Adding sugar to fermenter?

So... I meant to put 2lbs of sugar in my beer, and somehow I forgot. Miraculously, I hit the proper gravity anyway (what the heck???) 1.052 w/out 2lbs of sugar (10gal batch) , which means efficiency was ridiculously high (93%.... I usually get 80% on a 5gal batch).

Anyways, I want the drying out effect of the sugar. Can I add some to the fermenter? Is it too late?

Cheers!

Here is my recipe just for fun:

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 40.00 %
5 lbs Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) Grain 25.00 %
2 lbs Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 10.00 %
1 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 5.00 %
1 lbs Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM) Grain 5.00 %
10.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3.13 %
6.0 oz Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 1.88 %
1.50 oz Sterling [7.00 %] (60 min) Hops 21.4 IBU
0.50 oz Summit [17.00 %] (30 min) Hops 8.8 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (10 min) Hops 2.2 IBU
0.75 oz Summit [17.00 %] (10 min) Hops 5.2 IBU
1.00 oz Sterling [7.50 %] (10 min) Hops 3.1 IBU
1.15 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
2 lbs Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 10.00 %

For belgians I have done multiple sugar additions to primary...My saison had 1 pound of home-made cadi syrup, and my strong had 2, 1# additions...I usually wait til the first krausen falls, then add my sugar syrup...if it is more then one addition I do the same thing, add each addition after each krausen falls.

Thanks Revvy. I'm still pretty confused cuz my gravity is actually spot on. I guess sparging in 2 batches might have upped my efficieny, but 93% brewhouse efficiency seems way high. I think I might just leave it and have it be a bit malty. It's already a really weird esb/saison/rye combo so there isn't really any harm in making it even more off the range.

sorry to jump your thread, just curious.
Do you get a different effect of adding sugar at different times?
I thought you would get the same result, from mashing to secondary ?

cheers,

walther said:

sorry to jump your thread, just curious.
Do you get a different effect of adding sugar at different times?
I thought you would get the same result, from mashing to secondary ?

cheers,

Click to expand...

The idea is not to inundate the yeast with too many fermentables at one time, which could result in poor attenuation and remaining fermentables left behind, and/or tired stressed out yeast (which clould lead to off flavors). You let them digest all the complex sugars in the wort. Give them a bit of a rest by waiting for the krausen to fall, then give them the simple sugars as a treat.

That way even if they didn't consume all the complex sugars initially, and your attenuation was a bit poorer than you liked, getting them up again and working on the simple sugar will also get them eating any left over complex sugars as well.

How exactly do you go about adding the sugars to the fermenter? Just boil, cool and pour in? Do you have to worry about oxygenation?

MaynardX said:

How exactly do you go about adding the sugars to the fermenter? Just boil, cool and pour in? Do you have to worry about oxygenation?

Click to expand...

1) Yes....make a simple syrup, of enough water to dampen the grains, then a half cup more (my chef friend taught me that) and boil. Or you can follow one of the recipes on here and make your own Belgian Candi syrup/invert sugar, if you want some caramel notes. Do a search on here or the web and you will find various recipes.

2)Boiling removes oxygen.

3)it takes a lot more oxygen exposure of our beer to cause any damage, than what we do in the normal course of our brewing AND in most of the boneheaded mistakes we make(including using our autosiphon like a hand pump if it gets stuck) or typical bubbles in the lines, or anything else.

In a basic brewing podcast years ago, one of the big wigs, John Palmer, or Chris Colby (the editor of BYO) said that the amount of oxygen to actually damage our beer, is actually far in excess of what we do in the normal course of brewing and even most of our accidents. And requires about the amount of oxygen that we could pump in by emptying one of our red oxygen bottles with an airstone into our bottling bucket....not the normal amount of motion we make if we are careful brewers.

Also the effects of oxydation are long term they affect the storage of beers...Unless you pumped an oxygen bottle into your finished beer, you will have consumed your two cases of beer long before any signs of oxydation would show up.

So don't stress out about that...

MaynardX said:

How exactly do you go about adding the sugars to the fermenter? Just boil, cool and pour in? Do you have to worry about oxygenation?

Click to expand...

That's just how to do it. Boiling will drive off the O2 from the water you're dissolving your sugar into and then you just pour carefully. It's not that big of a worry because active yeast will eat up moderate amounts of O2 that might get introduced.

I'm referring to dry sugar like table sugar or corn sugar. I haven't used a syrup type sugar so maybe Revvy or someone can chime in if that has a different procedure or if it can be added directly.

Another good reason to do the late addition is because simple sugar is easier for the yeast to metabolize than more complex forms of sugar. So, if you give them a ton of plain sugar right off the bat then they will sometimes stall out before they eat up all the maltose and you get a stuck fermentation. If you make them eat the maltose first, then they'll usually rip through the simple sugars you add later without a problem.

edit: Revvy types faster than me.

cheers, excellent help as always,...