Added sugar to my brew...Am I OK?

Hi all,

I'm making an IPA but for whatever the reason my mash efficiency was incredibly low, so I decided to add cane sugar. I put in two cups of boiled, saturated sugar water which brought my OG up from 1.035 to 1.055. But I read on a forum post earlier that sometimes adding sugar at the beginning of fermentation can cause the yeast to consume less of the malt sugars than they usually would and can lead to extra, unwanted sweetness in the beer. Do you guys think I'll be ok? Ill post my recipe

Batch Size: 1.3 gallons
Mash: 75 Minutes
Temp: 151 degrees
predicted OG: 1.067 predicted FG: 1.017
Predicted Efficiency: 70 ABV: 6.6
IBU: around 50

2 lb 11 oz American 2 row
6 oz Munich (10L)
2 oz Crystal 60
2 oz carapils
1 oz Crystal 20
1 oz Victory

1/4 oz Cascade (6.4%) 20 min
1/4 oz Chinook (11.1%) 15 min
1/4 oz Chinook (7.5%) 5 min
1/4 oz Cascade (6.4%) 5 min
1/4 oz Chinook (11.1%) 0 min
1/4 oz Cascade (6.4%) 0 min
0.2 oz Chinook (dry hop) 7 days
0.2 oz Cascade (dry hop) 7 days

It really depends on the yeast. What did you pitch?

You may want to keep some DME on hand for these situations instead of using cane sugar.

Wyeast American Ale. So what do you think?
Yeah I think I'm definitely going to buy a backup bag of DME for the future

I think you'll be fine. Keep your fermenter in the low to mid 60s if you can and give it a good long primary. If the gravity doesn't drop enough, you can try warming the fermenter into the low 70s, but don't do this until the ferment seems good and done.

Only thing you might encounter is a cidery flavor due to the cane sugar, but if you ferment low and give the yeast a good long primary to clean things up I think you'll be OK. You might even finish up a little dryer because you are replacing some malts with highly fermentable sugars, so your FG may be lower than predicted. But your ABV will be higher :rockin:

Thanks for the tips. But what would be a good time in primary? Since it's an IPA I was thinking I would only keep it in for two. What would be a long time for an IPA? 3 weeks? 4 weeks?

Just keep checking the gravity. Once it flatlines at or below your anticipated FG you're good. But do note that since you changed the sugar profile it might ferment lower.

I'd check gravity maybe 1 week in, after the krausen has fallen, then two days later, then two days after that. Take a reading every couple days until you get three readings in a row that are all the same and at or below FG. Two weeks should be sufficient, but check gravity.

However, you should sample your beer for any off flavors. Even if the gravity is stable, if it tastes cidery or funky in any way you'd do better to leave it on the yeast for a while longer to clean up vs. bottling straight away.

natelindner said:

But I read on a forum post earlier that sometimes adding sugar at the beginning of fermentation can cause the yeast to consume less of the malt sugars than they usually would and can lead to extra, unwanted sweetness in the beer.

Click to expand...

I really don't think there is any truth in this.

Agreed - I don't think you need to worry about your yeast underattenuating. The only thing I would worry about is the potential for cidery off-flavors, but even there I think you'll be OK.