Palm sugar

I am wondering if anyone has tried using palm sugar as a substitute for Belgian candi sugar. I was trying to figure out what kind of sugar the palm sugar was and I found this chart of nutritional values. I was assuming that palm sugar was only sucrose but it seems to have a little more than that. Any issues with the below?

Macro-nutrients (mg / 100gm)

Nitrogen (N) 202
Phosphorus (P) 79
Potassium (K) 1,030
Calcium (Ca) 8
Magnesium (Mg) 29
Sodium (Na) 45
Chloride (Cl) 470
Sulfur (S) 26
Boron (B) 0.6
Zinc (Zn) 2
Manganese (Mn) 0.1
Iron (Fe) 2
Copper (Cu) 0.23
Thiamine 0.41
Vitamin C 23.4


Analyzed by PCA-TAL, Sept. 11, 2000. (MI Secretaria et al, 2003) in parts per million (ppm or mg/li). www.nutritiondata.com

I was wondering about this only because of discussing with someone that Belgian candi sugar was not worth the money and that it was simply sucrose. Then reading on a previous thread that inverted sugar was even better to use. I saw this with the vitamin C in it already and was wondering if it would work even better in place of regular sugar.

Thanks, Nick

I'm just throwing out a guess here, but if palm sugar is a minimally processed sugar from a plant (sugar palm?) it would be fructose, right? Fructose is glucose and sucrose chemically bonded together?

From the reading that I have done it seems that it is 70% sucrose. I am not sure if that is completely accurate. Is fructose ok to brew with? I see a lot of sucrose being used.
- Nick

I have brewed belgian styles with palm/jaggery sugar. It works but it has a very distinct and strong caramel-like notes. They do mellow out during conditioning/aging but it may take a year or more to not get as harsh a caramel blast to the pallet.

If it is used I do not reccomend using it 1:1 as you would with normal belgian candi, I actually dont reccomend it as >10% of the fermentable sugars in a recipe.

I've used palm sugar in various form in many beers.

Palm sugar was originally made from the sugary sap of the Palmyra palm, the date palm or sugar date palm (Phoenix sylvestris). Now it is also made from the sap of the sago, arenga pinnata and coconut palms, and may be sold as "arenga sugar" or "coconut sugar"

Click to expand...

Sugars like that have very buttery/minerally flavor, and like you see are higher in nutritional value than processed white table sugar.

They're fun to use in beers.

I used the stuff above in my Sri Lankin Stout recipe.

I also posted some info about it and other sugars in this thread as well..