I usually nail this recipe but it came out just a little dry and this type of beer should have some amount of sweetness. I have never tried to sweeten a beer once it’s been packaged and this beer is kegged, carbed & cold. I doubt I have anything aside from sugar/brown sugar and my guess is that the sugars would not be metabolized by the yeast because the beer is cold. Has anyone boiled some water, added some brown sugar, let it cool and then pour that mixture into a keg? If so, how much brown sugar would you start with? Cheers.
I have never tried it but maybe some lactose might help out. :?
if it had a decent amount of conditioning time and gelatin treatment like most of your beers usually get, and is staying in the keg never going to get bottled then i would bet you would be ok sweetening with fermentable sugar.
my pumpkin and spice finished at 1.022 and is just about right for me. so if you knew what gravity you finished at it would help figure out how much sugar to add. 1 lb of sugar adds about 9 gravity points in five gallons.
ive never done this exactly but i back sweetened a cider in a keg with juice and treated it with the wrong stabilizers by mistake. a bottle that i filled from the keg blew up like 9 months later.
it was fine in the keg for several months but bottling would worry me
i dont really like lactose or artificial sugars but they are an option too
The only option I really had was fermentable sugar so I used some brown sugar. I boiled about a pint of water and added ½ cup of brown sugar to that and let it boil for about 5 minutes. I let that cool a little bit and then added it directly to the keg. I sampled some a bit later and I could taste that it was a bit sweeter but it would probably be best to let it sit for a while before deciding. Yes, there was VERY little yeast going into the keg and the keg will remain in the draft fridge until it’s empty (or until I dump it because I futzed it up!). I’ll report back once I sample it again.
Cheers guys!
So I tapped a few of these tonight while watching the NLCS and you know what? This worked beautifully. The beer is noticeably sweeter but it’s very much the way it normally turns out. I just stabbed in the dark with the amount but I’m very happy that it came out well & saved this batch of beer. Ka-ching! Cheers Beerheads!
