Brown Sugar and Molasses in Stout?

[chad1776]

I'm getting ready to brew a Vanilla Bourbon Russian Imperial Stout and want to get that molasses/brown sugar taste as well as up the ABV.

I've seen recipes with either or in it, but never one with both. Is it overkill to do a cup of each in the boil? Will it be too sweet?

Hope to hear your experience and thoughts!

Thanks,
Chad

 

[JimRausch]

Hi Chad,
I hesitated on answering this, figuring someone with experience on brewing with molasses might chime in. But here goes... I have brewed with brown sugar before. It has very few flavor compounds so essentially it will up your ABV and dry your flavor as an equivalent amount of table sugar. Molasses is a different story. Look at some of the threads at the bottom of your post. Looks like you can definitey get some flavor notes.

 

[Captain Damage]

Neither brown sugar nor molasses will make your beer sweet. They will both contribute only fermentable sugar. They will provide different levels of molasses flavor, with brown sugar providing the least and blackstrap molasses providing the most. I make a Taddy Porter clone with 8 oz (by weight) of blackstrap for a very strong molasses flavor. I've used 1-2 oz in nut browns and stouts and it's noticeable as sort of a hint of "rumminess."

 

[BrewerinBR]

Brown sugar is basically sugar with molasses in it to make it moist. Sugar is sucrose and will completely ferment out increasing the ABV and drying out the brew. For all of my dark beers I use brown sugar as the priming sugar. Adding 1 cup of brown sugar to the boil will add very little taste and very little AVB adding 1 lb of brown sugar to the boil will add some flavor and even more ABV.

Molasses contains sugar but much more flavor and in Olde Ales and Scotch Ales I have used up 2 lbs of it in the boil without over powering the malt. So I suggest you save the brown sugar for the priming sugar where it will do the most good and add 1.5 to 2 lbs of molasses to the boil. I would not go much over 2 to 2.5 lbs even in an imperial stout as it can get out of hand real fast.

I use robust molasses... black strap you would use even less.

Good Luck

 

[chad1776]

Molasses contains sugar but much more flavor and in Olde Ales and Scotch Ales I have used up 2 lbs of it in the boil without over powering the malt. So I suggest you save the brown sugar for the priming sugar where it will do the most good and add 1.5 to 2 lbs of molasses to the boil. I would not go much over 2 to 2.5 lbs even in an imperial stout as it can get out of hand real fast.

I use robust molasses... black strap you would use even less.

Good Luck

BrewerinBR - I appreciate your help and experience. I definitely will go with the molasses in the boil. The recipe calls for 4 oz of priming (corn) sugar. Would you still prime with equal amount of brown sugar?

 

[chad1776]

I brewed yesterday - it was the Jasper's Ghosts of Bardstown Bourbon Vanilla Stout. Boiled 1 lb of Blackstrap Molasses for the full 60 min and added 1 lb of brown sugar with 5 minutes to go. This is my first stout, but 3rd brew. Active fermentation started about 10 hours in and I woke up this morning to a big foamy surprise coming out of my airlock. Violent! OG was 1.092 so she's gonna be a big girl! I will update as the process progresses. Thanks again for your help along the way.

 

[bds3]

I brewed yesterday - it was the Jasper's Ghosts of Bardstown Bourbon Vanilla Stout. Boiled 1 lb of Blackstrap Molasses for the full 60 min and added 1 lb of brown sugar with 5 minutes to go. This is my first stout, but 3rd brew. Active fermentation started about 10 hours in and I woke up this morning to a big foamy surprise coming out of my airlock. Violent! OG was 1.092 so she's gonna be a big girl! I will update as the process progresses. Thanks again for your help along the way.

Impressive for your third brew. She's gonna be a big girl indeed. With huge molasses flavor I anticipate. Let us know how it turns out. Vanilla and bourbon in secondary?

 

[chad1776]

Impressive for your third brew. She's gonna be a big girl indeed. With huge molasses flavor I anticipate. Let us know how it turns out. Vanilla and bourbon in secondary?

Had to set up a blow off tube there was so much action going on!

I'll ditch the vanilla beans - it's to flavor the bourbon with vanilla. The chips in the secondary will give it a toastiness and if they are saturated with bourbon the flavor will permeate out. Then at bottling time I will add the bourbon without the vanilla beans into the bottling bucket. At least that's the design. Hopefully the bourbon is noticeable. I'm afraid it won't be real noticeable.

