Adding sugar, post-fermentation question.

[RosettaSt0ned]

I just finished brewing an IPA (as my first all-grain brew!) via the BIAB method; nailed my OG thanks to 80.7% mash efficiency. However, I forgot to take boiloff into account and ended up with 4 gallons instead of 5 into the fermenter.

As a result, my OG of 1.066 took a hit to an OG of ~1.052 after adding 1 gallon of top-up water to the fermenter.

I'm thinking of boiling up a solution of 1/2 gallon water to 1.5 pounds table sugar and adding it into the fermenter after primary fermentation is done to take it back up to around 1.066. I was hoping to hit my ~7% ABV target on this, but as it stands, BeerSmith is predicting 5.6% after my absent-minded boiloff oopsie and water top-up.

My question being, how much of a thinning effect (or anything else unpleasant) will this amount of added sugar post-primary fermentation have on my beer? Could the original recipe stand up to this sort of addition with little ill effect? In the recipe below, it would equate to 11.1% of the grain bill, knock the 2-row down to 81.5% and the 40L to 7.4%

If it helps, I mashed at ~153F for an hour. The temperature dropped a bit (to around 148ish) and stayed at that temp for about 15 minutes, and I added hot water to bring the temp back up, and repeated this 2 more times. So during the mash, it was probably at 148-150 for a total of 20 minutes, but around 152-153 the remainder of the time.

Original recipe:

11 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 91.7 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 8.3 %
1.00 oz Centennial Hops [9.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop
1.00 oz Centennial Hops [9.70 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop
2.00 oz Centennial Hops [9.70 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast
1.00 oz Centennial Type Hops [9.70 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days


And here's a screencap from BeerSmith:

 

[jaycount]

If you must tinker any further I would boil some malt extract into water and use it. Table sugar is going to cause for a couple of unwanted side effects: 1. Dry-ness, 2. Sometimes in great quantities, a cider-y taste.

Even using DME/LME, you're going to be watering down the hops and specialty grains from your original recipe.

If I were you, I wouldn't have topped off the batch in the fermenter. No need to tinker with it, jot down your now-more-accurate notes about boil off and chalk it up as a lesson for next time! I'd much rather have 4 gallons of very good beer than 5 gallons of beer I watered down

Congrats on the first all-grain batch and the excellent mash efficiency!

 

[Calder]

1.5 lbs is way too much. It will add about 14 points taking it to about 1.066 as you say. 14 points out of 66 is more than 20%.

You did mash high for an IPA, and it will probably end up sweet. It probably would benefit from some sugar addition to help dry it out a bit. I'd limit it to about 10% (about 3/4 lbs).