Beer Forum

I am going to brew an NB Baltic Porter extract kit this weekend. I love the flavor of molasses or brown sugar and I think that these flavors would go great with the robustness of this porter.

Has anybody added these items to a similar batch? If so how did it turn out? How much should I add?

A lot of the brown sugar commercially available is white sugar with just a touch of molasses blended back in. The brown sugar would ferment most of the way out and not leave a whole lot of character behind. If you want to add molasses flavor to your beer, I'd go with the molasses itself. It IS a very strong flavor... use less than you think you need first time around. If you like what you get but would like more, you can always bump it up next batch.

The brand of molasses I use is the Grandma's Light Molasses. Doesn't have the harsh taste you often get in the dark molasses.

On the topic of molasses, I recently heard the following joke:

Three moles were digging their tunnel towards the garden, one right behind the other.

The first mole says, "we must be close, I smell carrots!"
The second mole says, "yes we are, I smell radishes!"
The third mole says, "I don't smell either one. All I smell are molasses."


Wayne

I don't want to overpower the beer with the flavor of the molasses. I was thinking to add 1/2 of a jar about 5 minutes before flameout. However, I think that this might be too little.

I believe those jars are 12-14 oz jars right? I think if you add half of the jar you will probably be in the right ballpark, although even that might be a bit too noticeable at first. A Baltic porter is typically a pretty strong beer so aging this one will help the molasses to round out given time. I made a big RIS with 1 full jar of the molasses at 20 minutes and even with all of the roast character in that beer it took about 8-10 mos for the molasses to meld well with the finished beer.

Thanks for the info. I think that I will use about 6 or 8 ounces. I intend on tapping the keg in December so I don't want to overdo it.

Be sure to take good notes especially with your specific amounts of molasses so you can adjust for future brews if needed.

brewinhard wrote:Be sure to take good notes especially with your specific amounts of molasses so you can adjust for future brews if needed.

^ What he said.
Even the brand of molasses you use. If you have a choice between 2 molasses brands, go for the one that is more readily available, so you can repeat on demand. Nothing worse than not being able to repeat because the stuff you got was given to you by your neighbor's uncles' girlfriend's cousin's redheaded bastard stepchild who went to Timbuckfuckingtoo and brought it back for you twelve years ago.