High Gravity Fermentation

[tarcrarc]

I'm brewing a barley wine and the OG came in higher than expected (1.120). Recirculating the sparge is what made the surprise on the OG. Anyway, it's been going mad for the past 48 hours--no problem. Usually, my FG comes in a little higher than I want so I have lately been in the practice of adding a small amount of simple sugar to my boils to get it down to some degree. I did not do so on this brew.

Here's my question: I'm 2 days in and all is going well. I am shooting for a FG of somewhere around 1.025-1.030. Since I tend to come in high on my FG I am thinking about adding 1 lb. or so of corn sugar to make sure it doesn't stop out too high. My concern is the fact that even if I hit 1.030 I'm at a 12% brew and if I go even lower on the FGI may end up with a brew that tastes rather alcoholic.

I see 3 options:
1. Let it go without the sugar and forget it
2. Add the sugar now
3. See where I am at when things slow way down and add sugar if I am (FG) too high.

If the answer is #3---when is it too late to add sugar where the yeast will still consume it?

Thanks

 

[billl]

Adding sugar will not make the fg appreciably lower. The yeast will eat anything they can and whatever they can't will show up as your fg. Adding more simple sugars won't change the fact that they can't eat some of the other sugars in your wort.

The way to use simple sugars to lower your FG is to replace some of the fermentables with sugar, not just add sugar. eg take out a lb of grain from the recipe and add in some sugar. That way, you are removing some of the non-fermentables and replacing them with something 100% fermentable.

 

[agrazela]

Since your efficiency was higher than expected, you probably should have added more water up front to get your OG down to where you wanted it.

But you can still essentially do that, by diluting with water (that has been boiled and cooled to sterilize and de-aerate it) after fermentation is finished...assuming that it DOES finish at higher gravity than you wanted.

 

[misterkidd]

Hmmmmmmmm..... depends on why you want a lower fg, is my first instinct. If it's for a dryer beer then billl is spot on - you can't remove unfermentable sugars by adding simple sugars. Unless you have a stuck fermentation, of course.

An elegant but time consuming solution could be to make another smaller but very well attenuated beer (say og 1.040 fg 1.002 or something of that nature) with low mash temp, no specialty malts and some table sugar, and then blend this with what you already have. Not sure whether you would add the wort to your current batch or just ferment it separately though...

 

[danath34]

If it were me, I'd go pick up a pack of highly attenuating yeast, make a starter, and pitch it if your FG is too high. That, aside from blending or dilluting it like mentioned above, is the only way to dry it out at this point.