no-prime bottling

[martinworswick]

i can think of several reasons not to do the following but i'm curious to see if anyone has tried it, and with what results.

if you bottled your beer before fermentation was complete at a specific number of points above your expected final gravity and let the remainder of the fermentation carb the beer.

could it be predictable enough to work?

i know there will be more sediment in the bottles, what if your f.g. is higher or lower than anticipated etc etc .

anybody have any thoughts on this?

 

[jason.mundy]

Would this be tried on a beer that you have never brewed before? If so, the final gravity is only an estimate.

Also, the results would be inconsistent each time you brewed a new recipe.

I guess the real question is, how close are you coming to you predicted final gravity each time?

Are you trying to save time? Or avoid the use of priming sugar?

 

[wilserbrewer]

Sure you can do this if you like. In fact I believe this is the way kegged beer was done original in wooden barrels.

Couple problems,

1. You will be bottling green very cloudy beer w/ loads of sediment.
2. carb levels will not be as consistent.

I wouldn't try it.

 

[shinerfanok]

why not pitch another yeast cake and some malt before bottling after fermentation has completed?

 

[martinworswick]

Are you trying to save time? Or avoid the use of priming sugar?

neither really, the subject came up over a few beers with a mate, one of them 'i wonder if' moments, just curious to see if anyone had actually tried it.purposely.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Not sure about bottles, but this kegging method in Germany on Kellerbier.

 

[jason.mundy]

I thought that I should add... There is an advantage to leaving your beer on the yeast for a few extra days past fermentation. The yeast start absorbing some of their by products, i.e. Acetaldehyde and Diacetyl. Taking the beer off the yeast cake may inhibit the clearing of these... but you'll have some yeast in suspension, so who knows. They could clear it up as well.