Why Not Bottle Condition With Stored Wort?

[alcibiades]

Something about adding corn sugar syrup to my beer irks me. I know that some people add a DME mixture to their bottling bucket, but why not steal some wort before adding the yeast, freeze it, and reboil it for a few minutes (to sterilize it), and add to the bottling bucket? Wouldn't that maintain beer integrity? Has anybody tried this?

 

[sundowner]

What you're talking about is a type of krausening, although typically fresh wort is used. It was mostly used in Germany for lagers that would undergo a long lagering period. I don't know if they still do it.

What you propose would work, but the trick is how much to add.

What do you have against DME & corn sugar? It's much easier to figure.

 

[ChshreCat]

Something about adding corn sugar syrup to my beer irks me.

I'm assuming you mean corn sugar. I don't know anyone that uses corn syrup to prime with.

 

[Catfish]

Just use the table sugar or corn sugar. You can use wort if that seems like fun, but with the large amount of liquid you end up adding to the bottles in order to get the proper carbonation you will probably change the flavor of your beer. You would also need to worry about coagulated proteins and other break material in the bottles.

 

[sundowner]

Hey, I'm all for someone who wants to use the krausening process, but the amount can be tricky. It might range between 10-20% of the original volume...

 

[RichPGH]

Give a hoot, don't dilute!

 

[atlantahomebrewer]

if I brew a 10 gallong batch, save 2 of those gallons for botteling day and add them back to the batch, won't I end up with 10 gallons of beer? This seems simple and very efficient.

 

[RichPGH]

IIRC, it should be 20% of the existing volume, so 2 gallons would be a little too much to add to 8 gallons (existing).

 

[RichPGH]

Oh, and the store in Portersville is run by experienced brewers.