Adding Sugars

[jpaige]

I've been buying Brewcraft USA specialty grain / DME beer kits and I have a question. I'm gettitting ready to brew the Heather and Honey Deep brown ale tomorrow. It comes with a 1 lb bottle of meadowfoam honey. I've noticed that the instructions for this company are pretty generic. It never mentions when to add the sugars specifically, just says after the 45 minute boil for the bittering hops to add remaining fermentables, which I'm assuming is any sugars and the rest of the DME. I've also read thru John Palmers How to Brew and cant find anything on adding sugars to the boil. Do you want to boil the sugars or add after the boil? My next brew is going to be a Russian Imperial Stout that has 3 lbs of sugars (!) so I'd like to get a feel for this before then.
Thanks,

[Myk]

Don't boil the honey over 150° drives off the honey aroma.
DME can be added at the start but you can also do what is called a late addition. The kit is probably designed to add the DME at the start.

[Big B]

I typically add my additional sugars with about 20 minutes to go.  I would add the DME early and then add the other sugars toward the end.   As long as you dissolve the sugars into the wort you should be ok.  I did a Belgium Dubble and added Turbiano sugar from the start (60 min) and it turned out great.  I did a Milk Stout and added it right at the end and it turned out great.  If you want a caramel type flavor which you might in a Russian Imperial type beer;  add the sugar earlier, if not wait till the end.  Basically it's home brew, and it will be good either way IMO. 

Also with a Russian Imperial Stout, use a blow off tube, yeast starter and yeast nutrient. It will aide in the fermentation of that big of a beer.

[rednekhippiemotrcyclfreak]

For your recipe, I think the honey is the other fermentables and should be added late in the boil.  However, for the RIS you may want to see if the sugar should be added sometime during fermentation.  Sugars are not the same as what you get from DME, LME, or mashed grains at least not in how yeast reacts to them.  I don't know the exact science on this, but yeast develop enzymes to convert different fermentables and may work on simple sugars first and not have what it takes to handle the complex sugars in wort later.  I've seen discussions on this on the HomeBrewTalk forum and the suggestion is that if you have a large sugar addition you may want to do it after the height of your primary fermentation is in decline.