Adding Brown sugar

[brewdude25]

I am going to be making a simple 5 gallon extract Pale Ale batch soon. I just got 6 lbs of malt extract. Now im thinking i went a little light and should have gotten 7 lbs or so. Would it work to just throw in a pound of light brown sugar with the malt during the boil in order to bring the alcohol up a bit?

 

[BierMuncher]

I am going to be making a simple 5 gallon extract Pale Ale batch soon. I just got 6 lbs of malt extract. Now im thinking i went a little light and should have gotten 7 lbs or so. Would it work to just throw in a pould of light brown sugar with the malt during the boil in order to bring the alcohol up a bit?

Generally, holding simple sugars to just 10% of the total weight is probably better. Going much beyond that is when people end up with a bit of a cidery taste.

If you're going to use brown sugar, try using Dememera sugar (available where brown sugar is sold). Dememera is simple, raw cane sugar without the trademark "burnt" flavor of brown sugars.

 

[maskednegator]

Cidery flavors do not come from using sugar. Belgian beers routinely use sugar in excess of 10% of total fermentables.