why do breweries have their brews out in 3 weeks or less

[guest5234]

I have been brought up by letting my brews mature yet I am told breweries had their ale on sale 3 weeks after brewing, how come we cant do the same?

[SBMongoose]

I would imagine they are able to have perfectly controlled conditions to maximize efficiency in production. Also the faster they can get beer to their customers freeing up tanks, the quicker they can make more beer to sell to other customers.

[adomant]

depends on the beer, for some low gravity "running" beers 3 weeks is about right. My mild and hefeweizen homebrews are drinkingin 3 weeks. As o.g. gravity goes above 1.040 or so, more maturation is required (generally speaking).

Because of duty, many ales are in the 3.4 abv area and don't really need to condition for too long

[Andy Dean]

Ive always been led to believe that beer matures much quicker in larger volumes too, dunno if thats true or not though.

[darkonnis]

They do condition quicker in larger volumes. Easiest example is put some beer in an easy keg, and put some in a bottle. I found the stuff in the keg was miles ahead of the bottles, it took my bottles probably a month and a half to get to the same point (4.5% abv mild). It's also why breweries have conditioning tanks as opposed to just banging them straight in the cask, allowing them to condition it quicker without affecting shelf life. (or atleast this coupled with space saving is why I assume they'd do it?)

[micromaniac]

They do condition quicker in larger volumes. Easiest example is put some beer in an easy keg, and put some in a bottle. I found the stuff in the keg was miles ahead of the bottles, it took my bottles probably a month and a half to get to the same point (4.5% abv mild). It's also why breweries have conditioning tanks as opposed to just banging them straight in the cask, allowing them to condition it quicker without affecting shelf life. (or atleast this coupled with space saving is why I assume they'd do it?)

ditto on the the kegs to bottles bigger volume quicker it is ready to drink

[Wolfy]

Why do they do it? Because storing large volumes of beer is expensive, the quicker they turn the beer over, the more money they can make.
In addition many breweries will filter (often adding finings/adjucts) and then force-carbonate their beer, or add back a precise amount of yeast/priming sugars - not many home-brewers have those facilities or that level of control.

Interestingly one of the last beers I made was great (force carbed) after only 9 days and most of the keg was gone only 11 days after the grain was crushed ... so it is possible to do at home, but it depends on the beer and situation.

[alix101]

Can't say I agree with the theory of bigger batches conditioning quicker! Its got to be down to the filtration systems they use... Cat litter etc.

[WishboneBrewery]

Yeah, all breweries filter through Cat Litter, some even remove the turds before filtering

I think its necessity, production to meet demand and physical limits on storage etc

[WishboneBrewery]

My homebrew varies some NZ & US hopped beers will be drinking well after 1-2 weeks in the bottle (after a week to 10 days in the FV), some other hops may take time to mature and I find some Dark beers go from drinking well fresh then have a middle ground of mediocre then mature and age into something much better

[gnutz2]

I agree on the storage point of view, but in my experience my bottles are way ahead of my kegs in the flavour depertement.

Making a beer ready to drink in 3 weeks is quite easy, the right recipe definitely helps.

[Troutman47]

I tend to be drinking my beers after 3 weeks, 2 weeks fermentation, 1 week warm conditioning then start drinking!
Always bottle, never keg!

[Tinkerer]

Yeah, all breweries filter through Cat Litter, some even remove the turds before filtering

Ah, it all seems to make sense now. So I'm figuring that's how Fuller's earth was invented in the first place...? And wouldn't steeping with a few urine-soaked lumps be a great substitute for elderflowers out of season???

(Sorry, just carry on - I don't have anything sensible to contribute on this one...)

[alix101]

Thought someone would give a more technical explanation than cat litter ..but the principal is the same, you didn't actually think coors was filtered through the rocky mountains

[critch]

think youll find real ale aint filtered at all.....

my beers within 5% of fg within 4 days with a 4% session ale (ferm at 20.c), chilling then speeds up the clarification time, no conditioning tanks in my brewery, its cask or bottle condition or nowt (at the mo... quite fancy ketting on the craft keg bandwagon ) out of the brewery a week later then its normally sat in the pub cellar for the best part of a week before dispense, sometimes longer, got some ranges in the cool room that are 2-3 months old and glorious, but as ade says youve got to get it shifted!