A lot of the Belgian ales, such as strong golden, strong dark, dubbel, trippel use a variety of sugars as an important part of their profiles. And different sugars can give acceptable results: table, candi (rocks or syrup), invert, turbinado.......... Check out Brew Like a Monk by Stan Heironymous
I recently listened to a couple of podcasts from Basic Brewing Radio (12/28/06 and 3/13/08 episodes) where a homebrewer did an experiment brewing Belgian beers with various sugars. It was very interesting hearing the results. I recommend listening to them. I got the podcasts for free from iTunes.