Increasing ABV with sugar addition?

[Brewsonfirst]

I am curious about the difference between extracting the sugar from grain vs adding sugar into the boil myself.
I have had a couple of low efficiency brew days (50->60%) because I have some old secondhand grain and probably stuffed some things up BUT,

just wondering if its a better idea to increase the amount of grain vs buying some corn sugar and adding this during the boil?

What reaction would this have on the ABV at the end of the day. (lets say adding a Xg of sugar to a 20L brew).
I want to calculate aprox to make up my lost efficiency.

What effect would either option have on the flavor of the brew using the natural grain sugar vs corn sugar OR other sugar?
I am probably going to experiment with both but just curious about what others think?

Thanks,

 

[Agentgonzo]

Generally, simple sugars add very little (if any) flavour to the brew and just get converted to alcohol. If you add more grain, as well as getting more sugar (and thus more ABV) you will get more flavour into your beer from the extra grain.

 

[The Baron]

Add more grain wherever possible as Agent has said it gives body and extra flavour to the beer.
Adding sugar just ferment out without adding much apart from ABV to your beer.
Now this is not always a bad thing as it can be used to helps some beers and you will see it in generally older style beer recipes but only in a smaller % of the grainbill. It will usually drops your FG lower than expected if the yeast has the attenuation ability and large amounts will dry the beer out.
Many have added sugar when we have had a low EFF but not too much

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

As above. Adding simple sugar to a recipe will increase the alcohol content, but won't do much more. Using them instead of some of the grain will produce a thinner beer.
I use ordinary table sugar to replace some of the grain when making light lagers.

 

[Cwrw666]

I often add half a pound of granulated to my brews. Doesn't have any down sides provided you have enough grain for body/flavour.
Just don't add loads.

 

[The Baron]

I add upto 250g if my eff is down but mainly in Ales as they usually have plenty of depth in the grainbill too

 

[obscure]

Sugar does have a place in brewing (look at basically any strong Belgium beer). Does it produce a thinner beer, yes but at times that is desirable, and in low amounts the impact will likely be minimal.

A 23L batch of beer made with 4KG of Maris Otter at 75% efficiency will have an OG of about 1.041 or so, if you have 50% efficiency this will drop to about 1.033, a half kilo of sugar will bring you back up to 1.041, and honestly your beer will probably still taste just fine.

 

[Twostage]

Sugar can also be used for controlling colour. I managed to find a recipe for deuchars IPA from the head brewer at the time and they used sugar to keep it pale. There's a chart online somewhere that shows grams per litre v. Brix, SG and potential ABV, I'll see if I can find it.

By the way if I'm going to use it I've learned that adding it to the boil can result in scorch marks at the bottom of the boil vessel which is a pain to clean so I add it to the fermenter now.

 

[Tanglefoot]

A major attraction of all grain brewing for me is that you don't need any processed sugar.

If your OG is off learn from this and adjust your grain bill for next time.
Using software such as Brewfather it's easy to plan/adjust starting gravity and track efficiency.


In this case I'd leave as is but you can add sugar to hit your required gravity.
I used to do this all the time when I did kits, but it sort of defeats the point if you're brewing all grain already.

 

[MrJay83]

I've done it a couple of time now when I missed my targets and I always notice a thinness to the beer. Most recently a NEIPA. I added 500g and it's still nice but it tastes much thinner than the previous time I brewed the recipe.

 

[Twostage]

Sugar can also be used for controlling colour. I managed to find a recipe for deuchars IPA from the head brewer at the time and they used sugar to keep it pale. There's a chart online somewhere that shows grams per litre v. Brix, SG and potential ABV, I'll see if I can find it.

By the way if I'm going to use it I've learned that adding it to the boil can result in scorch marks at the bottom of the boil vessel which is a pain to clean so I add it to the fermenter now.

Found a rule of thumb from here :-

sugar to alcohol

18g/Ltr = 1% ABV.

 

[Twopan]

I feel your pain! When I started all grain, using the brew-in-a-bag method (BIAB), I used to get poor efficiency and had to add sugar to up the OG. Using some added dried Malt extract can be better as its essentially grain that's done for you and adds body. However, improving efficiency is the best route. I now get 70% for BIAB by using fine crush grain, mashing longer at 62° and dunk sparging the bag at 75° for 10 minutes. As others have said Belgian beers often ask for added candi sugar (or golden syrup makes a good substitute). To avoid overshooting OG I take the post-boil gravity in the kettle and adjust for temperature. That tells me how much syrup to add for the final desired gravity.

 

[Justin Dean]

Invert sugar does work

 

[Twopan]

Calculators at Brewers Friend will give you the conversion rates.

 

[Brewsonfirst]

Found a rule of thumb from here :-

sugar to alcohol

18g/Ltr = 1% ABV.

Appreciate all the responses!
I will try out all these notes,
Interestingly in MrJay83's response 500g of sugar was mentioned which would math out using this formula to 1.38ABV(/20l) which sounds almost exactly my efficiency loss!

Nice to get consistent advice!
Thanks,

 

[Twostage]

Did a bit more digging and an increase in OG is what we need. Its a subtle difference but ABV depends on it being fermented, gravity is before fermentation and is 'real'. As a bad example if your yeast had a bad day and only attenuated at 50% then 18g/ltr would only give you 0.5% increase in ABV.

So... 26 grams of sugar gives you 1 gravity point in 10 litres. In other words it would take 1.039 to 1.040. 260 grams would give you 10 points - 1.039 to 1.049. I've confirmed this with brewmate software (I'm sure other software would confirm).