Fructose ?

Thinking of starting a new batch of cherry cider , but cant seem to find any more corn sugar around town. So it looks like I have 4 choices, Organic cane sugar, plain ol' grocery store white or brown sugar or Fructose ? I remember something about using fructose in brewing , but it was years ago and I'n not sure if I remember correctly. Help ?

Jens

do you have a LHBS? they will usually carry pounds upon pounds of dextrose

Closest LHBS is 2.5 hr Drive I'm out in 'da stix man. Fructose I can get locally easily, Dextrose is a major hit & miss - and usually out of stock around here. Will the stuff mess my brew up ? Or should I stick to the cane sugar ?

Jens

Why not honey? It's going to add a little of it's own character, but it should be good and you should be able to get honey at the grocery store.

Cherry cyser? Hmm... I might have to do that one myself.

i dont know about fructose but from what ive read probably 75% of people use dextrose id say, probably because it doesnt add anything but fermentable sugar for alcohol. i personally used brown sugar in my experimental cider which is nearing about a month in fermentation, i sampled it and it tastes a little sour, but fine non the less.

i have another apfelwein that me and SWMBO made last weekend that i used dextrose on so im gonna find out how that goes.

Never brewed with fructose, but it looks like honey has mostly fructose and glucose; since it ferments pretty dry if you have the right yeast, I'd assume fructose would ferment out for the most part. Papazian, in The New Complete Joy (second ed.) says:

"Fructose is one of the most rapidly fermentable sugars. It is also the sweetest tasting." Then he goes on to say it occurs naturally in malt and fruit, can be derived from cane/beet sugar and can be made into syrup. Not a lot of info, but it sounds like it should turn into alcohol if you chuck it in. Not idea about flavors, though.

Fructose and sucrose will both work in ciders. I've always used plain old white sugar or light brown, since I'm not worried about the sucrose adding a cidery flavor to my cider.

So did you go for the fructose? I had the same problem - just at the grocery store and no dextrose... I guess I will try the homebrew store on Tuesday.

I have a similar question. I want to prime my cider. I have brown sugar but I don't know how much to add (5 gal cider) or if this is even a great idea.
What do ya'll think?

lhbs said it was better to use table sugar for sweeter flavors.

When I made my cider (actually more of an apfelwein because of the ABV), I added both light brown sugar and powdered sugar from the grocery store. They both fermented out pretty well (hence the high ABV). It tastes pretty good...I bottled it just last night.