 

[chad1776]

Racked to secondary after 2 weeks in primary. Added oak chips that had been soaking in the vanilla beans and bourbon. The beer smelled amazing! Talked with a friend who owns a brewery and he said that blackstrap molasses takes a long time to mellow, so I'm going to give this a good 2-3 weeks in the secondary before bottling.

 

[oldstyle69]

i mite as well bump this..ive got a stout going that i had mash issues with and didnt quite get the gravity i was looking for. was thinking of adding molasses when i transfer to a secondary when i add my cold pressed coffee. question is, how much is to much molasses, and should i boil it with some water first, or just add it to the secondary and rack on top.

 

[chad1776]

IMO, and from everything I've read, you don't want to go more than a lb in a 5 gal batch.

I don't know this for sure with molasses, but when I've added honey to my brews I dilute with warm water first, it gets mixed in much easier. You aren't looking for help with the thickness the molasses brings, just the sugar, and diluting it gets access to that sugar much quicker.

Let us know how it turns out! Mine has another week in the secondary with the oak chips yet.

 

[oldstyle69]

makes sense to me.

 

[chad1776]

Bottled today after what seemed like forever in the carboy. Final gravity was 1.020, giving it a 7.7% ABV. The 12 oz of Bourbon up the ABV by a %, so it's close to 9% - which is about where I wanted it.

What I will say is that I think I used WAY too much blackstrap molasses. I was looking for flavor and to up the ABV with it, and I should have just gone for flavor. I would use probably 4 oz in the future. It still has a very strong molasses flavor after 2 weeks in the primary and 3 in the carboy. I'm probably going to let it sit in the bottles till June (2 months) and hopefully it mellows more. The aroma is fantastic, but at taste it's very molassy - and not in a grandma made a pancake way.

I'll try one after 1 month in the bottle and see where we are at.

 

[oldstyle69]

i added some the next day after posting my last one, its still slowing bubbling, i also prolly used to much, tho is does smell really good. i used near a pound. haha. we shall see how it turns out.

 

[sweed]

Your OG was 1.092, your FG is 1.020. That's 9.4%. The added bourbon won't add much to your total abv. I made 2 imperial stouts, and both sat in the primary for a month. Both used a lb of molasses, but my abv was a lot higher. My second one which I bottled a few weeks ago, I added the molasses with dme, and some dextrose about 4-5 days after beginning fermenting. That was to kick up the fermenting again to get the gravity down enough, since it's a 13% brew. I used vanilla beans and bourbon in the secondary for 2 months, no oak chips this time. They give of a lot of flavor quickly.
Your imp stout will be best sitting innate bottle for at least 6 months. Perfect for a fall/winter beer!

I don't notice the molasses flavor, probably because I used a good amount of vanilla and bourbon.

 

[chad1776]

Your OG was 1.092, your FG is 1.020. That's 9.4%. The added bourbon won't add much to your total abv. I made 2 imperial stouts, and both sat in the primary for a month. Both used a lb of molasses, but my abv was a lot higher. My second one which I bottled a few weeks ago, I added the molasses with dme, and some dextrose about 4-5 days after beginning fermenting. That was to kick up the fermenting again to get the gravity down enough, since it's a 13% brew. I used vanilla beans and bourbon in the secondary for 2 months, no oak chips this time. They give of a lot of flavor quickly.
Your imp stout will be best sitting innate bottle for at least 6 months. Perfect for a fall/winter beer!

I don't notice the molasses flavor, probably because I used a good amount of vanilla and bourbon.

Thanks Sweed! Bad calculations on my part. I think I will let her mellow in the bottle until Labor Day and see where we are at. I appreciate you sharing your experience!

 

[Titan88]

I added .75 cups to a one gallon batch and it's amazing! It puts off a very rum-like aroma and taste. The one gallon batch was a RIS. It is just a tad too sweet, but that's on me for not upping the IBU's. I plan on keeping the same recipe and upping the bitterness. I believe the brown sugar accounted for about 20% of the fermentables and there are absolutely no off-tastes. And it's 10.9% ABV. BEAST! I would recommend 1 for 1 BU/GU. For example, my RIS OG was 1.112 but my IBU's were around 70. Next time, I'm going 112 IBU's to match the 1.112 OG. Cheers!

 

[ianw58]

think I will let her mellow in the bottle until Labor Day and see where we are at.

Any update?