no corn sugar?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
G

Gusizhuo

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2007
Messages
71
Reaction score
1
Location
Taichung, Taiwan
So far here in Taiwan I have not been able to find any dextrose. I was wondering if there were any other options that could fill the same role? In particular I wanted dextrose for EnWort' Apfelwein (I think I got that name right..) where I think it is meant to up the alcohol content and then in general for priming mead. Could I use honey perhaps for similar purposes, or some other kind of sugar? I know malt is an option for priming, but then that is no easier to find here. I am just trying to keep the poundage of my US-to-Taiwan shipments down.
 
Regular table (cane) sugar will work, but some say if it's used in large quantities can produce a "cidery" flavor, probably because it's broken down into half fructose (commonly associated with fruits). That's probably not a problem when making apfelwein. I've heard some people use it for priming as well, and in such small quantities it probably wouldn't affect the taste. It's slightly less easily fermentable, as the yeast has to break it down from sucrose to glucose/fructose before it can be fermented, but in the few cases where I've used it, it didn't seem to cause any problems.

Turbinado is not much different, it's just cane sugar that's less refined so it has more of a molasses flavor, which may be nice in a lot of styles but not as appropriate in others.
 
Would a homemade invert sugar be better then just straight table sugar? At least with that you'll have helped the yeast by splitting the table sugar to create two monosaccharides. You still end up with fructose, which may be what is responsible for the fruity flavor from using table sugar.

You can create an invert sugar with some acid (usually lemon juice) and heat. I'm sure you can find some recipes on the net. It would probably be used 1:1 for dextrose.
 
adx said:
Would a homemade invert sugar be better then just straight table sugar? At least with that you'll have helped the yeast by splitting the table sugar to create two monosaccharides. You still end up with fructose, which may be what is responsible for the fruity flavor from using table sugar.

You can create an invert sugar with some acid (usually lemon juice) and heat. I'm sure you can find some recipes on the net. It would probably be used 1:1 for dextrose.
Click to expand...

Brewers yeast makes invertase - the enzyme needed to convert table sugar. It will have no problem fermenting table sugar.
 
I was wondering if doing the inversion process would help reduce the off flavors from fermenting table sugar? Or is it the fermentation of fructose that makes those flavors?
 
I tried table sugar in a 1 gallon test batch and it was not as good. I tried priming with honey and it was not as good. The best batches were fermented with sucrose and bottle primed with more sucrose or bottle primed with more apple juice. My 2 cents.
 
mrk305 said:
I tried table sugar in a 1 gallon test batch and it was not as good. I tried priming with honey and it was not as good. The best batches were fermented with sucrose and bottle primed with more sucrose or bottle primed with more apple juice. My 2 cents.
Click to expand...
sucrose=table sugar
 
Funkenjäger said:
Regular table (cane) sugar will work, but some say if it's used in large quantities can produce a "cidery" flavor, probably because it's broken down into half fructose (commonly associated with fruits). That's probably not a problem when making apfelwein. I've heard some people use it for priming as well, and in such small quantities it probably wouldn't affect the taste. It's slightly less easily fermentable, as the yeast has to break it down from sucrose to glucose/fructose before it can be fermented, but in the few cases where I've used it, it didn't seem to cause any problems.

Turbinado is not much different, it's just cane sugar that's less refined so it has more of a molasses flavor, which may be nice in a lot of styles but not as appropriate in others.
Click to expand...

I agree 100%

Got Trub? said:
Brewers yeast makes invertase - the enzyme needed to convert table sugar. It will have no problem fermenting table sugar.
Click to expand...

I also agree with this, but as Funkenjäger said, it takes a little bit longer (a week or so).

If you do substitute sucrose for dextrose, you only need about 80% as much(by weight)

-a.
 

Similar threads

M
Corn Sugar alternative ?
Replies
5
Views
388
hotbeer
hotbeer
R
Sugar question, again.
Replies
24
Views
1K
rhys333
rhys333
Brooothru
Residual Sugar
Replies
4
Views
302
Brooothru
Brooothru
Cannonball Jones
Trying to make traditional Taiwanese millet wine (xiao mi jiu/小米酒)
Replies
10
Views
1K
madscientist451
madscientist451
K
Adding nutrients to a grained mead?
Replies
2
Views
190
hottpeper13
H
InkBird 300

Latest posts

Back
Top