Sugar in the Grist for Bitters?

[Barley Water]

Ok so I have beer brewing for a very, very long time and have certain prejudges concerning grist formulation. Specifically, back in the early 80's we used to add a ton of sugar to homebrewed beer and frankly, they tasted lousy because of it. Of course back then we didn't know any better because the only commercial stuff available was the yellow fizzy stuff. Anyway, I have a copy of the Brewing Real Ale book and at least the edition I have calls for quite a bit of sugar in most of the recipes. I just have alot of trouble adding say a pound of sugar to a low gravity bitter (O.G. 1.038 for instance) because I am afraid I'll end up with thin beer that has a massive what we used to call "Twang" in the flavor. By the way, the London Pride recipe in that book is just great; I admit I tweeked it just a little but it always works out just fine and I have won several metals in contests with that beer. Anyway my question is; when making bitters etc. are you guys using a fairly high percentage of sugar (or other adjuncts) and if so, how is it working out? Also, I have a can of that overpriced British invert sugar somebody gave me (must be the exchange rate), anybody got a good formulatin utilizing that stuff?

[BitterTed]

Ok so I have beer brewing for a very, very long time and have certain prejudges concerning grist formulation. Specifically, back in the early 80's we used to add a ton of sugar to homebrewed beer and frankly, they tasted lousy because of it. Of course back then we didn't know any better because the only commercial stuff available was the yellow fizzy stuff. Anyway, I have a copy of the Brewing Real Ale book and at least the edition I have calls for quite a bit of sugar in most of the recipes. I just have alot of trouble adding say a pound of sugar to a low gravity bitter (O.G. 1.038 for instance) because I am afraid I'll end up with thin beer that has a massive what we used to call "Twang" in the flavor. By the way, the London Pride recipe in that book is just great; I admit I tweeked it just a little but it always works out just fine and I have won several metals in contests with that beer. Anyway my question is; when making bitters etc. are you guys using a fairly high percentage of sugar (or other adjuncts) and if so, how is it working out? Also, I have a can of that overpriced British invert sugar somebody gave me (must be the exchange rate), anybody got a good formulatin utilizing that stuff?

I won't try to answer your question as I would like to see everyone elses says. But I will pass along this link on how to make your own invert sugar that I found, I haven't tried it myself yet but am planning to soon:
http://www.unholymess.com/blog/beer-bre ... ers-invert

[jmc]

I also used to brew in the 80's and the 'twang' is what made me stop.
I avoid sugar for the same reasons. That 'twang', it reduces FG and thins out beers.

It does serve a purpose on stong beers where thinning and reducing FG are qualities to stop you getting a chewy pint, so I use it (10-15%) in Belgian brews eg Chimay & Duvel clones.

I'll also be using 500g of palm sugar in a Saison soon