Add treacle to stout?

[jackflash]

Made a stout last Sunday, and it's been sitting in primary for a week now. Last night I had the pleasure of sampling a bottle of founders imperial stout and it was gorgeous.

I wanted to add the same treacle-liquorice notes to my stout. Could I just pasteurise some treacle and put in to the fermenter at this stage?

[AJ_Rowley]

I used treacle as a priming sugar a couple years ago on a kit I had hacked. It was quite nice, it definitely added another dimension to it, not too overpowering. Though not sure about adding to the fermenter, I have seen recipes to kit hacks where people just throw a tin in but have never seen mention of needing to pasteurizing it.

[irish_goat]

I'd mix it with boiling water. You might as well pasteurise it, but also, it's gonna be a goopy mess if you just pour it in the fermenter. It'll be far easier to gently mix it in if you dissolve it in a small amount of hot water first.

[jackflash]

Tasted it tonight. This is the one I accidentally put 500g choc malt in. It's lovely! Going to add 300g treacle/water mix and see what it does

[jackflash]

Added 450g of treacle couple of nights ago. Bubbling away nicely. Took a gravity reading and it's going grand. Tasted the sample and it's nice but I'd like to add more treacle flavour. Could I just add another can at this stage, maybe two? Would the yeast keel over, or would it be alright?

[Leann ull]

You have loads of yeast in there so as long at the fermentation is still active and its sterilised you would be fine.
Word of warning though treacle  may dominate so even though its just about tasted at this point it may come through very strong in the finished fermented beer if you add in more.

[delzep]

You make it sound like its a bad thing

[Leann ull]

Loads of roast and darks in that recipe before the 450g, that's the max I would consider if its the proper Lyles good stuff and jf wants to throw in another 2, he will be using it for road surfacing at this rate if he adds any more
I used to eat treacle toffee by the kilo as a kid, you develop a taste very quickly for it but that burnt bitterness can be overpowering
JF you have nothing to lose go for it on this one, but have a look at the attached which will give you more options for next time you brew
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2009/11/breakfast-stout-riff.html

[jackflash]

Thanks CH. I was at this stage going after the founders imperial which tastes very treacley,  so I thought feck it why not. Have you tried the founders imperial? If you haven't, and used to eat loads of treacle bars when you were small, you should definitely try it :-)

[lordstilton]

Just tasted a sample of my Belgian stout that I added 225g of black treacle into a 22l batch... Treacle flavour is no where to be found.

[Leann ull]

Aromatic and special B yeah, I wonder is that masking it?
I've used candi syrup in boil, when it gets poured in how is it mixed?

[lordstilton]

I mixed it with some boiling water then added to boil at 60min..Probably should of put it in at 15 instead.

[jackflash]

I've used two tins of tate & lyle treacle, and the treacle taste isn't that strong.

[Leann ull]

Wondering is the heavy roast masking the subtlety of the treacle?
I take it the yeast is just munching through the fermentables go on throw in another 2
Fecking expensive beer!

[Bubbles]

Very interesting discussion. I was always under the impression that treacle was a pretty assertive adjunct in beer.

There's a recipe for "Old Ale" in Brewing Classic Styles that has a very small amount of treacle in it. I'm wondering if that small addition affects the flavour in any way, given jackflash's report here..