late sugar addition

Ok, so I've put together a recipe to brew this weekend, and like most of my recipes, it consists of equal parts planning it/winging it...so I still need some advice...

The base style is high-gravity American pale ale. Most of my sugars will come from my grains (steeping 1 pound of crystal and 1 pound of flaked rye) and my extract (8 pounds of pale LME), but I was also going to try experimenting with a late sugar addition.

One of the recipes I am referencing says to dissolve 1/2 lb. of light brown sugar in 2 cups of boiling water and add the solution to the primary after fermentation starts. This leaves me with two questions:

1) Is there any other trick to getting the brown sugar into suspension? It seems to me if you just pour it in, it will all go straight to the bottom. Or maybe the fermentation creates enough action to pick it back up? Not sure.

2) The recipe I referenced only used 1 lb. of steeping grains. In my recipe I'm using 2 lb. Should I cut the amount of brown sugar? The flaked rye supposedly holds some sugars, but I'm not sure if it's a significant amount.

Dude, I brewed several batches by winging it. I suggest more planning and preparation.

Of course one of my best brews was just some crap I had sitting around, but that woudl be an anomaly!

That said, I don't think you'd end up with a bad beer here. The crystal is about right for a5 G batch, and I don't know about the rye. I've never brewed with it, but I think it will add a bit of flavor mostly.

As far as the sugar goes, you could just pour it in and stir with whatever sanitized utensil you had laying around. During the initial fermentation there is plenty of stuff churning around in there, and there is a nice blanket of CO2 on top to protect from oxidizing the wort.

But I'm not sure what the brown sugar is for. I wouldn't think that brown sugar would go well in a Pale Ale. Is there a reason for trying it?

I do like to plan, but I also hold the winging dear. Can't give it up entirely.

The brown sugar was called for in the original "imperial" American pale ale recipe I was using as a reference. The rye is my own invention. I've been meaning to play around with rye and get a sense for what it does to flavor. This beer seemed as good a place as any to start.

I take your point about the CO2. I guess if I wait until the fermentation is really churning, I can safely stir.

About to brew today and still looking for feedback. Anyone know if the rye will contribute significant sugar?