hypothetically... (adding sugar)

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JLem

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...let's say you needed to brew tomorrow and you just realized that you don't quite have enough grain/extract to reach your desired OG for a Brown Porter and that your LHBS isn't open tomorrow. You're not far off - if the partial mash goes well, you'll end up with an OG of 1.041. Let's say you wanted to get it a few points higher - say something closer to 1.048-1.050 range. Let's say you have access to a variety of other sugars. Would you add any of these to up the OG? (Let's say 8-10% of the grain bill)

White, table sugar
Fructose
Brown sugar
Turbinado sugar (aka Demerara, Raw sugar (?))
Molasses

hypothetically, of course.
 
Just about the best beer I ever brewed was AHS Session Series Brown Porter at 1.042.

You could just reduce the brew length (batch size). EDIT wow gmta.
 
wait or scale down are both very good options...if your doing all grain, you could sparge more for a larger preboil amt and boil longer to try and reach higher efficiency and thus higher gravity but at a higher fuel cost.... But if it was me i would just wait
 
Brew 4 gallons now, or 5 gallons in 2 days... That's not much of a decision for me.

But yeah, you could scale it down if you wanted to. I guess.

Well, it's either brew tomorrow or put it off for a week or more...and the yeast starter is already kickin'. I'd hadn't thought of scaling down, but that just might be the way to go. Using these other sugars is really that big a mistake?
 
Using that sugar is going to water down your beer and thin out the body quite a bit. For me, it wouldn't even be an option, but it's your beer and you'll do what you want with it.
 
Using that sugar is going to water down your beer and thin out the body quite a bit. For me, it wouldn't even be an option, but it's your beer and you'll do what you want with it.

Just checked BeerSmith and I can make it work without the additional sugar in a 4.5 gallon batch. Just need to figure out a new hop schedule.
 
Been there done that and I still have a few bottles around that no one will drink. Adding sugar raises the alcohol content but doesn't add any body along with it. The beer will be thin and tasteless.

Tom
 
Been there done that and I still have a few bottles around that no one will drink. Adding sugar raises the alcohol content but doesn't add any body along with it. The beer will be thin and tasteless.

Tom

Thanks. I certainly don't beer that noone will drink. I'll definitely be skipping the additional sugars and just make a smaller batch. Actually, my partial mash is underway as I write! :mug:
 
I think adding a pound or so of dememera to a brown would be fine.

Dememera adds a nice dimension without over-drying your beer. Keep it at your 8-10% and you're golden.
 
I think adding a pound or so of dememera to a brown would be fine.

Dememera adds a nice dimension without over-drying your beer. Keep it at your 8-10% and you're golden.

Well then... anyone else? I have a bunch of no's and one yes (though the one yes was exactly the answer I was looking for)
 
adding simple sugars and making the full 5 gallons will make a dryer beer than scaling the recipe down and not adding sugar, but like biermuncher said, as long as it's under 10% or so, it should still be good; just a bit dryer. it's really your call as to what you want.
 
adding simple sugars and making the full 5 gallons will make a dryer beer than scaling the recipe down and not adding sugar, but like biermuncher said, as long as it's under 10% or so, it should still be good; just a bit dryer. it's really your call as to what you want.

what he said...if your fine with it being a lower final gravity/drier then brew it.
 
also, beersmith should be able to estimate how much lower the FG will be
 
I think Biermuncher probably knows best. Many commercial English ales use a small percentage of sugar in the beer. It will make the beer a little dryer but that should not be a significant problem. Many extract beers often end up a little high FG anyways and you can further compensate with a higher mash temp for your partial mash.

Craig
 
for the style you're making, the sugar drying out the beer won't be a good thing IMO.

some styles you can pull it off.
 
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