Adding Brown Sugar to a Beer

I wanted to added some brown sugar to my recipe to bump up the ABV and hopefully to give it more of a "sweetness" to the final beer. Will the brown sugar do that or should i just add some specialty malts? Also if I did add the brown sugar when should I add it, at the start of the boil or towards the end of the boil? Thanks for all the help.

Thanks man I searched the forum but didn't look hard enough apparently.

No worries. Glad to help

For the record Iv'e never added it last 15 minutes, just start of boil. It turned out great.
Like stated in the other post it will impart a dryer beer and the sugars will ferment out. You'll still get some flavor depending how long you boil it for. Depending on what your making i wouldn't add more than a Pound, but experiment. To get that sweet flavor your looking for I'd go with specialty grains. But thats just me.

Brown sugar will not add sweetness, but it will up the abv. For sweetness add some caramel/crystal malt. 4-8oz of an L40-L80 adds sweetness with some caramel flavor and body. It will make your beer darker. It will have a very small effect on your abv, so you may want to add the brown sugar anyway. There are lots of recipes that include both crystal malts and brown sugar or molasses.