Adding sugar to the primary

Revvy said:

I used 2.25 pounds of sugar and 1.5 pounds of 50 year old honey in my barley wine. One pound of the sugar was added to the beer when I racked it after 3 weeks to secondary with a starter of Trappist High grav yeast (I used Cali ale for primary fermentation.)

How many pounds of grain was your bw???

Adding sugar late and incrementally is a good idea. Just boil it up in a couple cups of water.

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frazier said:

Wow. You're basically a "no limits" type of guy, right? Let us know how it turns out, because I, for one, don't have the guts to try something that big. Not yet, anyway.

You're adding about 225 gravity points, raising the effective O.G. close to 1.150. I've heard to keep sugar below 10%, but you blew that limit out of the water - you're up around 30%. I have no idea how that will play out. Good luck!

ETA: OK wait a sec. You'll also be adding water, so those numbers don't apply in a straightforward way. Still seems like a lot of sugar though.

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OHIOSTEVE said:

25 pounds of grain.....pitched on an entire S-04 yeast cake....also won't 2 cups of water 5 times be too much? I mean if I add a pound at a whack with 2 cups of water.....Also is the nutrient a good idea? To be honest REVVY this is the beer I plan to bring to your house on our 50Th party and share....so help me make it drinkable lol.

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Revvy said:

I was out of nutrient at the time of the sugar addition, but I might have added some. It wont hurt.

A chef friend once told me that you don't need a lot of water to make a simple syrup, I'm trying to remember what he said. It was something like "add enough water to wet the grains and then add 2-3 tablespoons more." SO you might want to try that. See if that amount boils up.

You are right about that being a lot of water if you did it 5 times. Of course it would mean you had 10 cups more barleywine.

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