quick question for the pros.

Hey guys, been reading a lot, and see people using brown/dark brown sugar. Is it regular baking sugar or is it candy sugar? I know the difference between regular sugar and candy sugar, but is "brown sugar" just normal sugar?

Thanks

B

Brown sugar is sugar with molasses. That's what gives it the brown color. Find it on the same shelf as regular sugar in the grocery store.

sweet! (sorry for the bad pun.)

B

But get good quality brown sugar. There are some that are just white sugar cut with molasses that aren't as good.

Candi Sugar is technically INVERTED sugar. Less chance of cider flavors, and marginally better fermentability.

since I've made cider with it, I won't mind a bit more cidery flavor. Good to know about the inverse sugar.

B

I want to point out one thing. Candy sugar is not the same thing as Candi sugar (with an "I"). Candy sugar is most often rock candy, which is a crytallized sugar not to be confused with Candi sugar which is inverted and then often carmelized to varying degrees for various purposes.

I did ask Randi Mosher about this topic. It seems that the Belgians indeed use straight sucrose for light styles such as a Tripel or Pale Ale. However the big differences come in with the carmelization. (this all being a side note to your question).

I would tend to use Brown Sugar with a cautious hand. Depending on the recipe (and the logic would dictate lighter styles would probably show the most pronounced form of what I am going to describe), you can sometimes really have the Molasses part cut through, so go easy keeping your addition down to around 5% or less I would guess is probably fairly safe.