adding brown sugar

Hey everyone. A friend of mine bought me a brewers best scotch ale recipe kit a few weeks back and I was hoping to brew it in the next few days. I’ve done a few of their kits in the past and found that they make a pretty decent beer, but that they are definitely lighter than I would like. The last I did was a brown ale that only had an SG of 1.040. Finished with approx 3.75abv and while it was a crowd favorite at get-togethers, it just seemed to me to need a bit more in the way of alcohol and mouthfeel to make it "good."

For this batch I was hoping to somehow get this kit up around 5% abv. In my house I have a lot of brewers sugar, brown sugar, and honey laying around. I know more extract would probably give me more in the way of flavor but given what I have, would adding the brown sugar help me get more along the lines of what I want? If so, how many cups approximately should I add? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

As far as I know, brown sugar is just cane sugar plus molasses. I'm thinking that this would be 100 percent (or nearly) fermentable. In that case, I believe you would actually get the higher ABV, but lower mouthfeel. Mouthfeel often comes from residual sugars that the yeast cannot ferment. In the case of brown sugar, since it would be more fermentables, the mouthfeel would get lower. I would say you would be better off using more extract to get what you are looking for.

Anyone else want to chime in on this one?

More extract or sugar will give you more alcohol. IMHO I would go with more extract before using the sugar.

For mouthfeel, do you use steeping grains? If not would sugest using a little crystal or carapils to up the mouthfeel.

deathweed said:

I would go with more extract before using the sugar.

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+1. I'd go extract every time. Using sugar can get you some cidery flavors. And not in a good way.

Good luck with it - let us know how you get on.

Do you mean scotchish ale, or do you mean scotch ale? I ask because scotch ales should be coming in much heavier than 5% abv...think around 9...

+1 to the carapil steep. TMK carapils needs to be malted to get fermentable sugars.

you could do both....if your looking to make it a scotch ale you could up the alcohol by adding the brown sugar. for the mouth a carapil or British peated malt steep would be good....kinda all depends on the original recipe.

For some added scotch feel....try dry hopping some french oak chips