Dextrose Added During Boil

[zfite731]

I've got a Pliny The Elder clone in the fermenter, sitting at 10 days right now. The recipe called to add a significant amount of dextrose at the start of the boil. My question is.... if you add the dextrose at the beginning of the boil, is it still necessary to add dextrose in order to bottle condition the brew? It seams to me that the sugar would boil off and not be in the right condition to... well.... condition the brew in the bottle.

Any help will be much appreciated!

Thanks gents!

 

[DoubleAught]

I've got a Pliny The Elder clone in the fermenter, sitting at 10 days right now. The recipe called to add a significant amount of dextrose at the start of the boil. My question is.... if you add the dextrose at the beginning of the boil, is it still necessary to add dextrose in order to bottle condition the brew? It seams to me that the sugar would boil off and not be in the right condition to... well.... condition the brew in the bottle.

Any help will be much appreciated!

Thanks gents!

Your yeast is going to eat the boil sugar during fermentation, you'll need more for them to eat in the bottle for it to carbonate.

 

[Calder]

Sugar doesn't boil off. Only water boils off.

Most people add it late in the boil. It keeps the gravity lower during the boil and helps with improved hop bitterness extraction. There is nothing wrong with adding it at the start of the boil.

When the boil is over, wort is cooled, and you add yeast, the yeast works on all the available 'simple' sugars (and some of the more complex ones - dextrose is a simple sugar). When you get to a stable gravity, the yeast has used up all the simple sugars and converted it to alcohol.

When bottling, you always need to add a new sugar source for the yeast to work on to create CO2 in the bottle.

 

[zfite731]

Makes perfect since now that you explain it. Thanks. How much priming sugar would y'all recommend using for a 5 gallon batch of Pliny?

 

[gelatin]

As mentioned, the dextrose will ferment out - it's purpose is to thin the beer to prevent it from becoming too thick/syrupy.

The amount of priming sugar will depend on the maximum temperature reached during primary/secondary fermentation as that will determine the residual CO2 in solution. There are various calculators online, and Pliny is fairly carbonated, so say 3 volumes of CO2 or so at 70 degrees for 5 gallons going into the bottles is around 5oz of dextrose. Make sure to boil in water first, and in my experience it's very important to gently stir for a while to evenly distribute it.

 

[zfite731]

Ok, great help guys. Thanks!