What would be the purpose and effect of adding cane sugar to a BIAB recipe?

[Nkliph]

Long story short, I followed my first All Grain BIAB recipe. Was for Saison, and called for sugar at boil. Here is a partial summary of the recipe:

BATCH SIZE 2.5 GAL

INGREDIENTS
- 5.9 lbs Pilsner Malt
- 0.5 lbs Munich dark
- 0.5 lbs Wheat
and
- 0.4 lbs cane sugar

The recipe calls for all grains mashed at 150 degrees for 45 minutes, then water replaced to 3 gallons, then the addition of cane sugar and brought to a boil for 90 minutes.

The recipe estimates an OG of 56, mine came in at 75. I've posted related questions in another forum and many were surprised at the cane sugar addition. I used 1 cup, which is slightly above 0.4 lbs, but not significantly.

So my question for this thread is - what is the purpose and effect of adding cane sugar? I thought it was something to do with the BIAB method and not extracting enough sugars via the mash, but am now wondering as many thought this may have contributed to the high OG.

Also, if I still want to work towards the FG of 1.009 and have a high octane beer, any suggestions to keep/improve fermentation? (Yeast is Wyeast 3711 French Saison smack pack).

 

[porterpounder]

The purpose of sugars in beers, especially Belgian styles, is to dry the beer out. The fully fermentable table sugar thins the body a bit and drops the FG of the final beer creating a "more digestable" product with a nice dry finish.

 

[wilserbrewer]

The sugar should be added after the mash is complete and the grain is removed. Adding sugar to BIAB is no different than adding sugar to any other brew. Adding sugar to the mash would be inefficient as some of the sugar would not be rinsed, and remain trapped in the grain.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Simple sugars act to lower the fg somewhat, and provide a higher og without changing the recipe too much. They're often used in belgian recipes where the original recipe called for either beet sugar (a cheap simple sugar source in belgium) or belgian candy sugar either light or dark. However you can easily subsitute any simple sugar you want, if it's candy sugar then you just have to invert it.

If you got an og of 75 when the recipe called for 56, and assuming your volume of water/wort and weights of grains are identical, then either 1) you likely have a higher efficiency than the recipe creator and should adjust your recipes to account for that or 2) the og was the estimated og before the sugar. My guess is a combination of either your volume might be different, as it can take a number of brews to dial it in accurately, and your efficiency is higher than theirs.

Using brewers friend, assuming your post boil volume is 2.5 and not 2.75 to account for trub loss (which will be the loss of beer after fermentation is complete when transfering from fermentation vessel to either bottle or keg).
For batch size 2.5 I get an effeciency of 68%, and with 2.75 which it should be in honest to get 2.5 gallons out of your fermenter, I get an efficiency of 75%. Most brewers tend to fall around 75%.


I assume you mean high abv, not high octane as a high octane beer would be dangerously explosive...

Take notes, record all volumes at each step, and og and fg. If you got 2.5 gallons out of the boil into your fermenter than adjust recipes for 68% efficiency. If you got 2.75 gallons out of the kettle then adjust for 75%.

 

[McGarnigle]

That recipe isn't going to give you 1.056. That's way too low, given it's a half batch.

 

[chickypad]

Not sure why folks on the other site were surprised at the sugar, I would be more surprised by a saison recipe that didn't include simple sugars of some sort. As was mentioned it looks like someone messed up the calculations somewhere, unless the person writing the recipe was planning under 50% efficiency. The sugar only contributes about 7 pts in a 2.5 gal batch so either counting it or not it's still pretty far off. Regarding the question about fermentation, it's too late for some things (starter, oxygenate). 3711 is a beast all by itself, if you mashed at 150 I'd think it could easily get you to your FG. If you want to be sure ramp the temp up as it starts to slow down.

 

[MattyIce]

I plugged your recipe into BeerSmith. I got an OG of 1.079 in a 2.5 gallon batch including the sugar.

 

[Iseneye]

I thought it was something to do with the BIAB method and not extracting enough sugars via the mash, but am now wondering as many thought this may have contributed to the high OG.

BIAB mash extraction is at least as good as standard methods (if not higher).