Is toffee in the boil a recipe for disaster?

Seems like it would be an incredible flavor as a sugar addition in the boil, but I know it's almost half butter in a good recipe. Is that quantity of lipids in the boil going to completely ruin the beer?

Edit: sorry for the double post. On my phone, and it hates me.

You'll likely damage head formation/retention but apart from that you're not likely to do any real harm. My chocolate stout has never gotten any complaints about head retention from the folks who have tried it, mostly because it's too delicious to complain about. I say go for it.

Sounds tasty! I bet you can also get toffee-like flavors from dark crystal malts or kettle caramelization and avoid the problems that come from the lipids.

I've used about 8 oz of toffee in a brown ale. Didn't seem to effect head retention. But I couldn't taste the difference in the beer either. If I had it to do over I'd likely just use brown sugar.

JonM said:

Sounds tasty! I bet you can also get toffee-like flavors from dark crystal malts or kettle caramelization and avoid the problems that come from the lipids.

Click to expand...

Well the dark malts aren't an option because I'm brewing it for a Belgian style-only competition and it's going to be a treacle-toffee-trippel so it needs to stay light(ish). I have an electric boil kettle also so kettle carmelization is tough to come by as well.

y6y6y6 said:

I've used about 8 oz of toffee in a brown ale. Didn't seem to effect head retention. But I couldn't taste the difference in the beer either. If I had it to do over I'd likely just use brown sugar.

Click to expand...

How much did you use, just out of curiosity? Maybe I will just use brown sugar and say it's toffee.....

8 oz

Brown sugar is just molasses and white sugar. It's really not going to give you anything resembling a toffee-like flavor in your beer.

If your color gets too much off you could enter it as a Specialty Belgian, unless you already have a beer for that category too.

BudzAndSudz said:

Well the dark malts aren't an option because I'm brewing it for a Belgian style-only competition and it's going to be a treacle-toffee-trippel so it needs to stay light(ish). I have an electric boil kettle also so kettle carmelization is tough to come by as well.

Click to expand...