natural carbonation without priming?

[nathanharms]

This might be a dumb question but does anyone carbonate their beer by transferring into the keg before the final S.G. is reached in order to carbonate at the end of fermentation? I was wondering if it is possible and, if so, at what point during fermentation would you decide to move into the keg?

I looked around but couldn't find the answer, sorry if missed it somewhere.

 

[malkore]

No. But you could look up krausening.

racking before FG is hit is going to leave you with a TON of yeast sediment in the bottom of the keg since you're talking about racking 4 days after pitching...no time for any clearing to occur.

 

[bull8042]

Yeah, what you are considering is a bad idea. Like malkore suggested, krausening is a process of using some of the preserved wort from the batch to provide the sugars for carbing instead of adding DME to feed the yeasties.

 

[nathanharms]

got it. Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it!

 

[BierMuncher]

Actually a number of micro's I've visited transfer there beers to a pressurized tank once the beer is about 95% fermented (a process they've nailed down after trial and error). Most cask conditioned beers are carbonated by slightly premature pressurization of the wort. It's really quite common...but as mentioned...there are some trade offs.

Until you've experimented and dialed in a consistent process...you won't know whether you will end up with slightly flat or overly fizzy beer.

As far as clearing...any beer will clear with adequate time in a chilled vessel. You may need to draw an extra pint or two to pull out the sediment...but you will have clear beer with adequate time.

If I were going to venture a try...I would rack to a keg the day after the krausen began to fall and hold that pressurized keg at room temp for another week.

 

[Wayne1]

If you are able to ferment in a vessel that can hold pressure, you can use the CO2 production to carbonate.

I did this a few times at the last brewpub I worked at. You need to monitor the gravity of your beer fairly closely. When you hit roughly 75% attenuation, you would then need to seal the vessel. You will also need a pressure relief valve to make sure you do not go over 10-12 PSI (depending on the pressure rating of the vessel you are fermenting in). Once fermentation is completed, drop the temperature down for conditioning.

I have only done this with lager yeast in Unitanks. I was able to open the bottom valve to blow out the yeast to allow the beer to lager with little trub.

After lagering, I would then filter the beer, under pressure, into the serving tank. All this is possible with homebrew sized gear, but it can cost a bit.

The resulting beer does look and taste different than a force carbonated beer. For the most part, the extra effort and gear it requires is not worth it for the "general" public. For the true beer geek, it is nice for a special brew.