Natural carbing

[UrbanBrew]

Not even sure what to search for on this. But I was wondering if it is possible measure the amount of fermentation left in the primary so you can bottle in time for it to carb.. On a BH tour I took, they mentioned that they "naturally carb" by putting the beer in a container before the fermentation is done. Let me state that this is one of those "is it possible questions"? The risk would not out weigh the reward. Sounds like a bottle bomb waiting to happen.
Thanks
:fro:

 

[jester5120]

a better way to do it would be to pull a certain amount of wort before you pitch yeast and keep it in a sanitized container until you're ready to bottle. the extra sugar in the wort will carb the beer. There's a write up on how to do it in charlie papazian's complete joy of homebrewing book. I believe he refers to it as krausening

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

a better way to do it would be to pull a certain amount of wort before you pitch yeast and keep it in a sanitized container until you're ready to bottle. the extra sugar in the wort will carb the beer. There's a write up on how to do it in charlie papazian's complete joy of homebrewing book. I believe he refers to it as krausening

yep, that's how it's done. lot easier than trying to package when fermentation is at a certain point.

 

[Yooper]

Yes, it would work fine IF (and this is a huge if!) you knew exactly where the beer would finish.

What I mean is, I often vary in FG in beers that I make routinely. Not usually a big difference, but one time it might finish at 1.010, and one time it might finish as high as 1.014. If I bottled at 1.016, and the beer continued to 1.012, that would be great. But if it finished much lower, say at 1.008, it would be overcarbed and maybe bottle bomb area. But if it finished at 1.014, the beer would be undercarbed.

If you had your process and recipe nailed down to where that beer always finished at 1.010, then that wouldn't be a problem.

 

[Revvy]

This is what the old pre-prohibition brewers used to do, and why one of the biggest complaints in those days was bottle bombs. It's much more controllable to let the actual beer ferment out and incorporate a limited amount of fermentables to the beer at bottling time, where only that is what gets fermented out, because there are no fermentables remaining in the original beer.

 

[DannPM]

It's called bunging. Anchor does it with their Anchor Liberty ale. It's an old Champagne technique. I'd say you're safe to try this out if you're kegging. I'd be hesitant to bottle with this technique though...