Sucrose

[Doingatun]

Hi All - Anybody familiar Graham Wheelers Brew Classic European Beers At Home – wanting to do a few brews from his book, bought the Grain, Hops and chosen Yeast. Quite a few recipes use white sucrose, white household sugar, is this now a little outdated? or needed for the recipe would it be beneficial to replace with a better alternative if so what? Only have one AG under my belt .

Eighty Shilling page 90

Pale Malt - 2900g
Flaked Maize - 650g
Roasted Barley – 45g
White sucrose – 325g
Yeast – Safbrew S-04

Dubbel page 100

Lager Malt – 6000g
Chocolate Malt - 145g
White sucrose - 250g
Yeast – Safbrew T58

Stout page 112

Pale Malt - 2650g
Roasted barley - 350g
Chocolate Malt - 70g
White sucrose - 550g
Yeast – Safbrew S-04

Cheers

[Garth]

All it's there for is to up the alcohol content, you could probably replace the sugar with glucose, and in the Dubbel why not use Belgian candi sugar, I believe that's what the proper Dubbel uses, it makes the beer strong but light and easy drinking.

I use that book a fair bit and it's got some good recipes in it. Have you got any of his others? Brew Your Own Real Ale at home is quite good too.

I had to ask about these because his recipes use them a fair bit, apologies if you already know,
If you see invert sugar it means Tate and Lyle golden syrup and where Maltose syrup is called for (hard to get now) use flaked maized in the same proportion.

[tubby_shaw]

Go with the white sugar
I have brewed a number of the recipes from BCEBAH with great sucess and always used white sugar when it's called for in a recipe.
White sugar only becomes a problem if it is used in excess or if it's used soley to make up the balance of fermentables in a cheap beer kit. Used in a balanced grain recipe it is used not only to produce alcohol but also to thin out the flavours a little
I am brewing a Dubbel taday and that will have 600g of white sugar added to a 23L batch but if I made this beer with an OG 0f 1.067 using only grain it would end up far too sweet
Part of the fun of brewing your own is experimenting make a batch to your supplied recipe, if you think it is lacking body etc on you next brew replace some of the sugar with extra pale malt
Above all have fun

[Doingatun]

Thanks for the excelent replies lads – T & L white sugar it is then and not Silver Spoon, only problem what’s Morrisons or Asda own brands beet or cane?

Garth asked - Have you got any of his others? Brew Your Own Real Ale at home is quite good too. Patiently waiting for reprint run, Ebay copies fetching silly money. Also have Home Brewing.

Cheers

[Doingatun]

I don’t believe it – I’ve got 2 bags of Silver Spoon and 2 bags of Morrisons sugar neither say from what it’s made as you say Daab guess it’s all beet sugar, serves me right for using the super markets and not the local shop .

[Garth]

DaT, while you're waiting, if you want any recipes posting just let me know, there are some great recipes in there. I have Home brewing also but that seems to have gone walkies somewhere.

[Doingatun]

DaT, while you're waiting, if you want any recipes posting just let me know, there are some great recipes in there.

Many thanks

[Doingatun]

Hi All - Having a go at my second AG tomorrow thought I'd try the 80/- Ale as above now I've found some Tate & Lyle Cane sugar.

Another question - this recipe requires 325g. Should the sugar be added to the boil dry and mixed in or boiled separately in a pan using cooled wort from the FV cooled then returned to FV before pitching yeast.

Cheers

[mysterio]

Either way is fine... I would tend to put it straight in the boil for ease.

[steve_flack]

I usually predissolve it in water or wort and add it to the boil about 10 minutes from the end of the boil. There's the risk of solid sugar sinking straight on top of the elements and scorching.

[tubby_shaw]

I usually predissolve it in water or wort and add it to the boil about 10 minutes from the end of the boil. There's the risk of solid sugar sinking straight on top of the elements and scorching.

As I have first hand experience of sugar burning onto the element (my own stupidity ) I now dissolve the sugar in the final runnings from the sparge that I use to top up the boiler

[Doingatun]

Thanks lads - at the mo every action causes a question looking forward to the days of layed back relaxed brewing

Cheers

[tubby_shaw]

Thanks lads - at the mo every action causes a question looking forward to the days of layed back relaxed brewing

Cheers

I'm not there yet
There is always something, however minor that seems to go wrong, last brew I forgot to add the crushed campden tablet to the water prior to the mash luckily I had preboiled it so I may have got away with it
It's still fun though

[prolix]

good luck Dat hope it's a good brew day.

[monk]

I made a 2.5 gal batch of ESB as an experiment in all-grain. I totally undershot the gravity so I added a bunch of Lyle's golden syrup and boy was it sweet! I read on a homebrew retail website that it was supposed to up the alcohol with no flavor contribution. These people were obviously on drugs when they wrote this.

monk