I've been wondering recently why we put sugar into the brew. I have heard that sugar in the boil helps raise the temperature and so aids the hot break, but my last few brews i left out sugar all together and had no problems with hot break or getting the right SG as i can get enough extract from the grains alone.
In the past i've found sugar can leave a residual, sweet taste which is much thinner than the matltiness the grains give you. Have others found this or am i missing some fundamental use for it?
Why use sugar?
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steve_flack
Re: Why use sugar?
If you're talking all grain then the main reason is to increase alcohol without increasing sweetness. White sugar is completely fermented by yeast so all you get is alcohol. This is particularly useful when making bigger beers that you don't want to be cloyingly sweet. Generally I wouldn't use it in a regular strength brew.
The main reason it's used in 1.8kg kits is because it's cheap. In most cases they would make a better beer with a mix of DME and sugar.
The main reason it's used in 1.8kg kits is because it's cheap. In most cases they would make a better beer with a mix of DME and sugar.
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Aleman
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Re: Why use sugar?
It also has its place in low gravity beers . . . eg milds which are supposed to be malty, but if you up the crystal malt too much they become cloyingly thick, so keeping the crystal malt to a sensible level and mashing warm 68-70C you get a thick malty beer, but they need to be crisp and quaffable, so a couple of % of fermentables as white sugar reduces that thick beer to a much more quaffable one.