Wingin' it IPA

So I made an IPA for my second batch ever and here's what I did: panicked. Here's a sort of walk through of my brew day schedule.

Brought 5 gallons to 170° F, steeped 1 lb breisse caramel and 1 lb of another lighter malt for 20 minutes. Removed grain bag, brought to boil. Added 6 lb DME and 1 oz Warrior hop pellets, boiled 90 minutes. In the intervening time it was boiling, I started panicking that 6 lbs of DME was nowhere near enough. So I added what I had on hand. Table sugar. I estimate between 1 and 2 lbs of the stuff. Then I proceed to read on the forums here that table sugar gives cider-like flavors. I'm not the kind of guy to think he ruined his beer, and I don't think it's ruined, but I'm curious as to what the end result might be. So far fermentation has been vigorous; I've even had to clean the airlock. I'm planning on dry hopping after a two week wait in primary with an ounce of whole cone Citra for a couple weeks before bottle conditioning. Any thoughts? Cheers!

Was your adding of the sugar to boost the ABV?

I guess so. I was sort of mentally comparing it to the imperial blonde I made for my first batch, which had 6.6 lbs LME and 1 lb DME. I couldn't remember if there was an additional ingredient, panicked, and added the sugar to beef it up. I was worried it would be watery and that the yeast wouldn't have enough to eat.

So according to beer calculus I ought to end up with a 6% ABV.

I think you are probably ok. It would have been better if you would have used corn sugar, but in reality I think it will turn out good, especially if you are doing a secondary fermentation. It'll have a lighter body than it would have had because sucrose (table sugar) is very nearly 100% fermentable. Based on your recipe, you are looking at 14%-25% of your total fermentables being table sugar. It should still be quite good, if you drink it and think it tastes too light bodied, try the recipe again but ad another 2 or 3lb of malt extract and take away that table sugar. I think that that 2 lbs of grain you added in the steeping might really add to the body and kind of cover up the table sugar. I am interested to see how this turns out. Cheers!

sljohnson said:

I think you are probably ok. It would have been better if you would have used corn sugar

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Why? There is nothing wrong with table sugar. Beet and cane sugar (not corn) are used a lot in English and Belgian brewing, some of the best beers in the world.


For the OP. There is nothing wrong with sugar in an IPA, particularly an extract one. It helps drying out. 2 lbs is a bit much, but 1 would be appropiate.

Sugar does not produce cider flavors.

I'm more concerned about what the 'other lighter malt' was. If it was more crystal or caramel malt, it will make a very sweet beer, and the addition of the sugar might have just helped offset some of it.

Calder said:

Why? There is nothing wrong with table sugar. Beet and cane sugar (not corn) are used a lot in English and Belgian brewing, some of the best beers in the world.


For the OP. There is nothing wrong with sugar in an IPA, particularly an extract one. It helps drying out. 2 lbs is a bit much, but 1 would be appropiate.

Sugar does not produce cider flavors.

I'm more concerned about what the 'other lighter malt' was. If it was more crystal or caramel malt, it will make a very sweet beer, and the addition of the sugar might have just helped offset some of it.

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Yeah, I think I'm of the same opinion.

2lbs of malt seems a bit much, would've just stuck with the 1lb. Then again...were the only hops 1oz of Warrior @ 90min? And then a dry hop? Maybe some of that malt will help with the bitterness.

Anyways, this could turn out totally awesome. You never know what you'll end up with when brewing Keep us posted!

I'm a relatively new brewer myself, but my $0.02...

You may not have a ton of hop flavor, having boiled the warrior for the full 90min with no later hop additions. You should have a decent amount of hop bitterness. The dry hopping should add some hop aroma back in, but it might not get the full flavor component. But TBH, I am not sure, it's probably fine.

6# of extract would have been fine, maybe on the lighter side. The 1-2# of sugar should be no problem. Many styles of beer call for sugar additions (Belgian) and do not have cidery notes. What the sugar will do is lighten the body up, so it will have a more watery mouth feel. This may be good or bad.

Your mini-mash at 170F sounds too high to me. Everything I have seen says to steep the grains at ~155F, and I always steep at 155F for 20-25min, so you may have extracted some tannin flavors. Not sure though, never steeped that high.

Overall, while this beer might not be the best beer on the planet, there is no reason to think that it won't be decent drinkable beer... or it might be amazing, let us know!

Calder said:

Why? There is nothing wrong with table sugar. Beet and cane sugar (not corn) are used a lot in English and Belgian brewing, some of the best beers in the world.


For the OP. There is nothing wrong with sugar in an IPA, particularly an extract one. It helps drying out. 2 lbs is a bit much, but 1 would be appropiate.

Sugar does not produce cider flavors.

I'm more concerned about what the 'other lighter malt' was. If it was more crystal or caramel malt, it will make a very sweet beer, and the addition of the sugar might have just helped offset some of it.

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Using too much simple sugar in a recipe absolutely produces cider flavors, I think the number often quoted is around 20% of fermentables.

To the OP, you can't undo whats been done, but you might end up with a good strong ESB. You definitely aren't going to get an IPA with out adding flavor and aroma late additions. You might have a nice malty bitter beer. I think the sugar might balance out the fact that you steeped the 2 lbs of grain at 170*. As this isn't going to add fermentables to the wort, as the water was too hot for conversion. You probably just added a lot of body and sweetness, which will hopefully be cut by the sugar and hops.

Also, corn vs table sugar, it makes no difference, simple sugar = simple sugar. Although, you have to account for the difference in density. 1 cup of corn sugar <> 1 cup of table sugar.

RmikeVT said:

Using too much simple sugar in a recipe absolutely produces cider flavors, I think the number often quoted is around 20% of fermentables.

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Hell no! I have used that much and more in some Belgians, with no issues.

Cidery flavors are mostly a thing of the past, probably associated with poor quality yeast and poor temperature control. The use of large amounts of sugar leaves a beer with little malt flavor to mask the aldehyde and other esters produced by yeast.

8 lbs of fermentables would have probably been fine but oh well now you will just have a little higher ABV.

Your biggest problem is lack of hops during the boil. In my opinion you need at least 6 oz of hops at some point during the boil (or at least at flame out) for an IPA. Even with dry hopping its not gonna have enough hop flavor for an IPA.

That's okay though you can tweak it next time. That's part of the fun of brewing.

Dry hopped in secondary today. Looked pretty dark.

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