So I am a novice at home brewing and one my 4th batch. I have a Chai Honey Ale that i racked to secondary after 8 days in primary, and added added turbinado sugar and more honey to it and BOOM i go a second fermentation rolling for the last 3 days now… Im sure someone has done this already! Wondering what i can expect from this beer now?
Mind you I am very new, learning and reading and also experimenting with ideas…
If you add more sugar it will ferment more. There are ways around this if you are kegging. if you are bottling there is not much you can do.
It will not hurt the beer. Ideally you would have skipped the secondary but that’s probably okay. there was still plenty of yeast in the beer, obviously.
I actually did this on my last big barley wine. I added 3 lb of maple syrup about 5 days into fermentation and BOOM. worked really well. It’s called incremental feeding and is supposed to help reduce stress on the yeast in big high gravity fermentations.
Cool… Well since I am new I followed the 1.2.3 rule of primary secondary then bottle… But right after I racked I read that most people skip this and jus leave it primary till bottling or keging… Im not at the keg level yet!
Im gonna let it sit for about 3 weeks then cold crash it and bottle… Unless it clears up enough that I dont have to cold crash it…
Im hoping this will give it more honey and caramel flavor…
Good luck! I am sure it’ll be delicious
The sugar and honey will add a small amount of flavor but will mostly act to boost the alcohol. Honey and sugar are 100% fermentable. This means that the yeast will eat all the sugar they have to give. In malt there are some sugars that yeast cannot ferment and this is why beers do not ferment down to 1.00 or below (except a few saison yeasts). Thus the malt adds some residual sweetness and malt flavor.
???
Well looks like I was thinkin in the wrong direction! LOL… thats ok, we shall see where this thing goes! I’m documenting all this stuff just in case it actually turns out great!! lol…
So question, what would be the right amount of time to let it sit before I bottle?
Rule of thumb is 3 days of stable gravity and you are good to go.
If I want a little bit more caramel flavor, I like to reduce some wort down to about 1/4 the volume, and then add that to the boil. I did it post-ferment with a scotch ale, and that turned out pretty decent as well.
I took my first post ferment gravity readings today, I have an OG of 1.062 and the SG today was 1.011
The other brew i have (Irish Red Ale) started at 1.047 and is now at 1.013.
Hmmm I might try that next time!