Adding priming sugar and letting fermentation start before bottling

[drunkinThailand]

So I don't have the money to start kegging yet (hopefully someday, when i have more money and the wife's in a good mood so she doesn't kill me for even more beer s***, a lot more) but like hoppy beers (amongst many other kinds) and one idea I came across is, as the title states, adding the priming sugar and then waiting for fermentation to start before bottling to reduce the oxidation.

Anyone who has done this out there? I'd love to hear your experience and advice. Did it seem worth it? Any tips to make it go smoother?

And some specific questions:
1) Should I add the priming sugar to the fermenter? Or transfer to the bottling bucket then wait? I would think to the fermenter so there isn't oxidation during transfer, but how do i mix in the priming sugar without kicking up all the sediment?
2) About how long to wait until the fermentation kicks in? I don't want to have to sit there watching for hours...

man it would be nice to keg. someday.

 

[bobeer]

I wouldn't do this... I don't really see the point. As long as you're not heavily splashing your beer around while racking it into the bottling bucket you'll be just fine. Just bottle as you normally have done in the past. If you have issues getting a siphon going then buy an auto-siphon. They're awesome.

If you're going to get into kegging you're still going to have to transfer your beer out of the fermentor into the keg and run the same risk of oxidation as what you have now with bottling. The risk is pretty low though honestly. As long as you're not going crazy and splashing beer everywhere you'll be ok.

Money is always an issue for me too when it comes to hobbies. I try to do things for a cheap as humanly possible. It took me just about 3 years to acquire all of my kegging gear. Getting bits and pieces for christmas, bdays, fathers day, anniversary, and from free promotional gift cards, etc.. I literally put it together piece by piece. It felt like it took forever but it was worth the wait! Maybe try that? You'll be pulling pints before you know it!

 

[John Eberly]

I think you should try krauesening.

Basic idea is to save enough wort (a pint or two - you could calculate how much gravity you need for your desired carbonation) to have the fermentables you need for priming.

Start it with fresh yeast and pitch it into your bottling bucket when it's working good and hard. Bottle up and go -

Check out this blog post http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/03/22/krausening-home-brewed-beer/

 

[drunkinThailand]

thats an interesting technique John Eberly. Have you ever tried it? If so please tell me a bit about your experience, as while the concept is simple it seems like it would be very easy to screw it up.

bobeer - the reason I want to do this is I've seen people posting about how keeping LODO on the cool side has helped their hop flavors/aromas to last much longer. I live in Thailand and have limited fridge space, so my beer is stored in far less than optimal conditions and my hop flavors fade pretty quickly. i've recently started to brew 10 gallons at a time instead of 5 because I can't brew as often as I'd like, but that means I have to keep the beer longer before drinking.

anyone else have any thoughts about the original idea (see post #1) or this krausening method of priming?

 

[John Eberly]

I have primed with krauesen and with wort spiese and both worked well.

A spiese is just reserved wort without adding yeast.

Krauesening is traditional for lagers that have little active yeast by the time they are being bottled. In your case it might accelerate the bottle conditioning so the beer would be ready sooner. I suppose it would remove oxygen from the bottle quicker too.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

There isn't that much O2 in the inch of the bottle neck above your beer. However, you can buy oxygen absorbing caps as insurance. I use them for high gravity Belgians that I store for a year or more.