Brown sugar as a fermentable

I'm brewing up a coffee stout tomorrow. I'm an extract brewer, so I'm using some steeping grains and 6 lbs of dark malt extract. I'd like to dry the stout out a little more, so I was thinking of adding about half a pound of table sugar near the end of the boil. However, I got to thinking, would brown sugar work? Or am I nuts wanting to add sugar period? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

If that's what you want, then it'd work, but I can't see drying a stout out like that. To me a stout should be thick and chewy.

I would certainly use brown sugar before tablesugar in that recipe.

And research coffee methods.

cheezydemon3 said:

I would certainly use brown sugar before tablesugar in that recipe.

And research coffee methods.

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I was primarily concerned with fermentation. My extract brews seem to have a tendency to have higher FGs than I anticipate/want. So I was hoping some brown sugar would help that and also make the beer a little more dry. Maybe it won't be to style, but I thought it sounded good.

I saw a good thread on here about coffee methods. It sounds like there are MANY. My plan is to grind up a very course 4 to 6 oz, and throw it in after the boil, let it sit for 10 minutes off the burner, and then cool the wort. I imagine that steeping it in the secondary would be another way to go, but I think this will work just as well, and hopefully won't be way to acidic.

Just a heads up, I researched other fermentables to replace dextrose for my apfelwein, and found out that LIGHT brown sugar is 100% fermentable. Brown sugar will ferment, but runs the risk of leaving more sugar in your brew which would be pissing on the wheels of progress in your situation.

Germelli1 said:

Brown sugar will ferment, but runs the risk of leaving more sugar in your brew which would be pissing on the wheels of progress in your situation.

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Right. Adding sugar to a recipe will not lower the FG. It may even raise it. Replacing malt extract with sugar will lower the FG and dry it out (proportional to the amount you replace).

Now, if you just want to up the alcohol content of your brew, and make something that will become a nice winter warmer once the weather turns, by all means toss in a pound or two. I'd opt for a turbinado or demerara or other relatively unrefined sugar in place of standard grocery brown sugar. The taste is far, far superior.

I use brown sugar allot in my dark beers.
I find it adds a little bit of sweetness to the end and benefit is higher SG.

As for the coffee flavor,
I just did a Mocha Porter,
Link i found that helped me out, along with HBT is this http://www.specialty-coffee-advisor.com/coffee-brewing.html

Tells you the different methods in detail.

Here is my thread i started when i was going to make the coffee.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/coffee-beer-what-do-not-do-186100/


I will just say, Add lots of wheat...The oils in the coffee kill the head but if you dont care about that. Your fine.

I use baking soda to tame the twang in dark extract brews. Especially if using sugar, I would add a little sodium bicarbonate.