It says 60-minute boil. Would a 90-minute boil be ok (with the right pre-boil volume)? Most similar recipes call for 90 minutes. I would still add the hops at 60.
I have plenty of cane sugar on hand. But I also have some very interesting sugars, including date palm. Half of me says stay the course – follow the recipe as-is the first time (well, except maybe for that boil…). Half of me is curious about adding a subtle twist. Thoughts?
I’ll do this the way I order in restaurants… wait til the waiter shows up and point to the menu. I could even split the batch and try it both ways – I have two 3-gallon Better Bottle fermenters I haven’t used in a couple of years (I generally ferment 3-gal batches in a 5-gal Better Bottle). That would mean I add the sugar at the end of the boil, as a preboiled simple syrup. Que sera, sera…
90 min is not my usual boil, but I keep reading “brew Pilsner-based wort for 90 min to reduce DMS,” and my thought is that can’t hurt (with hops at 60 and whirlfloc and sugar at 15). And yeah, I’m going to go for the interesting sugar. It’s not like adding licorice or bacon (or as I did once, to great regret, fenugreek).
I do recommend good quality hops, such as Czech Saaz, at 60 and 15 min. There’s not much to hide behind in a BBA made with pilsner malt, so quality matters. Most specialty sugars tend to have some color contribution, so expect some darkening of your BBA to a more golden or even light amber color, as well as higher ABV and, perhaps, a drier finish.