boiling sugars

[oliver]

adding sugars to the boil is seriously killing my boil efficiency it seems. and it also doesn't seem to be yielding the same gravity that the calculator spits out at me.

solution: dilute the same amount of sugar i plan to use in a separate pot, bring to a boil, and add it at flameout..yay or nay?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

just add to the end of your boil like at 15 minutes, it could be evaporation

 

[oliver]

i've been adding it at 10min, and adding sugars seems to stop my boil for about 30sec to a min. i'd rather just not add sugars, but i do like to adhere to the style brewed.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I guess your plan would work, try it just remember not to add to much liquid back in that wasn't accounted for in the recipe

 

[oliver]

true. if i added 8oz cane sugar and 1/2 cup water per oz, that's an extra quarter gallon added back to the wort... hm. batch would go from 2.25 gallon to 2.5 gallon with that extra sugar solution.. That shouldn't have too drastic a taste effect should it??

1/4 cup water per oz... that'd be 0.125gallons added in, ehhh.

 

[Nosybear]

Answer, a strong "depends." I generally don't worry about efficiency but effect. If I want a sugar's character to come through, say using honey, molasses or unrefined sugar, I'll make a syrup of it, boil it 10 minutes to pasteurize it and add it to the fermentation after three days but before it quits. Often I'll do the same with table sugar to avoid problems calculating bitterness. If I add table sugar to the boil, it's late in the boil, even at whirlpool, for the same reasons. Particularly for high-gravity brews, I'll let the yeast chew through the maltose before adding simpler sugars to avoid sticking the fermentation.