Adding sugar before fermentation starts

[SwiftG40]

Hi, I've just got a Kentish Bitter kit in primary tonight but just realised that the abv is going to be around 3-3.5%
OG - 1.032
FG expected around 1.008

Is it ok to add some dextrose solution before fermentation starts? It's only been in the fermentation bucket about 3 hours?

Ideally I want to raise the ABV slightly to around 4-4.5%
If not I'll just leave it alone & drink it anyway

Cheers

 

[buzzerj]

Yes you can add more sugar anytime. Take the S.G. before and after to know how many points were added to your effective O.G. You can add chilled boiled extract wort if you have room. It all works. The extract would be preferred since you are adding wort sugars but even candi sugar would work.

 

[Calder]

You can add it anytime. I'd wait until fermentation starts to slow.

You can calculate the contribution. 1 lb of table sugar will increase the OG of 5 gallons by .009.

If you increase the abv from 3% to 4.5%, you will be adding a large percentage of sugar. About 1.3 lbs off table sugar. I don't know how much sugar you have in the base recipe, but to get ~ 30% fermentables from sugar in a low gravity beer will make it very thin; not a lot of flavor.

 

[ArcLight]

According to the yeast book - Add the sugar after 3 days, so the yest first have to ferment (eat) the Maltose and other sugars from you mash, before they get to the dextrose. The idea being that yeast will prefer the dextrose and may not ferment all the other sugars.

 

[SwiftG40]

Ok thanks guys, it's a bit of an experimental batch anyway so I've put 200g of dextrose in 300ml of boiled water (pitched at 24 degrees C) & will see how it goes. SG increased from 1.032 to 1.036. Not a huge amount but a step in the right direction

 

[flars]

Keep some DME on hand for situations like this. Adding DME will raise the ABV without thinning the body of the beer. The DME can be added any time during active fermentation.

 

[IslandLizard]

You can add table sugar too, or raw sugar. But simple sugars do not add any flavor, so flars' suggestion for having DME on hand is probably best if you want to significantly boost the ABV. Otherwise you're just thinning your beer with alcohol.

 

[SwiftG40]

Cool thanks! I might add 1 lb of DME then, that should take me up to around 4.2-4.5 ABV according to the calculation, then leave it in peace to do it's business

 

[sfish]

Cool thanks! I might add 1 lb of DME then, that should take me up to around 4.2-4.5 ABV according to the calculation, then leave it in peace to do it's business

You have added simple sugar already. I would use a online beer developing tool and compare your orginal receipe color and bitterness to your proposed product after the addition using this to deside if the sugars added change the antisipated finished beer. Then if so add some hops and do a full boil to the DME before adding. Remember when you add to make sure the temp. are very close as to not shock your yeast.

 

[IslandLizard]

You have added simple sugar already. I would use a online beer developing tool and compare your orginal receipe color and bitterness to your proposed product after the addition using this to deside if the sugars added change the antisipated finished beer. Then if so add some hops and do a full boil to the DME before adding. Remember when you add to make sure the temp. are very close as to not shock your yeast.

That's an excellent point there. Just adding sugar or DME changes the balance of the beer as designed in the recipe. Small tweaks are usually fine or make it better or more unique. Larger tweaks need to be weighted and calculated, for and against, so you don't end up with something that's become undrinkable or only for those with an acquired taste (yours that is, since you can't be objective anymore).

To the OP. Looks like you're on your way to use better suited recipes, design your own, and just buy ingredients rather than kits. I've only had one kit in my brew life (American Pale), and moved onto recipes and buying loose ingredients from there on. I like it better that way. Now others are fine and perfectly happy with kits and still buy them even after 10 years of brewing largely ignoring the 1000s of recipes that are floating around.

 

[SwiftG40]

So...just spent the last few hours trying to work out the recipe and apparently (taking in to account the dextrose addition) it will take up to 11oz of DME to bring the SG up to around 1.042/44. I've gone for a medium DME and adding 8oz. I've just boiled it in 250ml of water and it's cooling down now so will take a SG reading before & after & let you know the outcome.

Should be an interesting beer once it's ready

 

[SwiftG40]

That's an excellent point there. Just adding sugar or DME changes the balance of the beer as designed in the recipe. Small tweaks are usually fine or make it better or more unique. Larger tweaks need to be weighted and calculated, for and against, so you don't end up with something that's become undrinkable or only for those with an acquired taste (yours that is, since you can't be objective anymore).

To the OP. Looks like you're on your way to use better suited recipes, design your own, and just buy ingredients rather than kits. I've only had one kit in my brew life (American Pale), and moved onto recipes and buying loose ingredients from there on. I like it better that way. Now others are fine and perfectly happy with kits and still buy them even after 10 years of brewing largely ignoring the 1000s of recipes that are floating around.

Yeah you're right there, I've got a lot to learn yet but the only way is to read up & try I suppose. This is only my third kit (and brew) so it's the first one I'm having a play with and I'm looking forward to see how it turns out.
I had my first ever pint of home-brew last night and it was the most satisfying pint I think I've ever had, it was only a Wherry kit too lol

The knowledge & help people give on here too is awesome!!

 

[SwiftG40]

Well thats it, no going back now...

Just added the solution of 8oz DME in 250ml boiled & cooled water

SG before 1.036
SG after 1.038
Not a great deal but the solution did have some thickness to it so probably hasn't all thoroughly mixed with the wort so maybe it might have hit 1.040?

Anyway, I think (hope even) after all this, I've managed to increase from around 3% ABV to 4% ABV. If it works lol

I'm not opening it up again now so it is what it is.

Thanks again for the help & I'll post a photo of the finished beer when it's done

Cheers

 

[IslandLizard]

You've come to the right place to learn. Next time, I bet you'll look at the OG of a recipe first, and you'll know roughly what kind of beer it will make ABV wise. Now not all beer should be high ABV, there is plenty of room and appreciation for smaller versions, session beers. And they are actually quite hard to design and brew as there is not much leeway in ingredients or things to hide errors behind.

Homebrew is very rewarding. My first brew actually tasted like a good beer. There was a future. This was before I knew anything about caramelization, fermentation control, oxidation, priming, or even yeast pitches. Palmer's How to Brew was my main guide to learn more, before I discovered HBT.