palm sugar vs. cane sugar

[steve thailand]

hi all,

i'm ready to start on my kit, brewpacks best bitter. here in Thailand i can get cane sugar (white or brown) and palm sugar. my friend suggested i try palm sugar and i've seen it named in a few recipes but idea about its use in a traditional English bitter? what will it do to the taste vs. normal sugar

if i use palm sugar, what do you think will be the equivalent to 1kg of cane sugar?

thx steve

[moobli]

totally out of my depth
but look at what we process
why not do half and half
ive just primed half my geordie lager with brown suger
and its superb

what feels right
go kg to kg of cane
and wait see what happens



diff water and diff temps

[mshergold]

I guess it would boil down to how fermentable the sugar is. I don't know if this would work (I'm sure someone here would know) If you have time, a hydrometer and if you can get hold of some spare yeast, maybe you could experiment? Here's a thread about a Finnish drink called kilju:

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=25629&hilit=finnish

which is sugar water. Maybe make a small quantity with regular sugar and the same quantity with palm sugar and see what happens. Perhaps even bread yeast would be sufficient to find out how fermentable it is. If you do decide to use it, I hope it doesn't turn out like the Belgian beer Palm which tastes to my mind how durian smells!

For those not familiar with palm sugar, it's made from the sap of a tree:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_sugar

I've used it in Asian food and for anyone who is unfamiliar with it, it does seem very sweet but I find it to be a bit of a PITA to use as it tends to come in blocks rather than powdered or granulated and it seems a bit 'damp'. Usually, I'll put a piece in a freezer bag and beat the carp out of it with a rolling pin and then use a pestle and mortar to powder it. I dare say you could use a blender to turn it into powder.

[mshergold]

Update:

After mentioning Palm beer, I thought I'd try to find out what's in it that gives it that 'unique' taste and came across these:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/need-he ... tc-132620/

http://www.allaboutbeer.com/homebrew/22 ... beers.html Number three

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/has-any ... out-88498/

Hope this helps.

[mysterio]

I would use a kilo of malt extract if you want it to taste like beer