Additional Sugar added to Austrailian Pale Ale Extract

[Dabseyman]

Hi Folks

I need some advice regarding adding extra sugar to my extract brew. I have just brewed a Coopers Austrailian Pale Ale from extract. I have done several extracts before and thought that this time I would make it stronger. I think I may have over done it a bit. The instructions say to add 1kg of brewers sugar to a 5 gal brew. In my infinite wisdom I decided to add 2kg thinking that the extra 1kg would add about 1% alcohol. The og was 1.066 and 4 days into fermentation the gravity is 1.030 and tastes very very sweet.

Please advise if I have destroyed my brew or if it will come good in the end. Also if the brew ends up alright but a little on the sweet side is their anythig I can do to put back in some bitterness.

I feel a bit silly now for adding so much sugar but at the time it all made perfect sense.

Dabseyman

 

[Ceejay]

I think as long as the yeast can handle the eventual alcohol volume you'll be OK but it'll probably take more time than usual to chom through all that sugar!

Assuming that gets down to 1010 or so, you're looking at an ABV of 7.4%, if the yeast can handle it...

 

[Dabseyman]

Thanks or your advice its greatly appreciated. I didnt use the yeast supplied because I thought a recent bout of -17 c would have killed them off as they were stored in the garage.

I used Safale US-05 Yeast 11.5 grams.

I will post the results of how the brew turns out on this thread.

Fingers Crossed.

Dabseyman

 

[Dabseyman]

Can anyone say if the extra 1kg of brewing sugar will have a big effect on the taste of the final product.

: Dabseyman

 

[phettebs]

I try to limit sugar to around 15% of the total fermentables but have gone as high as 20% in specific instances.

As I posted on another thread, sugar tends to dry a beer out. It can have the effect of making it seem thin and watery.

So, will there be an effect on your beer because of the sugar? Yes, probably. Will it be noticeably detrimental? Maybe but it's not a given. At this point, just taste it and see.

Baz

 

[Dabseyman]

I bottled the brew today with the final gravity reading 1012 giving an ABV of approx 7.5%. The brew took much longer to clear than I expected and still has quite a sweet taste but I am hoping that after carbonation and a month in the bottles it will improve.

Thanks for all your advice Gents.

Dabseyman :

 

[Dabseyman]

I have tasted the brew after 1 week in the bottles and its far too sweet. Feeling a little silly at the moment but lessons learned.

Dabseyman

 

[Moley]

The extra sugar shouldn't have affected the final gravity because it's fully fermentable. You may be noticing the sweetness a little more if you've thinned out the body of the beer, but 1.012's a fairly normal FG.

 

[MadLarkin]

could you add something else to the brew as its fermenting to counteract the thinning out?

 

[commsbiff]

You could use liquid or dried malt extract (LME or DME) instead of or together with sugar.

Malt extract will give you a combination of fermentables (giving higher alc%) and non-fermentables (giving body). This may though, put the hop balance slightly out. If you were concerned about this, Muntons do a hopped version of light DME.

Malt extract is more expensive though, so you could use Beer Kit Enhancer (BKE) instead which is the middle price range and consists of a brewing sugar / DME mix.