Brown Sugar or Honey to Barley Wine

This brew is happily fermenting away right now..I figured I would add something to primary after a few days to help boost the AC, add a little depth of flavor and to dry it out a little. I was thinking of a few different things.

1. 1.5 pounds dark brown sugar
2. 1 pound of dark mollasses
3. 1 pound of clover honey


4. just leave it alone


I have almost exactly 5 gallons of wort, so I know that a pound of fermentables that will pretty much ferment %100 should get me another 6-8 points on my OG. What do you all think...I only get one shot to make this beer as good as it can get.




14.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 74.55 %
3.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 15.97 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 5.32 %
0.40 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 2.13 %
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 1.33 %
1.00 oz Summit [18.00 %] (90 min) Hops 48.7 IBU
1.00 oz Summit [18.00 %] (15 min) Hops 22.6 IBU
1.00 oz Summit [18.00 %] (1 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
0.13 lb Molasses (80.0 SRM) Sugar 0.69 %
nottinham ale yeast


1.083 OG

I don't think you'll be able to tell the difference in a barleywine. Sorry to burst a bubble.

philrose said:

I don't think you'll be able to tell the difference in a barleywine. Sorry to burst a bubble.

Click to expand...

That doesn't burst my bubble at all, it is great news. I think I am going to add 2# brown sugar to get my OG up to 1.010 and help dry this thing out and get me closer to %10 ABV.

Do you think using that much sugar could provide some off, estery alcohol flavors? I am really excited about the possibility of getting close to %10 in my barley wine!

Yeah go for it of that's what you want. Make sure your yeast are happy and you shouldn't get off flavors from simple sugars.

(off topic)

Will the addition of simple sugars mess with the bitterness perception if they ferment out? It shouldn't change ibu, as the boil has already occurred but what about the change in gravity in the fermenter?

I dunno. brown sugar and molasses will definitely impart a certain flavor I feel. I've NEVER been a big fan of lots of brown sugar or molasses. IT jsut makes the beer taste...odd.

For a barelywine? Just go with regular dextrose or buy a couple pounds of Belgian Candi sugar. And the Honey is perfect also.

You've already got enough molasses in it. You'd be better off with straight cane or dextrose.

maybe I should make a couple pounds of inverted candi sugar? I did just purchase a few pounds of dextrose as well.

So I guess it will be one of the following three.

2# honey
2# dextrose
2# inverted sugar

This beer is on day three in the fermenter and has now risen from 66 to 68 degrees...the yeast are QUITE happy right now. They better be, I put enough of them in their.

As soon as the primary maltose based fermentation starts to finish I will add the sugar. Is this the correct time? Do you think I have to worry about this being too dry? I would certainly not think it would go below 1.020 but who knows. I mashed at 154 and nottingham is notorious for drying things out.

Well, I am making belgian candi sugar when I get home tonight. My question is this: How do I add it to the ferementer? Do I dissolve it in warm water first?

Gah...
brown sugar == one of my least favorite ingredients...

permo said:

Well, I am making belgian candi sugar when I get home tonight. My question is this: How do I add it to the ferementer? Do I dissolve it in warm water first?

Click to expand...

you can make a syrup, be careful about what touches the pot and be almost certain that its sanitary or you can add straight up sugar to the fermenter and be almost certain its sanitary. (what I'm getting at is that the risk of infection is really low.)

as far as yeasties eating sugar here's my results:
Sucrose in the boil= no off flavors or diminished attenuation
Sucrose added straight to the fermenter 1 day after peak krausen= no off flavors or diminished attenuation, it was all gone be the time the beer (belgian tripel) finished.
Dextrose shaken with apple must= no off flavors or diminished attenuation
Rice syrup added to the fermenter after peak krausen in gluten free beer= no off flavors or diminished attenuation.

I know you're not asking for all those examples. (what im getting at is that most techniques for adding sugar are just fine when done in proper proportions)

But hey, just my experience.

I made five pounds of dark candi syrup tonight. It took about two hours! I will dissolve 2 pounds and boil it...cool it and add to secondary. The rest will be part of a trippel... !

I dissolved 1.7 pound of my dark candi sugar into boiling water, cooled it to 70 degrees and added it to the fermenter. I stirred things up a bit, plenty of yeast still in suspension with a nice krausen. I figured stirring and whipping things up a bit would help oxygenate and keep my yeast good and happy.

It shouldn't be long and they will be feasting on that new sugar!

This should bump my OG up to around 1.095. ABV should top 9% if I can get it to drop to 1.025 . MY FG goal is 1.020 and that would give me a 9.84% ABV brew.

I am really excited about this barley wine. I haven't been overly impressed with summit hops to this point, but I have a feeling they will be subdued very much so after 4-6 month bulk aging of this one.

how did this turn out? i am considering adding some sugar to my 1.084 barleywine at high krausen to bump up the gravity. did the sugar affect the flavor or FG at all?