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Priming without sugar or gyle(sp?)

Pahlavan

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Is it possible to achieve natural carbing by bottling/kegging before primary fermentation is fully complete thereby carbing without any sugar additions?
 
Yes it is.  It's called krausening.

You have to really, really understand your fermentation processes though.  You have to bottle it at just the right gravity for the style.  If you bottle it too soon, you'll overcarbonate and create bottle bombs.  If you bottle it too late, you'll be undercarbonated or flat.

Another option is to reserve just the right amount of your wort before fermentation begins.  Just put the correct amount in a sanitized canning jar and keep it refrigerated.  When your beer is fully fermented out and ready for bottling, you can add the canned wort to the fermented beer and bottle it.
 
Not to be nit-picky Scott, but what you described in your last paragraph is krausening. I have never heard of someone guestimating when to bottle/keg before fermentation is complete.
Here's Brad on the subject: http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/03/22/krausening-home-brewed-beer/
 
You're correct.  I think that boiling up a little DME, in place of corn sugar would be considered Krausening also.

I have heard though of bottling when the beer isn't even finished yet.  I can't for the life of me, find that reference anywhere.  I think it was something I read in a book.  I've went through my library and can't find it though.  It's been twenty years since I read it, so it may have been when I was too new at this to fully understand it.  Bottling early also has many drawbacks.  Knowing exactly when to bottle is one that I mentioned.  The other would be that the beer never got a chance to go through a conditioning phase, which is extremely important in getting a clean flavor profile.
 
Here's a quote from "Fermenting Lagers" by braukaiser at      http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fermenting_Lagers

"During the secondary fermentation (a.k.a lagering) the tanks are closed and the pressure build-up is controlled by a pressure sensitive bleeder valve. This system, called Spundungsapparat, ensures the proper carbonation of the beer during lagering. The German Purity Law prohibits the use of non-fermentation CO2 for beer carbonization. It is also more economical for a brewery to use the CO2 produced during fermentation."

There's no reason you couldn't do the same when bottling - as long as you know what your final gravity will be and track your gravity obsessively during fermentation. It might be simpler for a home brewer to ferment to completion and add priming sugar, but home brewing is often about experimentation and generally playing around with the process, not taking the easy way.
 
I've found that reserving a quart of wort in the fridge and reboiling it on bottling day works well for everything I've tried it in. I'm sure there's some math formula that you can crank in OG an FG and batch volumes to get an ideal amount of reserved wort to use, but I aint no good at cypherin'. A quart works great.
 
Hi All,

Just to let you know, i followed the equation in joy of homebrewing book and it worked a treat. Maybe it was a fluke but they carbed just right, didn't gush out and kept a good head,

Thanks for you replies
 
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