Feeding My Brew

[gibbocore]

Hi All, quick question, when feeding my belgian some invert sugar, should i let it cool right down before dumping it in? I know it will cool fairly quick in the wort, considering i found the bugger had chilled overnigt again to about 15 degrees :angry: so i wouldn;t mind a temp boost. My main concern is will the short time the boiling liquid enters the wort kill too many yeast cells?

 

[peas_and_corn]

How much liquid are you adding? If it's say, 200mL in a 23L batch, it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Bribie G]

I often chuck a whole kettle of just-off-the-boil water into a brew

No I'm not a lunatic, it's just that I brew ales to about 23L to allow plenty of head space in a 30L fermenter for the 'cauliflower head' you can get with top fermenting yeast.
Then after about five days when the head has died down I top up to 24 litres plus a bit for trub and goop when bottling, so fill 12 x 2L bottles for each brew. Obviously a boiled kettle contains deoxygenated water which is what I'm after.

I dry hop at the same time. Recently it's been quite cold in SEQ (by our standards) and when topping up / dry hopping in the morning the temp. has often been 14 - 16 so I don't let the kettle cool down, I just whack it in with the hops, stir vigorously (stirs yeast back up for diacetyl rest) and it comes up to a nice 18 degrees which then holds for the rest of the day as the garage warms up. Gives the brew a noticeable kick along and fizzes out some CO2 to flush the headspace when I close the lid again.

No pussyfooting around here :lol:

I wouldn't worry about killing a few yeasties.

 

[gibbocore]

it will be 1 liter of molten candi sugar. So it will be hotter than 100degrees. I might get it down to under 100 and whack it in.

 

[marlow_coates]

Sorry to hijack your thread :icon_offtopic: but his may also pertain to you.

For calculating alcohol %:
When you add your sugar part way through a ferment, should you check SG prior too and after you add?

So if OG was 1060, then after a few days was 1030, then you add sugar and it is 1040, then it finishes at 1010, should your alcohol % be worked as though you started with 1070 instead of 1060?

Apologies again. If this is answered elsewhere can anyone redirect?

Read a little about it on another discussion website but no-one had an understandable answer.

Cheers

Marlow

Edit: Also I have read that adding a bit of boiling water partway into a ferment with your extra sugar does wonders for kicking the yeast back into action by both adding a few degrees (depends on volume) and also stirring it up a touch.

 

[Bribie G]

it will be 1 liter of molten candi sugar. So it will be hotter than 100degrees. I might get it down to under 100 and whack it in.

Make sure the brew is good and cold, you wouldn't want to up the temp to (for example) 30 degrees, but if you are well under 20 you should be ok. Edit: also watch out for a 'fizz over' if the beer is well carbonated, might pay to give it a good stir first.

 

[gibbocore]

Sorry to hijack your thread :icon_offtopic: but his may also pertain to you.

For calculating alcohol %:
When you add your sugar part way through a ferment, should you check SG prior too and after you add?

So if OG was 1060, then after a few days was 1030, then you add sugar and it is 1040, then it finishes at 1010, should your alcohol % be worked as though you started with 1070 instead of 1060?

Apologies again. If this is answered elsewhere can anyone redirect?

Read a little about it on another discussion website but no-one had an understandable answer.

Cheers

Marlow

Edit: Also I have read that adding a bit of boiling water partway into a ferment with your extra sugar does wonders for kicking the yeast back into action by both adding a few degrees (depends on volume) and also stirring it up a touch.

the way i see it, i had formulated the recipe with all the adjuncts to give me an overall OG, this wont be any different if its added at a later date. Shoot me down if i'm wrong but it makes sense to me.

Also, after adding the sugar, i cooled it down from 150 to 100 and added it to the fermenter, it had a new krausen within about an hour of adding it. Boosting the nemp to around 23-24, so i've left it in the garage wrapped in a sleeping bag, i'm glad for the high temp in this belgian cause so far it had fermented a bit to cleanly at about 18 degrees and hadn't given off enough of that 'belgian aroma'. Hopefully a temp boost with some invert sugar can give it a bit of akick.