I want to try to brew a barley wine and I found a recipe on this site that looks interesting. It calls for a pound of Muscavado sugar but doesn’t say when to add it. The OG is pretty high at 1.12. I’ve been thinking of adding half of the sugar towards the end of the boil and the other half a couple days into fermentation to help the yeast. Any advice??
When I’ve used Muscavado I’ve used it in the last 10 to 15 minutes of the boil.
Any time during the boil or fermentation is fine. Slightly different results adding during fermentation but not radically
Thanks. I think I’ll just add it towards the end of the boil then, less to have to worry about during fermentation.
I don’t think you need to worry about adding your sugar during fermentation unless you are going after some monster 20% brew. I’ve had beer in the 1.130-1.140+ range attenuate very well with all my sugar in the boil.
The key with the really big beer is yeast health and vitality. Pitch a bigger starter than you need and aerate/oxygenate well. I like to use slurry that came from a 1.060ish beer for my yeast, since those cells have already developed a bit of alcohol tolerance.