Adding malt to secondary fermentator possible?

I've coopers Mexican cerveza busy fermenting away. After 2 weeks I tasted it and while nice, it does taste a bit weak. I've 0.3kg LME left over from a previous batch and was thinking of adding it to half my cerveza to try and bulk up the beer. That way I'd have half as per coopers recommendations and half extra malty.

Anyone any thoughts? Is it possible to add liquid malt this late?

Yes, but I'd suggest mixing it well into some water first, and you might as well boil it for 5 minutes or so right before you add it, especially since it's from an already-opened can - though it's always a good idea to boil (then cool) an extract solution before putting it in the fermentor IMO, even if it's from a totally sealed container. Prehopped extract is a bit trickier if you don't want further isomerization, but if you can cool quickly, I'd still recommend bringing it to a rolling boil, even if just for a moment.

Then, after you cool it down to a reasonable temp, I suggest putting it in the bottom of your 2° (secondary), and THEN racking the beer on top of it. If your beer is already in the 2°, then I'd even suggest using a 3° (tertiary - you can use your "primary" if you have to), and racking the beer into it from the 2°.

It's pretty much the same as bulk priming, and with a similar rationale. The reason for all this (dissolving in water and racking the beer on top of IT) is because the syrup alone is very difficult to mix well, and even the boiled solution doesn't mix into the beer very well. It will ferment fine either way... it's the UNFERMENTABLE stuff that you PROBABLY just want to make sure is evenly distributed. People will often stir it in vigorously with a very long spoon, but at this stage you'll want to avoid unnecessarily aerating your beer like that.

But yeah, you can definitely add fermentables after primary fermentation is over, though people don't typically do it with malts, let alone base malts (the major exception being bulk priming with DME). If it's quite a large addition, it can actually change the character of the beer somewhat versus adding it all before pitching (eg less ester production), but that's not always a bad thing.

And with all that being said... just go for it!

Thanks a mill, i've my secondary bucket ready and waiting.

Is the water to make it dissolve better? What about using some of the beer in the fermenter to boil and mix the malt in?

Wester said:

Thanks a mill, i've my secondary bucket ready and waiting.

Is the water to make it dissolve better? What about using some of the beer in the fermenter to boil and mix the malt in?

Click to expand...

Yes, the water is to make it dissolve better. Your idea doesn't sound like a bad one, and it's probably worth a shot. The only thing is, I've never done that, and have no experience with how boiled yeast turns out, but I've heard stories of new brewers pitching the yeast *before* boiling, and then pitching more after learning of their mistake, but I've never heard of the yeast imparting a bad taste as a result. Yeah, it will kill all the yeast, but as long as you just boil a portion of it, there's enough viable yeast still in the fermentor to do everything you need.

So I see no reason to try it... just make sure that the portion of beer you'll be boiling is pretty clear... boiling a bit of suspended yeast shouldn't be a problem, but I wouldn't risk it with a beer that's completely cloudy with yeast. And don't boil it for too long... even a minute should suffice.

But other than my uncertainty with the yeast thing, it's a fantastic idea to use beer instead of water in order to maximize the added gravity (by not further diluting it). And make sure you are very sanitary when taking out the portion of beer you're adding the LME to... you may be boiling that portion, but you're obviously still going to touch the rest of the beer in the process of taking some out.