First time using sugar

[GDoucet]

I'm making a Saison on the weekend and it's the first time I'm using suger (other than for bottling). I thought I read somewhere that it's best to add the sugar after primary fermentation is dying down. Am I right or should it be added sometime during the boil?

If it goes in after primary fermentation, should I boil the sugar in a little water first then add this to the fermenting beer?

I'm doing the BCS recipe for a saison and it calls for 0.75 lbs of cane sugar. I'm assuming using white table sugar is the same thing?

[CorneliusAlphonse]

What I know is that if you feed put sugar in the wort, the yeast will eat it preferentially because it is easier metabolically for them to do so. Once they have eaten the sugar, sometimes they can be too weak to fully ferment thebremainingg sugars, leaving your beer Too sweet. Usually it is a concern for stronger beers where the alcohol will be hard on the yeast. The other concern ive heard is that if you have the sugar in before fermenting, then the higher sugar concentration could be hard on the yeast. Again, mostly a concern for high alcohol beers (like 10%). The recommended way to deal with both is to add the sugar once fermentation is going vigorously, just starting to slow. Ensure the yeast are nice and healthy.

So since you're doing a saison, it is not as important as it likely isn't very high alcohol. Adding it partway through fermentation would be better, but then you have to deal with getting the sugar to dissolve. If you do go late-addition path, definitely recommended to boil it briefly with a bit on water (enough to dissolve but not a lot more)

[jeffsmith]

If it's a low to moderate OG beer, I usually add to the last 5 minutes of the boil. Higher OG I add during primary, heating the water enough to kill anything nasty.

[dean2k]

In the PDF linked below, they add the sugar at the last 5 minutes of boil, even for high OGs. YMMV

http://www.brewnosers.org/forums/viewto ... pdf#p45232" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[gm-]

I've usually added at 5 or 10 min, never had any issues.

[berley]

What I know is that if you feed put sugar in the wort, the yeast will eat it preferentially because it is easier metabolically for them to do so. Once they have eaten the sugar, sometimes they can be too weak to fully ferment thebremainingg sugars, leaving your beer Too sweet. Usually it is a concern for stronger beers where the alcohol will be hard on the yeast. The other concern ive heard is that if you have the sugar in before fermenting, then the higher sugar concentration could be hard on the yeast. Again, mostly a concern for high alcohol beers (like 10%). The recommended way to deal with both is to add the sugar once fermentation is going vigorously, just starting to slow. Ensure the yeast are nice and healthy.

So since you're doing a saison, it is not as important as it likely isn't very high alcohol. Adding it partway through fermentation would be better, but then you have to deal with getting the sugar to dissolve. If you do go late-addition path, definitely recommended to boil it briefly with a bit on water (enough to dissolve but not a lot more)

This is how I always do it. You certainly CAN add it in the boil; realistically the yeast will probably be fine.

BUT, if you can add it with no problems into primary, and ensure the yeast are working on the less-dessert-like sugars first, why not? Not to mention that it decreases how big of a starter you need; for example, adding sugar IN the boil, maybe your OG is 1.070, but in primary, the OG after boiling would be lower (depending on how much sugar you're adding, of course).

[GDoucet]

Thanks for all the advice gents. I think I'll add it during fermentation. If I mix it in with boiling water, I likely won't have problems dissolving the sugar.

As far as type of sugar, is the regular granulated white table sugar good to use? I could easily use corn sugar too I guess?

[berley]

Thanks for all the advice gents. I think I'll add it during fermentation. If I mix it in with boiling water, I likely won't have problems dissolving the sugar.

As far as type of sugar, is the regular granulated white table sugar good to use? I could easily use corn sugar too I guess?

I've always just used regular table sugar. Corn sugar shouldn't be any better, just more expensive.

And yes, just boil it in some water, let it cool, and dump it in when fermentation starts to slow a bit. No reason to re-shake the fermentor or anything.