When to add Belgian candy sugar?

I am thinking about doing a triple of some sort this weekend and i have a question regarding sugar. At what point in an hour boil do you add the candi sugar? I have done a triple before but that was when i did not save the recipes and do not know when i added it then or when i should add it now.

Here is what I am thinking for the recipe

9.9 lbs ex-light DME

1 lb belgian candi sugar

.25 lbs carapils
.25 lbs caravienne

1 oz styrian gold@60min
1 oz spalter select@5min

1000 ml 1214/570 starter-this will be my first yeast starter. the yeast is from a belgian golden i did about a month ago that i had stored in my fridge. trying to do the yeast banking thing.

Thanks for the help!:rockin:

Sugar can be added with five minutes left in the boil, no problem. Do remember to take the kettle off the heat to prevent scorching and caramelization.

What brand DME did you buy? Muntons extracts ferment very dry on their own; you may wish to rethink adding candisugar, lest the beer end up too dry. Tripel should be fairly dry, but not so dry as to mask flavor.

Good luck!

Bob

yeah especially for a tripel, which you want to keep light, i'd add it in the last 5-10 mins along with the bulk of that extract.

some extracts do ferment drier than others, but whatever kind it is you've got 10 pounds of it. i'd say some sugar is probably appropriate.

You could add the candi sugar after the most vigorous portion of the fermentation is done. Just boil it for 5 minutes or until it all dissolves and add it to your primary. I think this is supposed to put less strain on the yeast when you do a high gravity recipe like yours.

interesting, i had no clue you could add it to your primary fermenter. what difference would it make if i add it in the boil as apposed to the after it's starts to ferment?

just out of curisosity mainly... but did you mean to say LME because 9.9 lbs seems a little unusual for DME. It will make a decent difference in your OG

[email protected] said:

interesting, i had no clue you could add it to your primary fermenter. what difference would it make if i add it in the boil as apposed to the after it's starts to ferment?

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for a high gravity brew like this, yeast can get a bit overwhelmed initially. If you step up the gravity gradually during fermentation (rather than put everything in the boil), you can provide your yeast with a better environment, and see better attenuation.

adding it to the primary allows the yeast to consume a decent portion of the sugar in your wort before going to town on the sugar...

so, ya, for high gravity brews i will add the extra sugars (be it honey, or candi sugar, etc) during the peak of fermentation, or perhaps just as it's passed it's peak...

just out of curisosity mainly... but did you mean to say LME because 9.9 lbs seems a little unusual for DME. It will make a decent difference in your OG

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I was thinking of using 3 Muntons DME packages. Which I think are 3.3 lbs? Or maybe they are 3 lbs each. I am not sure of the weight.

bbrim said:

You could add the candi sugar after the most vigorous portion of the fermentation is done. Just boil it for 5 minutes or until it all dissolves and add it to your primary. I think this is supposed to put less strain on the yeast when you do a high gravity recipe like yours.

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I agree, I added the Belgian candi sugar after fermentation died down to my 999 barleywine. I just put it in a couple cups of water and brought it to a boil to sanitize/liquify then dumped in the fermenter after cooling it back down a bit.

Edit: this was homemade amber candi sugar I'd made a few days before. Very easy and fun to do.

I revised my recipe a bit. I needed up using only 7 lbs of light lme. so my og for thie was 1.055. A bit lower than I had hoped but I am going to adding in the sugar and today and we will see how it goes from there. Thanks for the advice!!

[email protected] said:

I revised my recipe a bit. I needed up using only 7 lbs of light lme. so my og for thie was 1.055. A bit lower than I had hoped but I am going to adding in the sugar and today and we will see how it goes from there. Thanks for the advice!!

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theres no reason you cant add MORE sugar later on either. What was the gravity after you added the sugar addition?

I have not taken a reading yet. I put the sugar in last night, and it took off like a rocket! Smells like a bannana factory in the place right now

awalshe09 said:

hope you don't mind if I jump in with a newbie question ... but if I decided to experiment with different types of sugar, what kind of results am I looking at? I'm sure some of you more experienced on the thread have already tried this, so ... any input.
Thanks.

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The result depends on the type and quantity of the sugars used. Generally speaking, it takes a pretty large amount of sugar to get a flavor/color result; for example, the amount of brown sugar needed to impact color and flavor to detectable levels is so large as to make its addition unattractive from a beer-quality standpoint.

On the other hand, sugars like molasses and dark Belgian candisugar require only a relatively small amount before they have a detectable impact, because of the levels of impurities they contain. It is impurities that impact color and flavor. That's why sugars like dextrose (corn sugar), table sugar, and brown sugar - which is really white table sugar with minute amounts of molasses added back - aren't really worth anything other than a boost in basic fermentables.

Cheers,

Bob

NQ3X said:

Sugar can be added with five minutes left in the boil, no problem. Do remember to take the kettle off the heat to prevent scorching and caramelization.

What brand DME did you buy? Muntons extracts ferment very dry on their own; you may wish to rethink adding candisugar, lest the beer end up too dry. Tripel should be fairly dry, but not so dry as to mask flavor.

Good luck!

Bob

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I wish I read the thread before I made an B-triple kit from morebeer, their instructions said to put the rock candy in for the entire boil.

Firstnten said:

I wish I read the thread before I made an B-triple kit from morebeer, their instructions said to put the rock candy in for the entire boil.

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I did that too, with my tripel from NB. Reading this thread with a bit of .

those who added at the beginning of the boil will be fine. most kits are tried and true as they are.

since my last post in this thread i've become a big fan of adding the sugar to the primary after the fermentation slows down. i've gotten some great attenuation in my last couple big beers (one tripel, one barleywine).

something to think about for next time, but you shouldn't worry that your beer will suffer from adding the sugar during the boil, it won't.

Good to know; I bought a NB strong golden kit that I've been waiting to brew -- It has 2lbs of rock candi sugar. I think I'll add it to the primary 3 or 4 days in.
The kit says it takes 6 months to complete; the only guidance from NB is that they usually recommend 2 weeks in primary, 2 weeks in bottle and anything else is spent in secondary. Does this sound right or can I keg it after it clears and just let it fininsh conditioning in the keg (unrefridgerated)?

a) I'd probably leave it in primary for 3 weeks
b) you can always do your secondary in the keg (give it a couple pops of CO2/release/Co2/release to clear the oxygen out of the head space)

Sounds like good advice and it frees up my carboy -- thanks SumnerH

one thing i forgot to say specifically, is that before adding to the primary i boil the sugar in an equal volume of water to sterilize. then cool it and add.

i figure that might've gone without saying, but can't hurt to be explicit.

and crash, that's exactly what i do with my belgians. 3 in the primary then age in the keg as long as i can stand it.