Super light Quadrupel? Too late to add additional candisyrup?

[luckybeagle]

I've been fermenting a Chimay Grande Reserve clone using the recipe on Candisyrup (CSI). The SRM is about 15 - super light. This is partly due to using my own candisyrup that I made using DAP, sugar and water.

Hydrometer flask samples taste great! But the color is not consistent with Chimay, and CSI's own recipe comes in around 17 SRM. A real Chimay Grande Reserve appears to be around 30.

I'm just about at FG and have contemplated rousing the yeast gently whilst adding 1/2 lb of the darkest candisyrup I can make. My questions are:

1. Would this even work without oxygenating the wort/beer?
2. My OG would increase by ~4 points. Not much, but my BU:GU ratio would drop from "slightly malty" to "extra malty" and I don't want a cloying Quad.
3. Should I just leave the thing alone and call it something clever like "It's Compli-Quadded"

 

[Vale71]

How can you get extra "maltiness" from adding 100% fermentable sugars? All you're going to get is an increase in color and ABV.

Unless the beer as already been aged for 6+ months any simple sugars will be fermented in no time by the yeast still in suspension, no need to rouse anything.

 

[luckybeagle]

How can you get extra "maltiness" from adding 100% fermentable sugars? All you're going to get is an increase in color and ABV.

Unless the beer as already been aged for 6+ months any simple sugars will be fermented in no time by the yeast still in suspension, no need to rouse anything.

My logic is that I'm adding gravity points with additional sugar. Whether or not they come at the top of the boil or mid-fermentation, the sugar does the same thing, and we adjust hops to create the right balance accordingly. Since the gravity will increase with the addition of the sugar, but my IBUs will not, the Bitterness Units to Gravity Units Ratio will be lower. The benchmark for a Belgian Quad is a BU:GU of 30. My brewing software indicates I'm currently in the mid 30's, so I could theoretically add more candisugar without pushing the BU:GU ratio outside of the style guidelines.

Even though the candisugar will ferment out almost completely, wouldn't the increased gravity make for a less balanced beer and push it into the malty/sweet territory? To give an extreme example:

Belgian Blond Ale with a 1.060 gravity and 20 IBUs = 0.33 BU:GU ratio. Stylistically in accordance with BJCP guidelines.

Take that same beer and add 4 lbs table sugar to it. Gravity is now 1.088 (7 gravity points per pound of 100% fermentable sugar). The BU:GU ratio is now 0.23. That'd reduce the bitterness/enhance the perceived maltiness significantly, I'd think. The beer with the 4 lbs sugar is 30% more sweet (10 fewer bitterness units to gravity units), even though the sugar is fully fermentable.

But perhaps your logic is more sound--and I failed to consider this in any of my previous Belgian beer designs: since the sugar doesn't leave unfermentable sugars behind, any increase to the gravity through this method will only superficially offset the BU:GU ratio--that the ratio matters more when using grains than something that simply boosts alcohol (and dries the beer out).

Any thoughts on that?

 

[Vale71]

The BU:GU metric is just a guideline that IMHO should always be taken with a big chunck of salt on the side.
For example it assumes that having the same ratio with a 100% Pils grist will have the same result as with a 100% Munich grist with triple decoction and that's obviously not the case. Where it completely falls apart is with the addition of refined sugars that, whilst they can certainly add flavor if they are of the darker kind, will leave no residual sweetness or mouthfeel once they're fully fermented. The increase in ABV if significant will certainly have an effect but it won't be the same as if the additional gravity points had come from malt extract.

 

[bracconiere]

if it allready tastes great, and you just don't like the color....there's always food coloring.....?

 

[Big Monk]

Adjust the recipe for next time. Trying to make an in progress batch a perfect one retroactively is always a recipe for disaster. Like chasing pH in the mash.

You now have field experience that says you need to go a bit darker next time. Use it to adjust accordingly the next time you brew it.

 

[VikeMan]

My logic is that I'm adding gravity points with additional sugar.

Adding simple sugars will actually decrease final gravity (and quite possibly result in less mouthfeel, not more). This is one reason why I don't even look at the BU:GU ratio. Others have proposed FG:GU or BU:ABV ratios, but IMO they are just as problematic.

Now, if yoru homemade candi syrup happens to be not very fermentable, that could be a different story.