Adding sugars to primary or secondary changes estimated ABV

[rosilho]

Hello,
I saw that in BS3 in the recipe design I can add a sugar during boil, primary, secondary etc. and if I add it during boil or primary it changes my OG and estimated ABV as expected. However, if I add it at secondary or later it doesn't change the estimated ABV, why? Of course I could design the recipe adding the sugar at primary to get the ABV estimation even if I'm actually adding it at secondary, but like that I will over estimate the OG and get wrong efficiencies.
I saw that in the BS2 forum there's a similar topic here and at the time the only solution was the one described above.

Thanks, giacomo

[Oginme]

So, I've run through the design adjusting the sugar addition from boil to primary to secondary and see the same issue you have stated.  The OG responds to sugar adds for the boil and primary additions, but does not for the secondary addition.

I can only guess here that since adding sugar to the secondary is pretty rare (since you have taken the beer off the yeast and any significant addition of sugar will overload the yeast still in suspension).  I think that the idea of the sugar addition after primary is set up for back sweetening of meads, that the software is not set up to recognize it for alcohol content calculations.  Since I don't make meads and have done only a little reading on making them, I am really speculating here.  Maybe someone with a better understanding can clarify further.

[rosilho]

OK I understand your point. So maybe I'm designing the recipe in a wrong way. What I do actually, isn't to put the sugar in secondary fermenter but in the primary right after fermentation ends. This because it is a very aromatic sugar made from a fruit and I don't want to loose the aroma during the main fermentation. Is there an alternative way to design such a recipe?
Thanks, giacomo

[Oginme]

I add a lot of sugar into the fermenter when making Belgian styles.  Usually, I try to time it right after the peak of fermentation activity to prolong the yeast from running low on nutrients and flocking out.  I understand your point about the aromatics from the sugars and not wanting to lose them.  I know from making a honey brown where I am adding a fair portion of honey into the fermenting wort, that the addition I use with the Belgian ales doesn't seem to have too much of an effect on the honey aroma but I am picking strong aromatic honey to begin with.  No matter when you add the sugar, it is going to restart the fermentation.  In the end, you will most likely need to try it and see just what impact it will have at different addition points.

[rosilho]

I will try to put it right at the beginning to see if there's any difference in aroma and if it is ok then I can just tell to BS that I'm putting the sugar in primary. Maybe there will be even some biotransformation effect! 
 Thanks

[Simon]

It's quite important when making WINE using BS3, as doing fruit wines "country wine" like say Raspberry, Primary is used for maceration and initial fermentation of the fruit sugars, then racked to secondary where other sugars are added and left to fermented out. Currently the only way to do it in BS3 is to have all the sugars set to primary which is not ideal.