Sugar time?

My next brew is planned for Tuesday night. I am undecided about adding dextrose to give my ABV a boost and I will probably put off deciding until I see the gravity numbers I produce during the mash.

My question is this: Does it matter when I add the sugar? My original and uninformed impression was that this had to be done immediately prior to the boil, but I suspect this is wrong.

Is the best time to add sugar the same time I pitch the yeast? If so, do I stir or anything else, or just add the sugar and yeast?

Anyone?

I've added sugar to several brews - always at flameout. Partly because it's still hot so will dissolve easily. But also, there's some controversy about the boil gravity effect on hop utilization - the traditional formulas are being challenged. To be on the safe side, I add the sugar after the boil so it can't affect utilization - then I don't have to wonder.

I have late boiled, I have full boiled, I have added it straight to a fermenter after krausen has started to drop... dextrose can be added whenever.

OK, so I add it whenever I please. Is stirring important, or are the yeasties going to find it wherever it may hide?

wrong question... Its not 'sugar time', its 'peanut butter jelly time'!!

whovous said:

OK, so I add it whenever I please. Is stirring important, or are the yeasties going to find it wherever it may hide?

Click to expand...

If you add it to the fermentor then no stirring needed.

Palmer has and interesting thought on this for high gravity beers. He has stated that adding it before/during primary will result in a higher FG, than adding it after primary is over. The thought behind this is that the yeast will consume more of the complex sugars when less simple sugars are present. His analogy is serving a kid dinner and desert at the same time. The kid won't finish his dinner, but eat all the desert. But waiting to serve a kid desert until after they eat their dinner, then they will finish both every time.

I've always added my sugar right when the boil started.

I use BeerSmith for my recipes. When it's calculating the IBUs, I wonder if it's using the gravity without the sugar (meaning I should add it at the end of boil) or with the sugar (meaning the beginning of the boil is appropriate). Hm..

You could do it at any time really as long as your not over the alcohol tolerance of the yeast.