Adding "sugar" to a batch during or after fermentaion??

[Daffypuck]

Before anyone gives me hell for even considering brewing this clone, let me explain. Im only doing this for experimentations sake. I for some reason liked Tequiza. It was one of those beers that was perfect ice cold after mowing the yard on a hot summer day. Since they dont make it anymore and Bud Lime and Miller Chill dont even compare, I decided to try a clone batch. Plus the women tend to take a liking to it as well. With that said, my question is this: the recipe called to put the agave nectar in the brew pot. I would think the yeast would eat and convert most of the sugar in it and kind of negating the agave taste. So I held back one bottle for bottling day. Will the sugar in the agave act like the bottling sugar and cause over carbing and ruin all my beers? Or should I put it in when I go to a secondary? After a week, I plan on transferring to a secondary at which time i will add 4 limeskins that have been soaking in 3oz of tequila. Ive seen different recipes for this clone and each does something a bit differently.

OH, one other thing. This batch was my first experience of a batch nearly exploding! I had to take the aerator off and install a blow off tube for a day. Ive re-installed the aerator and all seems fine. What causes this?

 

[Yooper]

Before anyone gives me hell for even considering brewing this clone, let me explain. Im only doing this for experimentations sake. I for some reason liked Tequiza. It was one of those beers that was perfect ice cold after mowing the yard on a hot summer day. Since they dont make it anymore and Bud Lime and Miller Chill dont even compare, I decided to try a clone batch. Plus the women tend to take a liking to it as well. With that said, my question is this: the recipe called to put the agave nectar in the brew pot. I would think the yeast would eat and convert most of the sugar in it and kind of negating the agave taste. So I held back one bottle for bottling day. Will the sugar in the agave act like the bottling sugar and cause over carbing and ruin all my beers? Or should I put it in when I go to a secondary? After a week, I plan on transferring to a secondary at which time i will add 4 limeskins that have been soaking in 3oz of tequila. Ive seen different recipes for this clone and each does something a bit differently.

OH, one other thing. This batch was my first experience of a batch nearly exploding! I had to take the aerator off and install a blow off tube for a day. Ive re-installed the aerator and all seems fine. What causes this?

Yes, the sugar will ferment out no matter when you add it. If you add it at bottling, and still prime the bottles, you will have bottle bombs.

It sounds like you had a really active fermentation, and it's common to have to use a blow off tube. I would be that the fermentation temperature got pretty warm and it made the airlock go crazy!

You'd have to add it to primary or to secondary to be safe.

 

[Daffypuck]

Actually I just read that the sugars in the nectar arent fermentable by the yeast. So I wonder if thats how the honey/ agave taste shines through in the final product? Thats why I considered adding on bottling day. I think Ill hold off on that idea and just see what pops up with this batch.

 

[Yooper]

Actually I just read that the sugars in the nectar arent fermentable by the yeast. So I wonder if thats how the honey/ agave taste shines through in the final product? Thats why I considered adding on bottling day. I think Ill hold off on that idea and just see what pops up with this batch.

I've never heard that agave nectar isn't fermentable, but I've never used it. Honey and other simple sugars are very fermentable by ale and lager yeast.

 

[pohldogg]

Look at the nutritional info on the bottle. The grams under sugar are going to be fully fermentable. Subtract the sugars from total carbs and what is left may or may not ferment. Without a lab analysis of what the exact makeup of the sugars are you'd be best to assume it'll all ferment out so the primary or secondary is the safest, or use it as priming sugar. Just calculate out the grams to get pppg and Yiu should be good. For an unfermentable agave flavor just add tequilla.

 

[BrewinBigD]

of course agave nectar is fermentable. how else would they make tequila? All plant sugars are fermentable. try this: if you secondary, add the tequila and the marinated limes, but it will boost your ABV, and could possibly get your yeasties too drunk to carb up in a bottle. if you dont wanna boost your ABV to much, add the limes and then take some decent(No $3 a bottle EL toro crap) and boil off the booze, this will leave you with a reduction, and the escense of the fermented agave. add that to the secondary.

 

[brew2enjoy]

Before anyone gives me hell for even considering brewing this clone, let me explain. Im only doing this for experimentations sake. I for some reason liked Tequiza. It was one of those beers that was perfect ice cold after mowing the yard on a hot summer day. Since they dont make it anymore and Bud Lime and Miller Chill dont even compare, I decided to try a clone batch. Plus the women tend to take a liking to it as well. With that said, my question is this: the recipe called to put the agave nectar in the brew pot. I would think the yeast would eat and convert most of the sugar in it and kind of negating the agave taste. So I held back one bottle for bottling day. Will the sugar in the agave act like the bottling sugar and cause over carbing and ruin all my beers? Or should I put it in when I go to a secondary? After a week, I plan on transferring to a secondary at which time i will add 4 limeskins that have been soaking in 3oz of tequila. Ive seen different recipes for this clone and each does something a bit differently.

OH, one other thing. This batch was my first experience of a batch nearly exploding! I had to take the aerator off and install a blow off tube for a day. Ive re-installed the aerator and all seems fine. What causes this?

Not to discourage you from trying your brew, but have you tried landshark? To me it's the best of those "yellow lime beers".

 

[BrewinBigD]

huh,, ive never even tasted the lime in landshark. its still good though...

 

[Daffypuck]

Yeh, I like Landshark. But as I said before, for some reason, Tequiza just sat well with my pallette more than anything of this type. I recently visited South America and found a beer similar to Tequiza called "Tequieros". Thats the closest thing Ive found since they discontinued Tequiza. Oddly enough though, Tequieros is brewed by a French company.

Im new to brewing, so I'll see what happens. The OG of the batch leads me to believe it might end up being a bit high in the ABV department. Im guessing its gonna end up somewhere between 5%-7%. We'll see in a couple of weeks. This brewing thing is quite addictive. Ive brewed a batch every weekend since mid-July! I hope to have a good pipeline going by Christmas time. Again, thamks for all the tips y'all. Im learning something new everyday.