Secondary fermentation: to add or not to add sugar

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wolfboy

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Lately I have been thinking about creating a "belgian" style beer, such as a dubble or triple. I have been drinking some commercial examples as well. Drinking the beer while reading the labels on the bottle which say: "refermentation in the bottle...". Well, that's not a big deal. This lead me to think of something I need advice on.

Some belgian style recipes add sugar adjuncts to the secondary fermentation and go for another long conditioning. However, some add all the sugar in the primary, and simply rack beer the secondary and let that age. The later is more commonly practiced by alot of people ofcourse.

This begs the question: Why do people add sugar or DME into the secondary instead of adding it all into the primary intially? Are there advantages or disadvantages to this?

Thanks
 
It has to do with the alcohol tolerences of the yeast IIRC. By adding smaller amounts spaced out over time you keep the fermentation going instead of making the yeast work the sugar all at once. Or at least that was my understanding of it.
 

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