Corn sugar question

I'm trying to put my own spin on some extract kits and I want to begin by upping the abv a little. I have a dead ringer kit and a zombie dust clone kit. I'm thinking about adding a pound of corn sugar to the boil to do so. I've read about drying out the beer by adding too much. Should I be as concerned about this with a super hoppy beer as they aren't really sweet to begin with?

How much too much when it comes to drying a beer out?

I don't really recommend it as drying out an already low malt/hop forward beer leaves very little complexity in the finished beer. My 2 cents is to brew it the way it is or find a different route to "experiment" with...

cubalz said:

I don't really recommend it as drying out an already low malt/hop forward beer leaves very little complexity in the finished beer. My 2 cents is to brew it the way it is or find a different route to "experiment" with...

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What about adding light or Xtra light DME to do the same?

Much better idea but again, this is just my opinion.

What I don't want to do is add a bunch of maltiness. Maybe half and half??? Anyone else have any experience in doing this?

I did a hoppy 50/50 vienna/wheat ale a while back. it wasnt too malty (or sweet is im guessing what youre referring to)

Go for it. It's a good idea to add sugar to most extract recipes.

Or try using a pound of demerara sugar, or turbinado for a lil more color & flavor complexity.

m00ps said:

I did a hoppy 50/50 vienna/wheat ale a while back. it wasnt too malty (or sweet is im guessing what youre referring to)

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Did you use corn sugar to up the abv.?

dmtaylor said:

Go for it. It's a good idea to add sugar to most extract recipes.

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Do you have experience in doing so?

PLAY_DEAD said:

Do you have experience in doing so?

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Heck yeah. You might be interested in the following file. Copy and paste into Word so you can print it out if you like.

Leg Maker said:

Just wondering where you guys fill your Co2 canisters when using a keg system.
Thanks,
CMH

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Awesome! Thanks. Have much trouble with beers "drying out?" . There is so much negative out there about this, but I think a lot of it is from what people have heard/read, and not from actual experience. I'm sure it can be done, but probably takes much more than a pound of sugar. Thoughts?

Good read on the attachments. When you replace dme or lme with white sugar, don't you lose some malt characteristics?

Yeah, you would. Sugar doesn't equal malt.

PLAY_DEAD said:

Good read on the attachments. When you replace dme or lme with white sugar, don't you lose some malt characteristics?

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Yes. However, some extracts are not very fermentable and will finish at a specific gravity of 1.018-1.020 no matter what yeast you use. In cases like that, I think it's more important to replace some malt with sugar to bring this down than to worry about lack of malt flavor. Or, just add sugar and not subtract any malt. It's your beer, your choice. Do what's right for you.

Thanks for everyone's input!

dmtaylor said:

Yes. However, some extracts are not very fermentable and will finish at a specific gravity of 1.018-1.020 no matter what yeast you use. In cases like that, I think it's more important to replace some malt with sugar to bring this down than to worry about lack of malt flavor. Or, just add sugar and not subtract any malt. It's your beer, your choice. Do what's right for you.

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When I was having fermentation stop regularly at around 1.020, I started adding 12 oz of table sugar to every batch (no reduction in malt extract). I could tell it dried it out a little, which Is what I was going for. Seemed like a good solution.

ncbrewer said:

When I was having fermentation stop regularly at around 1.020, I started adding 12 oz of table sugar to every batch (no reduction in malt extract). I could tell it dried it out a little, which Is what I was going for. Seemed like a good solution.

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When you say dried it out, you mean as in taste?

Yes, adding some sugar gave it a drier taste - at least that was my perception. I wondered if it was my imagination because it still had the same amount of unfermented sugar. But apparently, converting some of the water to alcohol affected the taste.

ncbrewer said:

Yes, adding some sugar gave it a drier taste - at least that was my perception. I wondered if it was my imagination because it still had the same amount of unfermented sugar. But apparently, converting some of the water to alcohol affected the taste.

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I'm guessing this matters less with a super hoppy pale ale as compared to a stout, which you kinda want the sweetness.

Is there any difference to using dme compared to lme?

Yes. In the context of this thread, LME is much less shelf-stable than DME, and the sugars tend to oxidize moreso than DME. So over time, the fermentability will decrease from its already low (relative to all grain mash at around 150-152 deg. F) level of fermentability. So the "1.020 effect" may be more common in batches that use LME, but again it depends on your supplier. If they are going through the LME regularly and the stuff you get is fresh, then the difference should be minimal.

I'd also second the use of simple sugar in an extract batch if you are getting higher FG than preferred. Especially with IPAs, the high FG masks the hop character that you are going for. Also, no reason to use corn sugar, IMO. Regular table sugar is fine and less expensive. Save corn sugar for bottling.