Carbonation

[sww35]

All this talk about carbonation times and what not got me thinking. Which now leads me to ask some of the more experienced folks has anyone ever tried doing a partial boil for example maybe a 1 gallon boil for a 5 gallon batch. And then, allowing just the said partial boil to cool, pitch the yeast and allow that 1 gallon partial boil to ferment for 2 weeks or so and then finally adding 4 more gallons of carbonated water to the 1 gallon of fermented beer and then moving it all to a bottle? Not something I would try on a big scale but and idea I might try in a bottle or two in my next brew.

What are the potential differences or issues this approach could offer?

 

[Bigcorona]

Poor hop utilization do the 5X higher gravity of the boil.
Yeast would likely die before reaching desired attenuation due to alcohol content.

 

[sww35]

I know it sounds like a bad idea because it isn't the standard process but, it also sounds like a neat idea to try out something different. I assume some flavors will differ but I wonder how much?

 

[IFMracin]

I don't think you would get much carb with this method anyway.
Once you open the water, and add it, mix to get it even, then bottle, i'm going to guess it would be mostly flat.

I also liken it to fountain pop vs can/bottle pop.
Taking an extract (your 1g of concentrated beer) and diluting it to a final product.
Fountain pop def has a different taste than can/bottle, and it can vary greatly.

 

[duboman]

It is a bad idea because you won't get the proper hop utilization and you will be pitching a yeast into an extremely concentrated wort. What you are actually proposing would be like pouring a gallon of pre-hopped LME into a vessel, pitch yeast and hoping for beer. If you really think you might want to try this than next time just stick a straw into your LME and take a swig

Report back your findings

 

[sww35]

Once again, I would consider trying this approach with an entire 5 gallon batch of beer. I was suggesting maybe a couple bottles on the side. By the way, I taste test my LME and wort and beer every step of the way. Each time I check for a gravity reading, I have taste tested the beer. Obviously none of it has been good at any stage thus far but, I like to get samples from each stage of the process. On a side note, I want to say sorry for attempting to be a creative thinker and sharing my ideas about what I think up that can lead to different approaches in the brewing process.

 

[zeg]

Once again, I would consider trying this approach with an entire 5 gallon batch of beer. [...] On a side note, I want to say sorry for attempting to be a creative thinker and sharing my ideas about what I think up that can lead to different approaches in the brewing process.

I think you need to relax, you asked a question and got reasonable answers. By all means, try it, but if you're shooting for a typical 5% ABV beer, you need to brew a 25% ABV concentrate. That's simply not likely to work out very well.

 

[WhoZiT]

Your idea is something that comes to play once in a while, albeit much more concentrated. If your yeast *can* ferment up to 11%, then you could maybe get away with a 2.5 gal batch, diluted at bottling time to 5 gal. I've done 4 gallons diluted to 5 in the keg, but with boiled water, not carbonated water. If you're doing this for carbonation purposes, keep in mind that most of the carbonation would be lost in the process.

What are you hoping to get out of this?-- a shorter time for bottle conditioning? Beer is a natural process... Let it take it's course.

If you want to cut carb times, look into force carbing in a keg or even closed-system pressurized fermentation (Wortmonger).

 

[el_horno]

Try it, document and report back to us! We can all speculate, but until it is put to a field test, who knows! Id be curious to see your results.

 

[duboman]

I think you need to relax, you asked a question and got reasonable answers. By all means, try it, but if you're shooting for a typical 5% ABV beer, you need to brew a 25% ABV concentrate. That's simply not likely to work out very well.

Exactly!