Bottle when mostly fermented?

[dichotomous]

could I bottle when my beer is almost finished fermenting, still in primary, instead of finishing primary and then priming?

 

[Revvy]

Uh...yeah....if you like bottle bombs, and maybe losing all your beer.

Why would you want to do something like that?

You can't really control it so you're really playing russian roulette..

 

[Malticulous]

It has been done. You have to hit all the numbers to get it right. Priming sugar is just so much easier. You have to know the FG and bottle 1-4 points above it (depending on the carbonation wanted.) A fast ferment test and very close monitoring of the fermentation (probably hourly) are needed.

 

[seabass07]

If it was a beer I've made many times before consistently, then I'd try it. But only if I ALWAYS hit the same fg each time I made it. Then you could bottle a few points above FG and it will carbonate. The problem is that if your mash temp was off a few degrees and your real FG is actually several points lower than expected, you can get bombs.

 

[JonM]

What's your hurry? There are two choices: 1) wait for it to finish, add the measured amount of sugar, and carbonate in a controlled manner, or 2) gamble and guess when you've reached that point a couple points above FG, and bottle, which could result in flat beer or worse, bottle bombs. If you get bombs, you could cause really serious njuries to you, SWMBO, the dog, friends, etc.

Not worth it.

 

[Malticulous]

If it was a beer I've made many times before consistently, then I'd try it. But only if I ALWAYS hit the same fg each time I made it. Then you could bottle a few points above FG and it will carbonate. The problem is that if your mash temp was off a few degrees and your real FG is actually several points lower than expected, you can get bombs.

That's why you have to do the fast ferment test. You fermant the same wort at higher temps and high pitching rates to find the FG before the yeast in the fermnter are there.

I could only see this be useful for a wiess bier, but it's not unlike the secondary fermentation in old lager breweries or even cask ales. Steam beer used to be packaged like that and that's how it got the name.

 

[green_bierz]

I'm no pro brewer but ill throw my .02 in. The hardest thing I had to learn with my first brew was patience. Seriously. Wait. Hit Fg for three or so days and rock it over to bottles with priming sugar. Flying shards of glass. Bottle glass at that does not sound like fun. Let alone losing valuable delicious beer!

 

[dichotomous]

I was just thinking for the next brew actually. The current is in secondary and will be primed as normal. I didnt know the fg was so variable.