I was thinking of adding a little molasses to the stout I am brewing this weeekend. I’m wondering about how much I should add to the boil so that it’s not too overpowering. I’m assuming somewhere around 8-12 oz. Would do the trick. Am I in the ballpark on that one?
I made an imperial stout last year with 8oz of molasses (and 8oz of date sugar). It was a high OG at 1.084 and finished at 8.3% ABV. Even with all that alcohol, dark malt and hops, the molasses was very present - even after aging for 6 months. It wasn’t overwhelming, but when people tasted it one of the tasting notes I consistently got was “molasses flavor”. If you like that then 8-10 oz is fine but if you want a subtler character maybe 4oz? Only did this once and like I said I also added 8oz of date sugar which does have a molasses flavor also, so that could have put it over.
You need to state your batch size and the type of molassas.
I have used 1.5 lbs in a 10 gallon batch of Baltic Porter, and liked the results. It was Grandma’s Original Unsulfured.
Blackstrap can be overpowering, use that sparingly.
I regularly add 1lb of Black Treacle (british equivalent of blackstrap) to a 5gal Robust Porter at the end of the boil. I think it adds a subtle sweet, smokey finish to the beer. FWIW, my porter recipe is not heavily hopped so it tends to lean towards the lighter IBU of the style.
Sorry.
Jeff is correct about Blackstrap. It can be very strong.
I typically use Barbados, which is lighter and I believe is the same thing as unsulphured. Technically, it’s not molasses as it’s made from sorghum, but I don’t care.
I’ve used up to an entire 15 oz bottle, but I think half of that is really all that’s needed.
One other thing to consider is to try and keep the sugars from the molasses below 10% of your total gravity. That seems to be the general consensus with most simple sugars and syrups. That should hopefully help you narrow it down a bit as well. And I agree with the others. If you are using blackstrap, even as little as 5oz can be noticeable. Just depends on the beer and how strong you want the molasses flavor to be.
This was more of a Brown Ale, but not quite. I liked it at the NHC in Denver when Tony Simmons talked about it. Posting so you can see a successful recipe using molassas. Less than I recalled.
http://wiki.americanhomebrewers.org/PoorRichardsAleAllGrainRecipe
Download the presentation here.
http://www.ahaconference.org/conference-information/presentations/2007-presentations/
Thanks for all the help on this one. I think I have a pretty good basis now on how much I should add and what kind. I put off the Sunday brew until the long weekend so I could take some time and absorb all your feedback.
Thanks again!
I used 8 oz of ‘full-flavor’ Brer Rabbit Molasses at flameout in an Old Ale (1.092 OG) I made early in the year. Nearly overwhelming Molasses and I love Molasses flavor, even 8 months later.
Next time I won’t go over 4oz