Northern Brewer Nut Brown Ale

I am making Northern Brewers Nut Brown Ale extract kit. Was thinking of adding brown sugar for some extra flavor. What are your thoughts on this? How much should I add? What effect would it have on the beer?

I did that, I used brown sugar at bottling. Was very tasty, and all gone!

I've had nut brown kits that used brown sugar, and I frequently put an ounce of molasses in my nut browns these days. Brown sugar is sucrose with a little molasses added. As such it will dry/thin your beer out a little bit, which I personally don;t care for in my nut brown ales. The molasses component adds a rum like flavor. The kits I've had that had brown sugar used 1/2 lb.

John53189 said:

I did that, I used brown sugar at bottling. Was very tasty, and all gone!

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Did you use that instead of priming sugar?

BonzoAPD said:

Did you use that instead of priming sugar?

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Yes

The nut brown ale I got from midwest supply used 1lb of brown sugar as part of the fermentables! I forgot it at first, it was suppsed to be in full boil time, but I didn't add it to the boil until about 15 minutes left. I don't think this will have changed anything much, I'm going to try one on thursday, it will have been in the bottles 3 weeks after 3 in primary.

I didn't add brown sugar to the boil when I just brewed the NB Nut Brown Ale, but now am thinking I would like to do something to it to give it more of a flare.

Should I add some brown sugar to the keg (secondary) and let it sit at room temp for another week or two prior to hooking it up to the co2?

Or, should I just add some oak chips or vanilla beans to the secondary and then keg it, without using brown sugar?

HELP!

Great info here I think I mite try something like this.

Roger

collinsDPT said:

I didn't add brown sugar to the boil when I just brewed the NB Nut Brown Ale, but now am thinking I would like to do something to it to give it more of a flare.

Should I add some brown sugar to the keg (secondary) and let it sit at room temp for another week or two prior to hooking it up to the co2?

Or, should I just add some oak chips or vanilla beans to the secondary and then keg it, without using brown sugar?

HELP!

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bump

Should I add some brown sugar to the keg (secondary) and let it sit at room temp for another week or two prior to hooking it up to the co2?

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You can add it to secondary if you want, but make sure it ferments out. You'll need to pasteurize it first. Mix it with a pint of water and boil for 5 minutes.

Or, should I just add some oak chips or vanilla beans to the secondary and then keg it, without using brown sugar?

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While there's no strict definition of "nut brown ale" (BJCP or oitherwise), most would probably argue that oak and certainly vanilla don't belong. Roast and malt flavors are the focus in pretty much all beers that call themselves "nut brown." Many of them use dark-roasted caramel malts and a slight molasses flavor can complement this well. Additionally, the drying effect of the sugar can cut the heaviness of a lot of caramel malt somewhat. But then again, it's your beer, why not try oak and/or vanilla and see if you like it?

collinsDPT said:

I didn't add brown sugar to the boil when I just brewed the NB Nut Brown Ale, but now am thinking I would like to do something to it to give it more of a flare.

Should I add some brown sugar to the keg (secondary) and let it sit at room temp for another week or two prior to hooking it up to the co2?

Or, should I just add some oak chips or vanilla beans to the secondary and then keg it, without using brown sugar?

HELP!

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Well, do you want it to taste like brown sugar, oak, or vanilla?

Any of those should be fine, but do be aware that adding sugar will probably start a new round of fermentation, resulting in more booze and bubbles.