Sugar Addition to bump gravity?

G'day all,

I brewed an IPA 8-days ago, and undershot my target gravity of 1.068 by 5 points (it was an obvious volume issue I should have caught and just boiled longer).

I pitched WLP090 and was going to add 1/2#-1# (3-6% of total fermentables) of clear liquid candi sugar to each 5.5 gallon carboy (1.032 ppt) and at least bump it by 3-6 points per carboy. I could not add this week since I was gone and both were blowing off before I left on my trip.

Is there any reason not to add the sugar today along wtih my first dry-hop dose? Both ferments are still slowly bubbling away?

Adding the sugar will dry out the batch. Plus adding it with the dry hops means you'll have active fermentation going, that will blow away at least part of what dry hopping normally gives a batch.

If it was me, I'd just leave the sugar out of the batch and continue on. IMO/IME, you'll get a better brew that way.

Agreed. Six points isn't enough to fret about IMO. Plus that liquid candy sugar is like $10/lb.

Btw how do you like the wlp090? That's the san Diego super, right?

tgmartin000 said:

Agreed. Six points isn't enough to fret about IMO. Plus that liquid candy sugar is like $10/lb.

Btw how do you like the wlp090? That's the san Diego super, right?

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No fretting thus far. Just thinking about giving it a little oomph. I love WLP090. Ferments fast and drops clear, has attenuated well for me to this point. Checking on my IPA today to see where we are at.

Sure you can add the sugar now. The yeast activity will churn up some of the trub, so you need to account for extra time for it to clear.

Save the dry hops until the yeast has done it's work on the extra sugar.

As noted by others, sugar will dry it out some. Personally I prefer drier IPAs, and often use 5 to 10% table sugar to help bring down the FG. There is nothing wrong with using sugar as long as you know what to expect from it.

Why use candi-sugar? Even the Belgians supposedly don't use it, and use common beet (table) sugar.

Calder said:

Sure you can add the sugar now. The yeast activity will churn up some of the trub, so you need to account for extra time for it to clear.

Save the dry hops until the yeast has done it's work on the extra sugar.

As noted by others, sugar will dry it out some. Personally I prefer drier IPAs, and often use 5 to 10% table sugar to help bring down the FG. There is nothing wrong with using sugar as long as you know what to expect from it.

Why use candi-sugar? Even the Belgians supposedly don't use it, and use common beet (table) sugar.

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Current gravity is 1.010, and 7.1%. I decided to blow off adding sugar. It'll dry out a little further. I chose liquid candi sugar because it was an easy way to add it

Where did you read or hear the Belgians won't use Belgian candi sugar?

TimmyR said:

Where did you read or hear the Belgians won't use Belgian candi sugar?

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I've seen and read it in several places. Only reference I can give is "Brew Like a Monk", where they indicate many of the Belgian brewers use plain sugar.