Expert: John Snyder - 5/28/2004

Question
i was wondering if you could tell me a way to carbonate my home brew in the bottle without the addition of any type of priming sugars ?..  i have a lager sitting in the fridge at 40 degrees temp. the o.g. was 1.0045 at the start of fermentation... i do not wish to force cabonate this brew. i prefer to let nature take it's course.. i used a german strain of yeast from white labs. and have been lagering this beer for about 5 months.. it still shows signs of active fermentation.. (airlock)   i have heard that at some specific gravities that priming is not always nessasary.. is this true?.. and if so, how would one go about doing this?..    THANKS !

Answer
What you are looking at is a process called Kraeusening,that involves adding freshly fermenting wort into a finished beer.This method is more time consuming,and requires some specific analysis,of gravity,and yeast counts.In this process the carbonation period is significantly less.

here is a simple method of krausening(elimination of priming sugars)

1--clean and sterilze several mason jars,or large beer bottles and lids
2--take some of your wort as it reaches the end of the boil
,just prior to adding the finishing hops,and transfer the needed amount of the boiling wort to the jar,or bottle(empty the hot water first)and cap immediately.Let the wort cool to under 90 degree F and then refrigerate until your batch is ready for bottling
3---At bottling time,boil the saved wort for 10 mins.and chill,then add to the fermented beer and bottle.It is important to use the proper amount of unfermented wort for the particular beer you are priming

HERE IS A ROUGH GUIDELINE:based on 5 gallon batches.

Original gravity reading:     Amount of unfermented wort:
      1.030                          2 quarts
      1.040                          1 1/2 quarts
      1.050                          1 1/4 quarts
      1.060                          1 quart
      1.070                          3 1/2 cups
      1.080                          3 cups
      1.090                          2 2/3 cups
      1.100                          2 1/2 cups

This should accomplish the type of priming you want to do.
Priming is not necessary in a true krausening,but is complicated.The home process that is outlined above should serve you well.
              good luck,happy brewing
                    john