Anyone done AHS Double IPA kit?

I just got this kit today and it's got a bucket load of hops, so I'm excited to brew it. However, the one component that threw me was the 1lb of corn sugar included and it's listed in the recipe to add just before the boil.

I've never added sugar directly in brew before. Other than jacking up the ABV, what's the point of this?

Thanks,

Sugar is more fermentable so it allows the FG to drop to a dry enough level as to not have too sweet a brew.

What beezer said.

I did their Pliny the Elder clone this past Sunday which is a double IPA. I am about to rack to secondary sometime this weekend. My efficiency sucked because I had some major MLT issues, my efficiency was low-mid 50s so my OG was around 1.062/1.064, but with the corn sugar which is almost completely 100% fermentable I got down to 1.008. That's a little dry for my liking, and nearly 85-87% attenuation. I am going to add maybe 8oz MD at bottling to add some sweetness/body,

Beezer94 said:

Sugar is more fermentable so it allows the FG to drop to a dry enough level as to not have too sweet a brew.

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Thanks...but I'm not sure I fully get you. If I didn't want "too sweet a brew", why wouldn't I just not add the pound of corn sugar in the first place?

peterp,

That's a very nice secondary you've got there in your avatar. I'll be that one's going to age very well.

mthhurley said:

Thanks...but I'm not sure I fully get you. If I didn't want "too sweet a brew", why wouldn't I just not add the pound of corn sugar in the first place?

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If for instance your starting gravity is 1.075, you will want the final gravity (after all fermentation) to be down below 1.020. Corn sugar will add no sweetness to your brew as the yeast will eat 98-99% of it. The malts (or malt extracts) are less ferment-able. Simple sugars helps "dry" the beer out; to help balance it.

If your beer finishes at too high a gravity, it will be cloyingly sweet (from long chain sugars in the malts that yeast have a limited ability of using up) and will be too thick in the mouth-feel.

mthhurley said:

Thanks...but I'm not sure I fully get you. If I didn't want "too sweet a brew", why wouldn't I just not add the pound of corn sugar in the first place?

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The idea is that with double IPA's, and a lot of higher alc brews (especially belgians) you have to use a ton of malt to get the OG up. Once ferementation is done, a lot of times you are left with a beer that while strong, has some cloying malty sweetness due to all the unfermented sugars from the malt. Sometimes you want this, sometimes you don't. In the case of double IPA's, a lot of folks don't want an overly malty beer and want the hops to shine. Thus, the use of some simple sugar like corn sugar which will completely ferment out and get you to the alcohol you want, but with out adding additional malty residual sweetness and flavor from the sugar. It will make the beer drier and potentially more drinkable.

It seems counter-intuitive at first that adding straight up sugar will not add a sweet flavor to the beer, but the yeast will consume it all and make alcohol out of it.

Thanks to both of you...That definitely answered my question.