Adding sugar for wanted sg

[Bavis54]

Hi friends, I just finished mashing in an all grain bourbon , and when done I checked sg and it was only 1.064. I was wanting a bit more alcohol so my question is this- even tho it was an all grain recipe- if I wanted to get sg up to 1.075 how much sugar would I have to add? It’s a 30 gal mash

[bluefish_dist]

Just run it. 1.064 is plenty high for a bourbon. I might even add a little water and run closer to 1.06.

[Wild Bill]

I agree with bluefish but it would take about 6# of sugar to raise the sg to 1.075.

[fizzix]

1.064 is quite respectable.

[Bavis54]

Thank u friends, the grain bill is a honey bear variant, 40 lbs cracked corn, tractor supply corn so ran it thru grist milk again, I do a little of both methods, I cook in bop at boil for 90 min or so n then transfer to fermenting barrel that’s been wrapped up in old blankets and drop cloths , once in the fermenter I put lid on and wait for temp to hit 150f. Then I added four lbs honey malt, stir, and added 8 lbs red wheat malt and 8 lbs pale ale malt, stir, and added 4 lbs rolled oats. I normally use 1 gal water per 2 lbs corn but it was getting way thick, so I heated 11 gal to 150f and poured in, put lid on and let sit. This brought water tally to 31 gal. Next day I stirred well and took sg reading. 1.064 isn’t bad, I’ve gotten better conversion using liquid enzymes in past, but I wanted to see what I could get using old school methods. Little by little I’ve learned it’s all about cooking the crap outta every kernel of corn, and keeping it in magic temp range for long as possible. I was hoping for 1.07 or 1.075, but I will leave it bc I want to see how much flavor it’s gna have . I jus wondered how much sugar I’d have to add to get to 1.075, I have a 12 gal copper pot still I run this thru with 8 gal thumper . Flavor should be quite nice .

[Pikey]

..............- if I wanted to get sg up to 1.075 how much sugar would I have to add? It’s a 30 gal mash

There's a sugar abv calculator here ;

viewtopic.php?t=21455CachedYou

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Don't you dare ruin that bourbon by adding sugar! I'm a gonna find you if'n you do....

Mind you, nothing wrong with sugar. But when you did it right, and hit a bourbon sg on the nose, that's just your pride and greed sneaking up telling you to hit the white stuff again.

Save the sugar for the piggie back, and get even more liquor then if you tried to push the sg.

[pfshine]

8.5% is good. I wouldn't put sugar in it. Like scd said just save it for the piggyback with some backset.

[thecroweater]

8.5% is good. I wouldn't put sugar in it. Like scd said just save it for the piggyback with some backset.

What he said
I'm not in the anti sugar gang but if using it in lui of adding more base ingredient (rather than a lack of available sugar) than your product will for better or worse have a lighter flavour. 8.5% is a pretty darn good place for mash and much higher will likely cause problems.
When considering where or not to add sugar you need to consider why you want to add it, if your OG is too low for the ingredients you used then it's probably a good move but if it's purely to get a higher yield than normally possible from your bill you will likely be disappointed with the result. Keep in mind yeast has an optimum ABV to work to and beyond that the yeast will work under stress for the most part producing flavours most don't want, that ABV varies from strain to strain but 8.5 to 9% is a safe place to call it for most.