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Brewing Sugar

Mister Burns

Quick question re bottling. I'm out of brewing sugar - can you use regular or caster sugar instead??

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tteknulp

Mister Burns wrote: »

Quick question re bottling. I'm out of brewing sugar - can you use regular or caster sugar instead??

For priming normal sugar is ok

rubadub

Caster will dissolve a bit easier. In tesco caster is actually cheaper than granulated, its the other way around in most places. In the baking forum someone reckoned it was so they were matching lid & aldi's caster prices.

Tesco regular caster is 1.09, tesco value granulated is 1.19.

Brewing sugar is just glucose or dextrose, you can get glucose in most supermarkets, either in the baking section or baby food section.

um7y1h83ge06nx

Here's a question.

What about using it as a fermentable?

I have been told by different people that the only difference between using brewing sugar (glucose) and table sugar is that the brewing sugar ferments quicker and easier as it is a simpler sugar, but given time you will have the same result. Is this accurate?

Khannie

Seamus Deafening Kazoo wrote: »

Here's a question.

What about using it as a fermentable?

I have been told by different people that the only difference between using brewing sugar (glucose) and table sugar is that the brewing sugar ferments quicker and easier as it is a simpler sugar, but given time you will have the same result. Is this accurate?

I'd bet money that you get less hangover from it. Friend of mine made ginger beer with sugar and said it gave him a filthy head. Repeated the process with glucose and said it was much better. Anecdotal, but it's a data point.

BeerNut

Seamus Deafening Kazoo wrote: »

What about using it as a fermentable?

The problem with using sugar is it ferments out completely so if you use too much you end up with a very thin, cidery beer. That goes for any type of sugar, "brewing" or otherwise.

The oul' kilo of sugar is a major contributor to home brewing's reputation for producing low quality beer.

um7y1h83ge06nx

BeerNut wrote: »

The problem with using sugar is it ferments out completely so if you use too much you end up with a very thin, cidery beer. That goes for any type of sugar, "brewing" or otherwise.

The oul' kilo of sugar is a major contributor to home brewing's reputation for producing low quality beer.

True, I wouldn't cheap out and go for all sugar as a fermentable, have heard bad things about it.

Last night I put on a Ditch's Stout recipe - 1 can of Cooper's Irish Stout, 1.5kg of LME and 500g of dark brown sugar. OG of 1.051.

In my local brew shop (well pawn shop that does some kits as well) there is an appetite by customers for making beer as cheaply as possible according to the manager. As we both said some DME or LME won't exactly cost too much extra per bottle/pint, may as well make something decent if you're going to bother.

Devi

Seamus Deafening Kazoo wrote: »

In my local brew shop (well pawn shop that does some kits as well) there is an appetite by customers for making beer as cheaply as possible according to the manager. As we both said some DME or LME won't exactly cost too much extra per bottle/pint, may as well make something decent if you're going to bother.

But if price is the issue then why are they doing kits in the first place? Kits are probably the most expensive form of brewing. Even if you were to do kit and kilo which is going to taste really bad, its going to be what about €17 a 40 pint batch? (leaving shipping aside).

My all malt extract beers cost about €18 a batch (€15 if I wash and reuse the yeast) for a typical 5% sessionable ale and that's including DME for priming. Im sure all grain is even cheaper again.

um7y1h83ge06nx

My guess is that they are not aware of extract or all gran brewing.

That said I'm using kits myself at the moment, it's a nice handy way to get started and get a feel for brewing as well as the satisfaction of brewing, only on my third kit now. I have either used 3kg two can kits or added 1.5kg of LME to a 1.7kg Cooper's kit. I'm pretty happy with the results so far.

In the new year I might be tempted to swot up on extract brewing. Any good guides that you know for people looking to start extract brewing?

rubadub

People doing it on the cheap want it easy as possible too, its more of a money saver than a hobby.

20 years ago there was significant savings to brew your own beer, 20 years about the cheapest can you could get was typically £1 or €1.27. While you get 20 x330mls of bavria for €13 in tesco right now. Not nearly as much savings anymore.

As for expensive brewing sugar, I posted this earlier in the fitness forum

rubadub wrote: »

Yep, the cheapest place for glucose is usually home brew shops now, usually called "brewing sugar".

First 2 hits on google, €2 per kilo in a brew shop

http://www.abbeygardensupplies.ie/brewing_products/brewing_equiptment/brewing_sugar_1kg_P634.html

Vs €20 per kilo here! (its a 500g tub for €10, both shops are dextrose)

http://www.powersupplements.ie/index.php/dextrose-powder.html

Devi

Seamus Deafening Kazoo wrote: »

My guess is that they are not aware of extract or all gran brewing.

That said I'm using kits myself at the moment, it's a nice handy way to get started and get a feel for brewing as well as the satisfaction of brewing, only on my third kit now. I have either used 3kg two can kits or added 1.5kg of LME to a 1.7kg Cooper's kit. I'm pretty happy with the results so far.

In the new year I might be tempted to swot up on extract brewing. Any good guides that you know for people looking to start extract brewing?

Yea most people start with kits, I did but I never really enjoyed the beer, just drank it because I felt I had to. After about 3-4 kits I was thinking of given up but decided to give extract a go, just watching you tube vids and asking questions on here. I personally find it way nicer but it does take about 2 hours to do so I suppose its not for everybody. A neighbor of mine went straight into all grain without ever doing any homebrew before, I don't know why/how he did, there is a lot more variables with all grain and a lot more that can go wrong.

Devi

rubadub wrote: »

People doing it on the cheap want it easy as possible too, its more of a money saver than a hobby.

20 years ago there was significant savings to brew your own beer, 20 years about the cheapest can you could get was typically £1 or €1.27. While you get 20 x330mls of bavria for €13 in tesco right now. Not nearly as much savings anymore.

As for expensive brewing sugar, I posted this earlier in the fitness forum

Thats it, most people will never get into homebrew because kinda hard work compared to just going to tescos. I know a guy who is a big drinker, I suppose in a differant country theyd call him a functioning alchoholic

. This guy would save a small fortune buy homebrewing but wont because he couldn't be arsed, he doesn't even have a job right now so he cant say he hasn't got the time and its not like he doesn't like it because he drinks mine when I offer just a lazy git.

rubadub

Quarter pounder in the chipper €4 -decent
Microwave one €2.50 -fairly bad
Making your own with mince & bun etc -can be the cheapest and possibly the best but most effort.

Same sort of idea here, many are simply not interested in quality. 20 years ago I knew quite a few people who brewed, for nearly all of them it was more about saving money, some were vegans too.

BeerNut

Seamus Deafening Kazoo wrote: »

Any good guides that you know for people looking to start extract brewing?

I used this starting out and still pretty much follow this method. My boiler is one of these.

Seaneh

Just to point put.

Table sugar is Sucrose, 50:50 split of glucose and fructose.

Brewing sugar is dextrose (glucose).

The fructose in the table sugar is a lot sweeter than glucose.

So while you wouldn't notice it much in amounts small enough for priming, you'd definitely notice it in larger amounts.

MANUTD99

I was wondering if you could use a sweetner at the bottling stage. I was bottling a batch last week only thought about it later. I always prime with brewing sugar but would be interested to see how it would turn out with a sweetner

invaderzimirl

sweetner will only make the beer sweeter (im not being pedantic) yeast will no eat the fake sugar you will end up with sweet flat beer.

now i could be wrong but thats my understanding of it

Khannie

That's correct. In addition, I'm pretty sure hermesetas is aspartame based, which breaks down in alcohol.