Too much Sugar.?

[Heartofglass]

Well lets just say I jumped into the kettle before I quite understood anything about making beer.
Now that I've become fairly good friends with my 5 gals of wort thats going on 4 weeks- Im thinking back and wondering why my brew partner and I did what we did- Aside from scorching the malt and pitching the yeast too soon, while we were cooking the malt my buddy (ill blame him) added over a pound of cane sugar.
Perhaps Im not seeing the recipe we were attempting but to continue Later that day I saw that the fermenter was not bubbling. I called my friend and told him and he said to throw in some more sugar. So I added a cup of white sugar into the fermentor.

Im curious what all this added sugar means and if perhaps theres a way to determine if this brew is still viable or fit for human consumption. I dont like kool aid beer but perhaps the sugar in it has nothing to do with the sweetness and everything to do with alcohol content.

Much Obliged
Hog

 

[ChshreCat]

The sugar should ferment out, so you're not going to have sweet beer. What it will do is give you higher alcohol and less body. Without knowing the recipe I couldn't tell you how the beer will be, but throwing in a bunch of sugar for no reason usually doesn't improve things.

 

[Heartofglass]

Saison Yeast, Malt extract and Hopped with a little lime and orange zest and a dash of corriander. I guess Hoeggarden inspired?

So lets say we take a abv reading and it says our alcohol content is high, is there away to remedy that? Seems a silly question but again thanks for your knowhow.
Hog

 

[ChshreCat]

Hopped with lime and orange zest? You actually hopped it, right? Or was the malt extract pre-hopped?

 

[ChshreCat]

On the plus side, a saison is supposed to be light bodied and dry, so the sugar works with that. And a modern american-style saison is fairly high in alcohol.

 

[Heartofglass]

Yeah Hopped and zested- well thats hopeful news. In the next few days we'll be bottling at which point we add sugar to carb the beer. I'll read up on that.
thanks
Hog