle stir jobs a good one as they say in 48 hrs never needed to cold crash ever

5day old raspberry wheat beer.
Added the fruit after one week.