Sugar types

[MrCat]

Hi folks,

I'm sure i heard somewhere that your average white granulated sugar from the supermarket has to be broken down into simpler sugars by the yeast before the yeast can get to work on it properly. As opposed to 'brewing sugar' which is ready to be fermented right away?

Is that true?

What are your thoughts on the best sugar to use for general brewing?

 

[GaBrewZoo]

White granulated sugar is sucrose, the simplest sugar you can get. It is completely fermentable. Using it in a beer will up the alcohol, but also dry out the beer. You can use a small amount if that's what your looking for. Brown sugar, cane sugar, molasses, maple syrup, honey all pretty much work the same way. Sounds like you need to do some research on sugars, ie sucrose, fructose, maltose, lactose, etc. They all have their places in brewing, but do completely different jobs.

 

[zachattack]

White granulated sugar is sucrose, the simplest sugar you can get. It is completely fermentable. Using it in a beer will up the alcohol, but also dry out the beer. You can use a small amount if that's what your looking for. Brown sugar, cane sugar, molasses, maple syrup, honey all pretty much work the same way. Sounds like you need to do some research on sugars, ie sucrose, fructose, maltose, lactose, etc. They all have their places in brewing, but do completely different jobs.

Not entirely true.

While both types of sugar are completely fermentable and tasteless once fermented, sucrose is a disaccharide: it is glucose and fructose joined together. Before it can be fermented, the yeast have to break it (called inverting it) into the two monosaccharides. Corn sugar (brewing sugar) is dextrose aka glucose. So by using corn sugar, you're being a bit easier on the yeast since they don't have to break it down before eating it.

However... boiling a sugar solution (like we do before priming or as part of your wort) will at least partially invert it, and unless the yeast is completely stressed out it will have no problem breaking it down.

So unless you're trying to coax a beer up to 14% ABV by step-feeding it sugar, or bottle prime a 12% RIS that you aged for 2 years, it shouldn't really matter.

Remember to do all measurements by weight, each sugar is a bit different when priming.

 

[m00ps]

^right^ dextrose is supposedly the "easiest" for yeast to digest. I usually only use it for bottle priming and use regular cheap white sugar to dry out beers

But Id add that maple syrup and honey are not early as fermentable as corn sugar and cane sugar and invert sugar. Per pound, they have about as much fermentables as like a base malt.

 

[MrCat]

Ahhh ok so there is some truth to it, but nothing to worry about. Yes it reminds me of feeding honey bees where you have to heat the sugar solution to invert it so they can eat it.

Cheers guys, I've been buying lots of brew sugar but I think I can cut some costs here now

 

[hottpeper13]

^right^ dextrose is supposedly the "easiest" for yeast to digest. I usually only use it for bottle priming and use regular cheap white sugar to dry out beers

But Id add that maple syrup and honey are not early as fermentable as corn sugar and cane sugar and invert sugar. Per pound, they have about as much fermentables as like a base malt.

I think what you mean is syrup and honey have less GU per pound because of the water content. Both will ferment out completely.

 

[Nanuk-O-Dah-Nort]

my local grocery's basic white sugar IS cane sugar... what is the difference?

 

[MrCat]

my local grocery's basic white sugar IS cane sugar... what is the difference?

I have to say this crossed my mind as a lot of typical shop sugar is labelled as cane sugar, or just 'granulated sugar'.

 

[chickypad]

It just means it came from sugar cane, (as opposed to beet sugar for example). It's still sucrose, as mentioned above it will ferment just fine.

 

[m00ps]

I think what you mean is syrup and honey have less GU per pound because of the water content. Both will ferment out completely.

yeah. thats what I meant. more PPG per pound that youd be measuring out

 

[MrCat]

Just a side note...Is there a thread round here somewhere with abbreviations on it?

I would have thought maybe a sticky or something explaining GU, PPG etc. for us new folk. If so where is it? And if not I think 'we' should make one

 

[m00ps]

PPG is "point per gallon" just basically helps compare the amount of sugar different sources contribute. Not really anything you need to know too much about to be able to brew

similarly, GU is gravity units. Basically the same as the "points" in PPG.

all in all, doesnt really matter. As you can see, you can get waaaaay to nerdy with this hobby

 

[MrCat]

PPG is "point per gallon" just basically helps compare the amount of sugar different sources contribute. Not really anything you need to know too much about to be able to brew

similarly, GU is gravity units. Basically the same as the "points" in PPG.

all in all, doesnt really matter. As you can see, you can get waaaaay to nerdy with this hobby

Ha! Yea, same with most hobbies but me (being nerdy as I am) the kind of thing I'd do is make a sticky with that stuff on it, or is that called being a bit anal?....Either way I may have to start one now, after scouring the forum for more abbreviations to make it worthwhile haha or forget about it if I don't find any.

Cheers!

 

[m00ps]

Hey, i foudn somethings
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Abbreviations
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Home_Brew_Acronyms
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=5349

 

[Nanuk-O-Dah-Nort]

Either way I may have to start one now, after scouring the forum for more abbreviations to make it worthwhile haha or forget about it if I don't find any.

Cheers!

I agree, and vote for Mr Cat to set this up.

as a noob as well, MANY threads are not understandable due to the use of "Insider Bafflegab"

once we learn those, we will see the door open to far greater learning!

and learning about homebrew is why I am here!