To prime or not to prime

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bigliver

Active Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Messages
36
Reaction score
0
Location
Canada
Goodafternoon,

I was speaking with another AG brewer in my neighborhood and we struck upon the topic of priming and conditioning. He mentioned that he has never primed his beer when he bottled, as there was enough residual sugars to take care of carbonation. During my last bottling session, I set aside 3 gallons and bottled them without priming.

Any thoughts on this process?

bl.
 
seems to me that if there was enough sugar left in teh beer at bottling to prime the bottles that perhaps fermentation wasn't really quite done yet. but that's just my own take on it.
 
I agree with MikeP; sounds like fermentation wasn't done. He will eventually end up with bottle bombs. Make sure your ferments are done and add about 2/3 of a cup of dextrose or 1 and 1/4 cup DME to prime when the time is right.
 
if you're really good at knowing your FG then it's possible but then you've got to carefully monitor your readings. Sounds like a PITA to me. Let us know how he likes the first time he has to go open a whole batch of bottles and add a tablet or bit of suger. The other side of the coin is if he does it way too soon and its over carbed and he's got 2 cases of volcanos.
 
Like Dave said, unless you have your process REALLY dialed in, this method is crude at best. More than likely, you will end up with beer that is over carbed, under carbed, or even bottle bombs. A lot of traditional cask ales transfer to the cask before fermentation is finished. The cask is sealed and it creates the carb. 1, its a very dialed in process. 2, they are steel or aluminum kegs, so its easy to vent them in case it over carbs.
 
it is actually acceptable to not prime some big beers like barley wines, RIS's, ect. there is still a small amount of maltotrios that will probably be left that the yeast will very slowly eat. it may take up to six months to get it at the appropiate level of carbonation. i wouldnt do it to a beer under 9% abv.
 
I made a barleywine that came in around 9% and put about half the priming sugar I normally would have. Six months later, it was perfectly carbed - creamy, but not fizzy. I definitely think there were some extra sugars consumed besides the priming I added.
 
I used to share my brew with a guy that brewed back in the 40s and 50s. He would tell me all kinds of things he used to do. Among them was bottle conditioning. He and his friends would watch the beer in the crock it was fermenting in and could determine when they needed to bottle.

I never talk about what modern home brewers do as I enjoy his stories and I think he enjoys that I listen. And I do indeed enjoy listening as I find it interesting to compare his experiences to those that regurgitate the same bottle bomb hydrometer quotes. People used to make beer without airlocks, hydrometers, starters, counterflow chillers, homebrewtalk.com and howtobrew.com. We really have it pretty easy.
 
Back
Top