Clearing beer with sugar.

[Silver]

Just wondering if any punters clear their beer in the FV after it has finished fermenting by adding sugar. I guess you would call it bulk priming but leaving it in FV until the yeast in suspension has eaten those sugars and dropped out leaving a nice clear product to keg. And yes i know at the standard carbonation rate your beer will be .5% higher ABV. 2nd part of interest is what effect this might have on the yeast cake with regard to harvesting the yeast?

 

[yum beer]

If you add sugar to your beer and leave in a fermenter as you suggest, you will just have beer with a little more alcohol.
Sugar will not clear your beer...don't know where you would have got that idea, certainly never heard that thrown around before.
Bulk prime with sugar by transferring from fermenter to second vessel with liquid/sugar mix, then bottle straight away.
Beer will clear in the bottle as it ages.
You can use finngs in your primary 2 days before bulk priming to aid clearing if you wish. You can't harvest yeast once you have used finings.
Leave your beer in the primary( cold crash if possible) for 5 days or more once finished fermenting before priming and the clarity will improve significantly and leave you a nice yeast cake to harvest.

 

[Silver]

If you add sugar to your beer and leave in a fermenter as you suggest, you will just have beer with a little more alcohol.
Sugar will not clear your beer...don't know where you would have got that idea, certainly never heard that thrown around before.
Bulk prime with sugar by transferring from fermenter to second vessel with liquid/sugar mix, then bottle straight away.
Beer will clear in the bottle as it ages.
You can use finngs in your primary 2 days before bulk priming to aid clearing if you wish. You can't harvest yeast once you have used finings.
Leave your beer in the primary( cold crash if possible) for 5 days or more once finished fermenting before priming and the clarity will improve significantly and leave you a nice yeast cake to harvest.

I got that idea from watching my bottled beer clear to crystal within a week or so usually. Me thinks there should be no reason this step can not be applied prior to kegging.

 

[mkstalen]

It's as Yum said. Adding sugar will not aid in clearing the beer. Yeast will drop out over time. So leaving your primary for another week or so will mean more yeast drops out of suspension. Adding sugar at this stage will only cause the yeast to wake back up, eat the sugar, multiply, and create alcohol. If anything it will mean it takes longer for the yeast to drop as there will be more yeast.
If you want clear beer, use finings, or cold crash.

 

[bradsbrew]

I got that idea from watching my bottled beer clear to crystal within a week or so usually. Me thinks there should be no reason this step can not be applied prior to kegging.

Honestly I can not see it working. Your bottled beers a clearing because you have taken it off the yeast and the sugar will get most of the residual yeast to drop out during carbonation. By adding sugar to the fermenter you are feeding the yeast and keeping the yeast active. Just like with dubbel's etc, where they are fed extra fermentables during the fermentation stage. Best way to get the yeast to drop out is by CCing.

That being said no harm in trying, thats what this hobby is about hey. Actually I wonder what the results would be if you added the extra sugar whilst CCing at a temp where the yeast will fall asleep and not feed on the sugar, a different method of bulk priming? Let us know your findings.

Cheers