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’m brewing a 20 gallon extract belgian strong ale in a few days. I’m spicing it with cardamom and bitter orange peel. I’m using dark and amber candi sugar in addition to my extract and grain bill. I noticed that in some recipes there are different time intervals for adding sugars to the boil. My question is what are the benifits and to adding some of the fermentables at flameout and at different times throughout the boil? Also, what flavors could be obtained by boiling for less than the full 60 minutes? Should I increase the boil to more than an hour for a beer with a projected OG of 1.090?
Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Cheers 
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I can’t really help you out on the candi sugar question, but with a beer that big, I’d do a 90 minute boil.
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candi sugar should be added at flame out, there no benefit adding it earlier, it will just decrease your hop utilization.
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If he’s using extract, why the longer boil?
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so long as the beer isn’t going to be really pale, a 90 minute boil never hurts.
You add the sugars at the end to increase the hop utilization. Increases in wort gravity negatively effect isomerization. Also, increased boiling of the sugars, especially those expensive character candies, may boil off some aromatics like when you boil honey.
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I always add caramelized or unrefined sugars to the kettle during the sparge, it gives them time to dissolve so you don’t risk scorching them by adding them later and it allows me to get an accurate picture of what the gravity is going to be. I don’t buy the notion that you are boiling off aromatics, candi sugar is darkened by hours of boiling so I don’t think another hour is going to do much harm to the aromatics. However, the anecdotal evidence is that the boil does change the flavor slightly, from more of a caramel flavor if added at the end of the boil, to more of a dark fruit flavor if added at the start.
I recently heard a discussion by John Palmer on Basic Brewing http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr03-20-08ibu.mp3
) he contends that gravity isn’t what effects hop utilization it is protein/trub, so adding more sugar really shouldn’t negatively impact utilization. And even if you don’t buy that, I don’t think hop utilization is that important in a style that you are probably only aiming for 30 IBUs anyway.
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I think a 60 minute boil is plenty with extract. I like to add my sugars a couple days into fermentation. It lets the yeast start with a little lower gravity and it gives them a nice little pick me up a couple days into fermentation. I just boil up a little slurry, cool it and add it.
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Thanks to everyone who replied for all the insight. I think I’ll add the sugars at flameout and increase to a 90 minute boil, as it won’t be very pale. That bit on hop isomerization was definitely some valuable information, coming as a great surprise to me.
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Don’t waste your money on the rocks!
Either make your own sugar or use these:
http://www.darkcandi.com/
No affiliation.
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He’s not just using extract. He’s also using steeped grains, candi sugar and I’m assuming hops. Even doing an all extract recipe, I’ve found that I’ve gotten a much better wort doing a longer boil and better usage out of my FWH on higher gravity beers.
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Along the same lines, if you are adding something like corn sugar for dryness/extra gravity is it best to add at the beginning or end of the boil?
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