How can I prime bottled beer in accordance with the reinheitsgebot?

Question

How can I prime bottled beer in accordance with the reinheitsgebot?

Raffael

2018年3月5日 17:45

I so far brew beer using two different beer brewing kits. One required adding honey, the other sugar, for the bottling.

First of all - isn't this breaking the reinheitsgebot? As a German I feel obliged to it.

Shouldn't the dextrose produced during mashing be sufficient for sweetness?

Then again I read that the sugar added during bottling is supposed to increase carbonation - not sweetness. But how would sufficient carbonation be ensured without adding sugar (sticking to the reinheitsgebot)?

(my question might seem dogmatic but I am more interested in understanding the underlying processes)

Topic reinheitsgebot sweetness sugar priming carbonation homebrew

Category Mac

farmersteve · Accepted Answer · 2018年3月5日 17:45

The easiest way to not break the Reinheitsgebot rules is to use malt extract. Either liquid or dried. Simple as that. Many people do this and most homebrew books have a way to calculate the amounts. Malt extract is derived solely from malt sugars. Therefore, in essence it is barley and water and then dehydrated. So all you are left with is unfermented wort (with or without hops). This does not break the rules.

The other way to do this is to cask condition during fermentation and bottle under pressure.

Ttam · Accepted Answer · 2018年3月2日 10:44

As a German I don't get the hype about the Reinheitsgebot. I think it was a nice invention back then and sure is a good marketing thing nowadays. You should read into why the Reinheitsgebot was originally introduced and think about its relevance in present days. I personally just like a good flavoured beer and am open for new creations.

A lot of people also think the Reinheitsgebot was the biggest attack on European shamanism. But that's pretty esoteric stuff....

Anyway, back to topic: I think what most people here explained is the German "Speisegabe" (keeping a bit of the original worth, store it cool and ad it in the end). To my knowledge its only done for bottle fermentation in the Hefeweizen.

Most commonly used is the "Grünschlauchen". You keep a good eye on the sugar content of your beer and when it has just about enough sugar left to make a nice carbonation you fill it into the bottles.

Mr_road · Accepted Answer · 2018年3月1日 11:41

Take a portion of wort and prime with this. This is how almost all German brewers who do not force carbonate prime. To comply with Reinheitsgebot the forced carbonation must be done with CO2 recovered from the brewing process.

They don't store wort for long periods of time, but ensure they brew on bottling day and mix cooled wort with fermented beer as packaging.

Þórgnýr Thoroddsen · Accepted Answer · 2018年2月27日 11:50

Yes. Priming with sugar would break the reinheitsgeboten.

The way you want to go is to retain unfermented mash and add it when bottling takes place.

There's a really handy calculator right here: https://www.brewersfriend.com/gyle-and-krausen-priming-calculator/

How can I prime bottled beer in accordance with the reinheitsgebot?

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