Secondary addition of adjuncts.

[evanos]

A friend of mine (who does not brew) said that prolonging fermentation can help develop a depth of character in a brew. He was referring specifically to the idea of adding sugar during secondary fermentation. I'm wondering

a.) if there happens to be any truth to this whatsoever (he's good at bs-ing)
b.) if so, does one simply add sucrose to continue the fermentation?
c.) about the use of other adjuncts (if I'm using that word correctly), such as malt extract, more wort from a mash, or whatever.

I'm new to brewing, so just looking for information and a little discussion.

Thanks for your input!

Evan

 

[a10t2]

a) I guess it depends on what he means by "character". Alcohols will add character. In terms of adding fermentables late instead of at the beginning of fermentation, if all other variables were eliminated, if these was an impact, but I think it would probably be very small. If the amount of yeast pitched remained constant, though, changing the fermentables (and therefore the pitching rate) would definitely have a significant flavor impact.

b) Sucrose works fine.

c) You could add anything with fermentable sugars. Sequential word feeding is a pretty well-established technique for brewing very high-alcohol beverages, especially in the distilling industry. The idea is that by adding wort gradually you can keep the specific gravity low and prevent killing off any more yeast due to osmotic shock.