Late Fermentation Addition of Brown Sugar

OK, sue me, but it was the last of four brew sessions a weekend ago. I was supposed to add a pound of brown sugar to this 12 gallon batch during the boil and I forgot. Anybody ever add sugar late in the fermentation?

Believe it or not, you are probably better off doing it the way you are doing it.

I am a big fan of adding simple sugar additions (honey, sugar, never tried it w/ molasses/treacle) at the last 1/3 of primary fermentation.

Essentially, you are making sure your yeast is metabolizing the longer chain sugars first before it decides to metabolize the easy, smaller chain sugars (think of a really hungry, really lazy person who has a lobster and a twinkie in front of them).

I would boil about a quart of water, add the sugar, boil for 30 seconds, cool, and add to the fermenter. Even if you don’t have a krausen, the dissolved yeast should still chew it up.

Yeah I like doing this periodically as well. Especially with honey or molasses so you don’t boil of the flavor and aroma.

Boil it briefly and add it. Just be careful if your carboy is really full. I just did this to up the gravity of a beer I missed on by about ten points and added on day four or five and had a massive blowoff.

Although I am pretty laid back, I recently added .75lb sugar to high krausen beer and will not do it again as it added some booziness/alcohol flavor and aroma despite what I read about it. In fact, I made the same exact malt bill with different hop schedule but remembered to add sugar this time and no issue that I can detect from a recent sample. Wish I was luckier.

In the interest of total honesty, I already added the sugar directly to the fermenter this morning before I posted this thread. I figured it couldn’t be much worse that adding priming sugar. By lunch it was re-fermenting vigorously. Fingers crossed.

you will be all good. There is so much yeast in there right now, plus the alcohol, I don’t think any bugs will be able to take hold

you will be all good. There is so much yeast in there right now, plus the alcohol, I don’t think any bugs will be able to take hold[/quote]

Yeah, I know. I was more concerned about taste.

[quote=“fightdman”]

Yeah, I know. I was more concerned about taste.[/quote]

Not that concerned apparently :mrgreen:

Seriously though, I can’t see how it would be any different than adding it at flameout, with the exception of what is discussed above (it will be dryer with thinner mouthfeel the way you did it; adding @ flameout would have probably resulted in more long-chain residual sugars and a ‘chewier’ beer).

[quote=“Pietro”][quote]fightdman wrote:

Yeah, I know. I was more concerned about taste.[/quote]

Not that concerned apparently[/quote]
Touché

[quote=“Pietro”]Seriously though, I can’t see how it would be any different than adding it at flameout, with the exception of what is discussed above (it will be dryer with thinner mouthfeel the way you did it; adding @ flameout would have probably resulted in more long-chain residual sugars and a ‘chewier’ beer).[/quote] That’s kinda what I thought too, but without adding it at all I would have missed the ABV target and some of the (small) taste additions that the dark brown sugar was bringing to the party.

Yeah, I think you will perceive the flavors. I recently did a spring saison/biere de mars with meadowfoam honey, which has amazing flavor and aromatics. I used the method I describe above and the resulting beer really hung onto some of the scrumtrulescent compounds in the honey.

Yeah, I think you will perceive the flavors. I recently did a spring saison/biere de mars with meadowfoam honey, which has amazing flavor and aromatics. I used the method I describe above and the resulting beer really hung onto some of the scrumtrulescent compounds in the honey.[/quote]

Where do you get your honey?

“Scrumtrulescent”…Dayyyyum!
Learned a new word today…Just don’t know what it means! :shock:

[quote=“Stealthcruiser”]“Scrumtrulescent”…Dayyyyum!
Learned a new word today…Just don’t know what it means! :shock: [/quote]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTmb8zw3rNI

I was introduced to Meadowfoam by a LHBS by me and usually grab it by the 3# jar. I feel like they recently raised the price. Damn colony collapse disorder.

https://www.annapolishomebrew.com/p/917 ... meadowfoam

More often than not if I’m posting a question about something on here I’m going to do it anyways or have already done it. Just looking for verification that my gut feeling was right. Or horribly wrong…

More often than not if I’m posting a question about something on here I’m going to do it anyways or have already done it. Just looking for verification that my gut feeling was right. Or horribly wrong…[/quote]

Usually not so in my case, but it certainly was this time. Fermentation has settled back down now. I think I might do a hydro sample this weekend and taste the sample. This clone beer attempt of Cold Smoke® Scotch Ale (
https://kettlehouse.com/our-beers
) was requested my one of my neighbors and I’ve never tasted the original before. I’m only going on recipes posted on the interwebs.