Questions about Barleywine Adjustment

[BPal75]

So recently I brewed my first ever beer where I was shooting for over 1.080 OG. I tried for an American Barleywine on the lower end at 1.096 and 81 IBUs. Unfortunately I didn't account for the large drop in efficiency I have since learned most people experience on big beers. So my OG came in at 1.075.

I rolled with it at the time because it had already been a long brew day and I had other plans I needed to get to. My first thought was well I guess I'll have something in the IIPA range. As I've thought about it more though, I used WAY more crystal in this recipe then I ever would consider in an IPA/IIPA, and I'm worried I won't like the results. It's been about 2 weeks sitting in primary at this point so fermentation is likely finished (I haven't checked FG yet), but I've started thinking that maybe I should boil up a bit of brown sugar and dump in into primary and kick off fermentation again. This would help me bump my gravity to account for my big miss in OG on brew day, balance out the OG/BU ratio and maybe turn this back into a barleywine.

What are everyone's thoughts about trying this? Do I risk ruining my batch? Does addition of brown sugar to primary after fermentation is likely over cause any undue stress on the yeast that might cause off flavors? My #1 concern is to avoid any defects, but if I could still get this back into barleywine territory without issue I might give it a go.

Thanks!

 

[BPal75]

Bump. Any thoughts?


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[Cheesy_Goodness]

No expert here, but it seems that you could add your sugar with little problem. I would wonder how much sugar you'll need to make a real difference though...that could be an issue, but the big question is how does it taste now?
Unless you're planning on entering a competition where the judges will be picky about ABV (or maybe you are?), I'd keep it how it is. Bottle/keg and move on, but that's just me.

 

[porterpounder]

The amount of sugar to bump the alcohol up to where you want it is likely going to thin that body out significantly. I wouldn't worry about the yeast kicking off anything crazy as the amount of yeast working will make quick work of the sugar.
If you didn't bring IBUs down to match the 1.075, i.e. threw all the planned for hops in anyway, maybe try boiling up some light DME (pretty thick DME to H2O mix) and adding that instead of sugar. May boost the alcohol and could save the body. Or it could be horrible.

 

[zeekage]

If it tastes ok as is I'd leave it. I did the same thing on a recent brew day (though english barleywine not american) and ended up at an OG of 1.085 instead of 1.105. The beer actually turned out really well (won 1st in local competition in that category) and since it was smaller than intended, was actually drinkable a lot faster. A few other people brewed the same recipe from our club and those who hit the OG of 1.105 have had to wait a little longer for the alcohol to mellow.

I think honestly your best option is to rebrew it, and account for the lower efficiency with either more sparge water + longer boil (and thus some more complexity from the malliard reactions) or add more grain instead. Now you've got 2 batches of high OG beer and can lay them down in the cellar and drink them over a few years as they age and develop.

 

[BPal75]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'll try to take a sample tonight to taste and get a gravity read. I used about 10% crystal in this recipe so I'm a little worried about the beer finishing too high anyway, so thinning it out with sugar may not be too bad but I'll see.

Question about that though, say my OG was 1.075 and my FG comes in at 1.027. If I added enough brown sugar to get 20 points of gravity without adding volume (taking total potential gravity to 1.095), wouldn't the yeast consume 100% of the sugar (ie all 20 points) leaving the FG at 1.027? In other words, would it really thin the beer at causing it to go below 1.027? I would think that the residual dextrins or non ferment able sugars in there would remain, so the body should be about the same?


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[zeekage]

Alcohol is thinner than water. So if the yeast ate 100% of the brown sugar, it would indeed drop your FG below 1.0027. I'm not sure by how much, but it would. Wine/Cider generally finishes well under 1.000 (around .990 I believe) due to the alcohol content.

 

[poptarts]

Look up how Lagunitas invented Brown Shugga, sounds like your going down the exact same path and that is my favorite beer.

 

[BPal75]

Thanks everyone this is great stuff and extremely helpful.


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