High gravity ipa add sugar in boil or primary?

[gotbags-10]

So getting ready to start a 15% ipa. My SG without sugar will be 1.070 and with an 18% sugar addition it will be 1.120. Im wondering if I should add sugar near the end of the boil or when fermentation slows? Also if I add it during fermentation what's the best way to do that?

 

[TheGambler87]

Ive always been told to add sugar at high krasuen...so thats why I do. I cant give a better reason than that.

 

[Calder]

I always have a problem when people use sugar as a percentage. Most refer to it as a % of the total weight of fermentables. Even the calculators do it that way. Problem, is that specifying it that way can give you wildly different amounts of sugar; depends on mash efficiency, mash or steeping, extracts being liquid or dry.

To me, 50 points out of 120 is 42% of the sugars, and is wayyyyyyy to high for an IPA.

 

[normonster]

Ive always been told to add sugar at high krasuen...so thats why I do. I cant give a better reason than that.

Dun read it in tha interwebz.

 

[gotbags-10]

I always have a problem when people use sugar as a percentage. Most refer to it as a % of the total weight of fermentables. Even the calculators do it that way. Problem, is that specifying it that way can give you wildly different amounts of sugar; depends on mash efficiency, mash or steeping, extracts being liquid or dry.



To me, 50 points out of 120 is 42% of the sugars, and is wayyyyyyy to high for an IPA.

Alright sounds good. What %would you shoot for? I just had a 120min ipa that I'm loosely basing this off of but I'm not trying for 20% like it was. I could adjust my grain bill to be 1.100 and then 20 points sugar?

 

[Hopper5000]

Post your recipe and we can help you. There is also a thread on here about how to do a 120min ipa clone. I have personally tried to make the beer and mine maxed out at about 16%. It requires a decent amount of work. It's hard to get the yeast to go past 12-14%. I would add the sugar after fermentation has started but do about a pound a day as to not overwhelm the yeast. The problem I had was I added a pound of sugar right at the end and it didn't ferment it at all. You are also going to have to do a huge starter for this beer.

 

[Hopper5000]

As far as sugar additions you don't really want to go past 15-20%. My recipe was about 25lb of base malt, 4lb of extract, and 6lb of corn sugar. Calder said that 50 points is way too much but that is actually about how many I got from the corn sugar additions but my OG was about 1.160 so in your situation that is probably too much.

 

[gotbags-10]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1429748115.327680.jpg

 

[gotbags-10]

Again not trying for a 120min clone just something along there. Plan on using San Diego super yeast as it says it can go to 15%. O2 at start and again 6 hours later. Mash at 149. Yeast nutrients. I guess I will add sugar after fermentation slows

 

[Hopper5000]

you are going to want more IBUs than that to balance out the sweetness. Does wlp90 have an alcohol tolerance to 15%? I would add the sugar at high krausen

 

[gotbags-10]

How many ibu's do you think?

 

[Natdavis777]

Bertus brewing has a good write up on the 120 clone. He added his sugar to fermentation, but I believe his OG before sugar additions was high as well, so he wasnt supplementing as high as a % as yourself.

 

[Calder]

That recipe only adds 25 points from the sugar. Much better than the 50 points you originally noted.

 

[Hopper5000]

I would say you should have more like 120IBUs

 

[z-bob]

When I use sugar, I add it at the beginning of the boil so the sugar can hydrolyze (invert) and maybe caramelize a little. I don't know if it works; it does in theory. The strongest thing I've brewed was about 8%, it might make a difference if you are > 10%.