MAD SCIENCE BREWING EXPERIMENT -- Sugar Beer?

Hey all,

Has anybody ever done this? I'm thinking about experimenting with Sugar Beer. In other words, the recipe look like this:

7lbs dextrose
Yeast.

What would happen? What yeast should I use?

Thoughts?

mugwump3 said:

Hey all,

Has anybody ever done this? I'm thinking about experimenting with Sugar Beer. In other words, the recipe look like this:

7lbs dextrose
Yeast.

What would happen? What yeast should I use?

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

It doesn't matter what yeast you use. Any yeast will ferment sugar water. A fermented sugar wash will have alcohol in it and taste like ****.

I agree 100% it will taste like butt sweat

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/alcotec-48-hour-turbo-yeast-135-grams.html

with the right yeast you can get it up to 20% ABV, they also sell flavorings one of these days I am going to make the Jagermeister

Rubbing alcohol?

iparks81 said:

I agree 100% it will taste like butt sweat

Click to expand...

that is until you remove some of the water from it (including any bad byproducts produced) and then collect and store in wine barrels for years. But no more talk about that...
If you want something easy to make, and actually be able to drink it look at Edwort's Apfelwein. Basically apple juice, dextrose sugar and yeast. It'll knock you back but actually be drinkable

I'm most interested in the 'experimenting' factor of this... less concerned about making something easy... or super high ABV...

What do you think a 5-6% ABV sugar mash would taste like?

Alcohol is made from yeast eating sugar... Malt from grain is only one of many types of sugars out there... I'm curious as to what exotic sugars could make for good exotic brews?

I'm wondering if there's anything that could be done to a corn sugar beer to make it not taste like ass... aside from distilling it into rum. perhaps age it in wood chips... some lactic acid... maybe some lactose, flavoring, etc...?

hhhhmmmm.... I wonder what would taste better... 48 hour Alcotec or something like California Ale yeast?

I'm a bit stumped on your term "exotic sugar". What do you mean? There are a few fermentable sugars I know of saccharose, maltose, glucose, frutose, etc. Non of which I would term exotic.
So your plan is to make a simple sugar wash, ferment it knowing that it will taste like ass and then try and hide that flavour with something?
Just don't hide it with koolaid or something like that as that will give the yeast more fermetables and risk bottle bombs.
Good luck... I guess

hahaha... hence, "Mad science brewing experiment."

yeah, ok, you're right: there are only a few fermentable sugars. What I'm talking about is playing around with different forms of those sugars. For example, midori is a liquour made mash made from mellons.

Instead of sugar I'm thinking about using lyle's golden syrup.... just add yeast.

I think that no matter what sugar or yeast you use, you're going to get something that you won't like. It's going to ferment to dryness with no flavors other than some off stuff produced by your yeast and likely hot alcohol burn.

It seems like there's very little reason to try this. Just make a beer recipe that you've had before and sub in a reasonable amount of some sugar that you're curious about to see what effect it has.

Sugar-beer isn't really "mad science," anyway, unless all those 16 year old kids who seem to find us every June when school lets out are really scientists in disguise. "MOM! It's an EXPERIMENT!"

If you were to play around with this, you'd at least want to get some yeast nutrient in there.

It's fun trying other types of fermented beverages - I make cider and mead in addition to beer. Fermenting with apple juice or honey is very different from malted barley. You might lookin the wine subforum, also - you can make wine out of many ingredients.

I take fermented sugar water, add a cola syrup, backsweeten with splenda, keg and server.... swill 'n coke. Also have done Sprite/Rootbeer/GingerAle/Lemonade.

It is a tough ferment to get going, unless you add some nutrient.

I was thinking about this the other night, but more as an experiment or exercise in distinguishing the flavors from different yeast strains. My idea was gallon, or even smaller batches of some sugar and water and then add some complex belgian yeast strains like 3711 or 3724 to see what flavors are attributed soley by the yeast.

