Adding sugar after primary fermentation

[Camride]

So I've got a Belgian Trippel fermenting right now. To help the beer attenuate down a little drier (as well as add some ABV) I'm going to add a pound of Belgian Candi Sugar to the beer after the most vigorous fermentation is over. I've got a couple questions on this though.

How long do people usually wait to do this? I was going to wait 5 days so that the bulk of the heavy fermentation is over, but the yeast hasn't had a lot of time to settle down and go to sleep. Is this a good time or should I wait longer. I'm planning on having this in primary for 3-4 weeks total.

Second question, how much ABV will this add on a 5 gallon batch? I started out at 1.073, but I'm not sure how to calculate 1lb of candi sugar into the total ABV.

Thanks!

 

[dbhokie]

I did it with the last Belgian Golden Strong I did (partially because I like honey), but I added honey 72 hours into primary. I had a good start on fermentation and waited until it subsided about 80% from its peak, then threw it in to try and kick up the esters and give the yeast a steroid shot. It worked rather well and turned out tasting beautiful. Not saying that is the best thing, but it worked for me.

 

[Camride]

Cool, I might go ahead and add it tonight then.

Any idea on how to calculate the increase in ABV from 1lb of sugar?

 

[Revvy]

What I've done is waited to the krausen falls on the intial fermentation. Then after adding more sugar you usually get another krausen. If I'm adding multiple pounds I do it in increments waiting for the krausen to fall before adding.

 

[Camride]

[noob worry]
Ok, so I boiled up the sugar last night and threw it in (4 days into fermentation) and nothing has happened. Unless the fermentation took off overnight and then slowed down/stopped this morning it seems like it's not doing anything. I think I boiled the sugar long enough (it was on the burner for over 10 minutes, though not boiling the entire time, I had to walk away for a few minutes) and I let it cool to ~80*F before tossing it in.

[/noob worry]

I'm sure everything is fine, I just see people talking about fermentation taking off again after adding the sugar so it has me a little worried.

 

[Revvy]

It may have very well come and gone. Compared to all the other fermentables a little bit of sugar is not a lot to chew through. It's not necessarily going to be adynamic fermentation.

 

[dbhokie]

It might take it a bit if you have a lot of headspace to really kick back up. I ended up with a lot of krausen after adding the honey, but it took about 12 hours for the krausen to form good again. Check when you see it again today, you may be surprised, I wouldn't worry too much anyways, as mentioned above it may not be that visible, I am sure your taste buds will be delighted with the drier finish you get (and increased alcohol).

 

[Camride]

It might take it a bit if you have a lot of headspace to really kick back up. I ended up with a lot of krausen after adding the honey, but it took about 12 hours for the krausen to form good again. Check when you see it again today, you may be surprised, I wouldn't worry too much anyways, as mentioned above it may not be that visible, I am sure your taste buds will be delighted with the drier finish you get (and increased alcohol).

I actually have a pretty small amount of headspace, I ended up overfilling this batch a little. I probably have close to 5.5 or 5.75 gallons in my 6.5gal fermenting bucket. Whoops.

Either way I'm not going to worry about it. I'm sure everything is fine, I'll check the gravity in a week.

 

[SeanGC]

What's the water to sugar ratio you used to boil the sugar in before pitching into the primary?

 

[Revvy]

One of our members on here who is a chef always says "enough water to moisten all the grains of sugar + 1 tbs more."

 

[SeanGC]

I have 5lbs of candi sugar that I'm adding to the primary in a day or so for my tripel. I was going to place all the sugar in a pot, fill the pot with water, exceeding the height of the sugar by a cm, and then boiling that.

Thoughts?

 

[Tropidolaemus]

Still no answer on how to calculate the ABV?

I have been adding sugar usually on the 3rd day of fermentation for any beers that have simple sugar additions. It has really made these beers much better in terms of taste and performance (hitting my FG target). But at this point I'm just guessing on my ABV. I'm ok because in the end I have great beer but obsessive/compulsive side of me needs to know the ABV ��

 

[Shuldawg]

In regards to the ABV, sounds like a good question for Northen brewer (email or maybe even vodcast) or your local HBS pros.

Keep us updated on how it turns out.

 

[fmr_army]

According to Palmer's site, pure sugar is calculated at 46 ppg. Thus, if you add 1 pound to 5 gallons, you'd get an increase of .09ish points on your OG.

 

[kmgibbons]

This is how we have been calculating ABV