Using Candi Syrup

I've had success adding it during the last 5 minutes of the boil or when peak fermentation starts winding down.

 

I just add it to the boil. Some do add it to the fermenter to help guarantee that the yeast will work on the maltose. There is concern that if the yeast start on the simple sugars they will be less able to acclimate to maltose, leaving the beer underattenuated. While I understand the concern, I have not encountered problems when adding it to the boil. Just pitch a healthy yeast starter and you ought to be fine.

If you do decide to add to a fermenter, do it in primary, while the yeast are still somewhat active. You said add it in the bottling bucket and i hope you don't mean before bottling. This would be a bottle bomb disaster, unless you were carefully measuring out only enough candi sugar to prime, which would simply be a wasted effort because you would never perceive the flavor. Adding to secondary is not desirable, in my opinion; the yeast are not very active during secondary and you may end up bottling with too much residual sugar, either impacting the flavor or leading you to bottle bombs.

 

I have only used candi syrup near the end of the boil. Though I have added other fermentables to the primary at high krausen.

If you wanted to add it to the secondary, why would you rack to your bottling bucket in between? Also, if you want to add the syrup to a secondary, realize that your secondary is now a second primary fermentation, i.e. you'll have a not insignificant amount of fermentation happening in the secondary, and may have to be concerned about adequate headspace, etc.

So if I were not going to add to the boil, I would add it to the primary and let it ferment out before moving to the secondary (if I were going to do a secondary at all...you don't have to do a secondary for this beer).

 

Assuming the yeast managed to fully attenuate the original wort normally, I think they would generally have no problems eating the candi syrup, even in the secondary. (That's why bottle conditioning works.) But I agree with the recommendations you made.

 

Yeah, you are right. Sort of like adding fruit puree to secondary. The yeast ought to take care of the sugars. My caution was based on a brew in which I added molasses to secondary and bottled too soon. It wasn't really the process that was the problem but my execution. The yeast took care of the molasses in the bottle, resulting in big foamy messes. To the OP, I amend my caution: regardless of when you add this sugar, make sure the beer fully attenuates before packaging.

 

I guess I missed that advice. People seem to be saying that you should just add the syrup to the primary and let it finish fermenting there. The purpose of the secondary is not to start a new round of fermentation, it's generally to add flavors via additions that aren't super-fermentable or to help clarify your beer. Taking your beer out of primary in order to ferment more sugar is just going to increase your chances of infection. Plus, trying to start fermentation after racking is going to just take more time to no good effect since you're removing a huge amount of yeast.

Key question: why do you think you need to add candi sugar to the secondary vs primary or the end of the boil?

 

This is a good question: Perhaps the OP is under the misperception that adding candi sugar to secondary will help preserve its aromatic quality. Usually when during secondary, it is because there is some aromatic quality to the fermentable that they are trying to observe -- fruits and honeys might have those qualities. But some sugars, like molasses, candi sugar, and maple, are already processed by heating. Their characteristic flavors are not so delicate. Adding these to secondary doesn't really accomplish the same thing it might with a fine honey.

 

Nobody advised that. Not in this thread anyway.

 

Just curious, how did the Molasses come through?

I love molasses but was hesitant to put it into beer for fear of wierd (skanky burnt) flavors being left behind after the sugar is gone.

 

I decided I didn't like it. The beer had some metallic notes. Bear in mind that I was pretty inexperienced, so this beer could have suffered from a number of flaws and I may not have gained a fair impression of the ingredient. Although I've never brewed with molasses again, you do see people posting recipes with it, so I doubt it automatically ruins whatever it touches.Sometimes people write English style (porters, stouts, old ales) recipes with Lyle's Black Treacle, too. I've never had it but I always assumed it might be similar to molasses.

 

I've had good luck with light or mild molasses, not nearly as harsh as blackstrap.

 

^^ Thanks guys.