Looking for Molasses info

[cluckk]

I am thinking of making a Russion Emperial ale to cellar till Christmas. I will then give it away as a present to friends.

I have an extract Stout recipe which I formulated and find pretty good. I am planning on upping the hop characteristics and raising the OG to fill out the style characteristics. The recipe as it stands ran 1.070 in my last batch. I want to raise it to at least 1.080 but preferably 1.100.

One thing I am looking into for more flavor depth is using molasses and brewers licorice. I see both of these in many recipes for this style.

My questions are how much of each to add. For the licorice I don't like licorice itself so I don't want a strong licorice flavor.

I love mollasses and am looking to find out how much the molasses itself will raise the OG and what percentage will be fermentable. I lean toward blackstrap. I find several contradictory recommendations. 'The Complete Joy of Homebrewing' recommends no more than 1 cup for five gallons, but I find some recipes calling for 1.5 lbs.

I assume 1 cup of blackstrap molasses is not going to raise my OG to the target level by itself.

[wortchillergoal]

Three moles, popa momma and baby, lived under kitchen floor with a hole in one of the boards. Poppa mole stucke his head through and sniffe. "I smell peanut butter." he said. Then momma mole took a turn. "I smell sugar" said momma mole. They then made baby mole stick his head throught the hole. "What do you smell?", they asked. Baby mole replied, "Mole asses!"

[toneyc]

I made an english bitter for one of my first AG batches and did woefully bad on the efficiency so I added an 8 or 10 oz jar of blackstrap molasses. For a weak bitter, it overpowered the beer, but I think for a strong stout, 8-10 oz might be just right. Pure conjecture on my part, though.

:)
Toney.

[zoom6zoom]

I've used molasses extensively in my bread baking. For those who haven't used the different varieties, they differ greatly. Blackstrap is nowhere near as sweet tasting as the lighter grades. It tends to have a greater licorice tasting component; unfortunately some brands have a pronounced sulphur taste. Blackstrap has the highest nutritional content of any of the molasses', but the lowest sugar content.