sugars

[williamoid]

hi all, in my first batch of wheat beer i used coopers brewing sugar i got from the hb shop in glasgow. what`s the best sugars to use from the local shops or supermarket.
cheers,
willie

[Miso Jace]

I was wondering about this too actually, do you have to get special sugar, or is the regular stuff ok?

[stevezx7r]

If you talking about using the sugar to make up the kit, don't use T+L. Instead, use either spray malt (your local home brew shop will have this in light, medium and dark types) or beerkit enhancer which is rough mix of glucose and spray malt. Normal Tate and Lyle imparts a cidery taste to anything its used to brew with, whereas spray malt has varying ingredients which add body and flavour to the beer.

Beerkit enhancer is a bit of a half way house as it adds some body/flavour but also has more fermentables and thus a higher alcohol potential.


If you talking about using it to prime then any old sugar will do.

[steve_flack]

Normal Tate and Lyle imparts a cidery taste to anything its used to brew with,

No it doesn't. It depends on how much you use and what else is in your recipe. If you're getting half of your fermentables from sugar and the rest of your kit is a bunch of cheap food grade malt extract thinned out with barley syrup then I don't care if it's dextrose, brewing sugar or fairy dust you're using - it's still going to taste sh*t. In that case it would taste a lot better with spraymalt.

There's plenty of great beers around that are made with a proportion of common or garden sucrose - almost all the trappist beers of belgium have flipping great dobs of it. The secret is that the base beer has enough malt to support the quantity of sugar used.

...and I don't buy that 'You can taste invertase' BS either.

Rant Over.

[stevezx7r]

Steady on Steve, I was just pointing out that using T+L "in general" i.e just T+L isn't something I would advocate, especially if it's a first brew. The chances of a beer being wrecked is quite high (as far as i'm concerned) and the new brewer may throw in the towel thinking all beers taste, well, like home brew used to. Fair enough, using spray malt in a cheap kit isn't going to make it a record breaking brew but it is going to be better than using 100% T+L

[steve_flack]

It's just that perpetuating the myth that sucrose causes cidery tastes doesn't help anyone. Maybe it's one of those myths perpetuated so people can keep selling the gullible expensive 'Brewing Sugar'? Sugar in itself doesn't cause cidery flavours. Using too much of any refined sugar will lead to poor flavour.

[macleanb]

...and I don't buy that 'You can taste invertase' BS either.

Hi Steve (gulp )

Are you refering to golden syrup here? Never brewed with any quantity of it - but surely it does have a different flavout when tasted next to a syrup of the same concentration?

[Stonechat]

It's just that perpetuating the myth that sucrose causes cidery tastes doesn't help anyone. Maybe it's one of those myths perpetuated so people can keep selling the gullible expensive 'Brewing Sugar'? Sugar in itself doesn't cause cidery flavours. Using too much of any refined sugar will lead to poor flavour.

Absolutely true, but this is the part of the forum for kit-brewers, who may not have much technical knowledge.
At this stage in their brewing careers Steve's advice to stay away from putting sugar in their kit brews is sound advice.
When they move on to brewing AG style your advice on Belgian Trappist beers will be very relevant.

My advice to new kit-brewers would be to pay out a bit extra for 3kg kits that don't need any sugar.
In addition making newbies aware that any extra fermentable sugar to any brew will give it a dry taste rather than the sweeter taste they may expect.

[steve_flack]

...and I don't buy that 'You can taste invertase' BS either.

Hi Steve (gulp )

Are you refering to golden syrup here? Never brewed with any quantity of it - but surely it does have a different flavout when tasted next to a syrup of the same concentration?

Yes, but that's not invertase you can taste. Invertase in an enzyme that yeast produce to split sucrose into it's two component monosaccharides (glucose and fructose). Invert sugar syrup (golden syrup is a partially inverted example) is not AFAIK usually produced using an enzyme (although it could be). I believe it's made by chemical treatment with hydrochloric acid.

[steve_flack]

Absolutely true, but this is the part of the forum for kit-brewers, who may not have much technical knowledge.
At this stage in their brewing careers Steve's advice to stay away from putting sugar in their kit brews is sound advice.
When they move on to brewing AG style your advice on Belgian Trappist beers will be very relevant.

My advice to new kit-brewers would be to pay out a bit extra for 3kg kits that don't need any sugar.
In addition making newbies aware that any extra fermentable sugar to any brew will give it a dry taste rather than the sweeter taste they may expect.

I absolutely agree with you and I wasn't disagreeing with Steve on the spraymalt thing. It's the best option. I was disagreeing that using sugar (T+L) was always bad. It's how you use it that matters.