Ale Yeast Conversion

[Lewjac3]

Hi,
I am thinking of experimenting by adding .50-1lb of corn sugar to my next batch of ale to raise abv without the sweetness I would get if I used my normal grain bill (9.25lbs 1.070). The question I have is, would there be an affect on the ale yeast? I was thinking that the yeast would be consuming maltose and a less complex sugar to convert, does the presence of the corn sugar make the yeast lazy were they will have a problem converting the maltose?

[MaltLicker]

I've read that is possible if the yeast detect a lot of simple sugar and gear themselves up for that rather than maltose, but at <1# that's about 10%. 

I think 1# sugar would add 9-10 points SG, so now you'd be at 1.080, so a large healthy starter would become even more important. 

[jomebrew]

Yeast will consume simple sugars first.  As Maltlicker noted, ensure you have are using the proper pitching rate for the gravity.   The yeast will consume all of the simple sugars and leave nothing behind but C02 and Ethanol. 

Sugar does not make a less sweet beer.  It makes a beer with less body and more alcohol.  These throw off the flavor balance so you should understand the mash profile to ensure the beer stays balanced.  Care should be taken to avoid this, watery beer.  So, if you mash at 148, you might want to mash at 150.

[Lewjac3]

Thank's Guys for the reply, I will be using 1lt starter with a step up 2lt starter, that should be plenty of yeast. One more question, would adding corn sugar at end of boil or after fermentation starts  have advantages between one or the other?
Thank's

[Mtnmangh]

This really depends on your hop bill.  The more sugar in your boil, the less the hop utilization.  Kinda depends on what you are looking for, but when you add it DOES make a difference in the final product.  You can see the difference by looking at it both ways in BeerSmith.