Could be interesting. Has anyone tried something like this?

jaybrez6 said:

I was thinking about this the other night, but more as an experiment or exercise in distinguishing the flavors from different yeast strains. My idea was gallon, or even smaller batches of some sugar and water and then add some complex belgian yeast strains like 3711 or 3724 to see what flavors are attributed soley by the yeast.

Could be interesting. Has anyone tried something like this?

Click to expand...

You might have better luck brewing a SMaSH beer, and splitting it up a number of ways, and fermenting each with a different strain.

I find it unlikely that the yeast flavors produced in sugar water would be identical to the same flavors found in a beer.

mugwump3 said:

Sugar Beer

Click to expand...

That's not right - that's not even wrong

Hey everybody,

So an update on my frakenbrew: It's come out pretty nice!!

I used windsor ale yeast because of it's low attenuation. SG: 1055, FG: 1012. Good body, super sweet, but unique sour caramel-like flavor.

It tastes like some form of bastard soda from the 1920s... some old elixir.

The question now is what the hell do I flavor it with? It needs something more... maybe orange... maybe licorice... maybe both.


hhmmm....

mugwump3 said:

Hey everybody,

So an update on my frakenbrew: It's come out pretty nice!!

I used windsor ale yeast because of it's low attenuation. SG: 1055, FG: 1012. Good body, super sweet, but unique sour caramel-like flavor.

It tastes like some form of bastard soda from the 1920s... some old elixir.

The question now is what the hell do I flavor it with? It needs something more... maybe orange... maybe licorice... maybe both.


hhmmm....

Click to expand...

I have the same idea as you except I want to brew mostly with rice and also add some sugar. I would need something to give it some more body, and I am aiming for something that is light (but not so light as sugar/rice only) and easily quaffable, and tasty.

Any suggestions on ingredients I could add to perhaps give it a better head retention and more body? I am willing to add malt as well, but not too much, I live in hawaii and the goal is making cheaper beer, I pay $1.60 a lb of 2 row pale malt here and it isnt even that fresh. But the rice comes cheap and fresh. I was going to use a saison yeast,wyeast 3724, which supposedly has the most yeast character. I will ferment at about 92 degrees Fahrenheit, the yeast is supposed to produce great flavors at 90+ temps, but not over 95.

This would be considered a "saison" style brew, but rice/sugar or just rice exclusively instead of pilsner malt which is usually used for this style. Not sure on hops.


oh yes and as far as flavors additions for your brew, I would first try the 3724, it gives a great citrus flavor, purely from the yeast, with other flavors coming off this unique yeast as well... You could add coriander seed, or fresh zest/dried orange as well. You could also use belgian candi sugar, perhaps amber, to give it a nice color and even some flavor too.

This is called kilju.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilju

mugwump3 said:

Hey all,

Has anybody ever done this? I'm thinking about experimenting with Sugar Beer. In other words, the recipe look like this:

7lbs dextrose
Yeast.

What would happen? What yeast should I use?

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

My thought would be that it could be done, and it MAY taste bad or it MAY not taste bad. I would Use Yeast Nutrient, yeast energizer And a commercial Acid Blend if i was going to do it, this should stop the yeast from throwing off horrid off flavors And i wouldn't Drink it straight, i would use it as a mixer like you would use Vodka.

Did you make that wiki?

944play said:

This is called kilju.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilju

Click to expand...

What you're basically doing is what they used to do to make Ginger "Beer" or Ale by using yeast to ferment sugar water and flavorings. Old school soda, really only there to produce CO2. Check out the Alton Brown episode on it.

In my opinion you're not going to get a whole lot of flavor out of the yeast itself with basic sugars. Yeasts in beer eat the ferment-able sugars in the malted barley, rice or wheat creating phenols to produce certain flavors. For instance the clove and banana you get with hefe's.

But if you're looking to just get drunk, it'd be quite easy to make a simple syrup and dump a whole bunch of yeast in there and let it ferment eh?

I think the best thing, and I think it was mentioned, to do is get the most basic beer recipe (maybe even without any hops) you can find and split that into many segments to add different yeasts to and ferment them separately.