Extract vs Corn Syrup

If the premise of an extract is a sweet syrup, could I use corn syrup in place of an extract recipe and then follow the same steps for an extract recipe?

If you don't want to make beer, sure. It would turn into an alcoholic liquid of some sort, no doubt. Just not beer.

Why would it not be beer? isnt beer technically just a sugar source water hops and yeast

i believe beer requires malt as well...no?

Beer is made from malted barley and/or other similar grains. Corn syrup is pretty much just sugar. Might as well dump a bag of table sugar into a bucket of water, throw some yeast in and try to call it beer. It's not.

You're free to do as you choose, so if you want to ferment out some corn sugar with some hops in it and see what you get, go for it. But it's not beer. It's hooch. And a waste of hops if you ask me.

Corn sugar is nothing more than dextrose, a 100% fermentable simple sugar. Malt extract contains complex sugars that give beer flavor, body AND alcohol.

Get some cheap vodka, boil some hops in water, mix. That's what corn syrup will give you.

There are tons of complex compounds including non fermentable sugars in malt extract that are just not present in corn syrup. Corn syrup has been refined to remove everything in it other than the sweetener. Essentially you can get the same result from fermenting corn syrup as you would fermenting table sugar. Just spend the money on the extract...

How does corn liquor start? Do they make it out of corn syrup like they make rum out of fermented molasess?

Dextrose is one of the most fermentable of all of the sugars. Following conversion of starch to dextrose, many corn refiners pipe dextrose to fermentation facilities where the dextrose is converted to alcohol by traditional yeast fermentation or to amino acids and other bioproducts through either yeast or bacterial fermentation. After fermentation, the resulting broth is distilled to recover alcohol or concentrated through membrane separation to produce other bioproducts.

i always wanted to do a batch where i subbed the light lme for corn sugar+dextro malto and see how it turned out

bkov said:

i always wanted to do a batch where i subbed the light lme for corn sugar+dextro malto and see how it turned out

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+ 1/4oz hops at 60 min = bmc

yeah, i meant keep everything else the same, the hops, speciality grains,etc. just replace the lme with sugar/malto dextro

i actually brewed a batch recently with 6lbs lme, 2lbs karo lite, 3/4oz hallertau at 60mins, 1/4 hallertau at the end, us05 yeast around 60F, came out excellent, similar but not exactly corona

I was wondering the same thing.I can get large quantities of corn syrup for free,im gonna try it.With grains and hops of course.

See you said Extract ta the beginning, Nothing about specialty grains. It still isn't the same, But you have some grain for flavor and color. Not all extract brewers use steeping grains.

Without the malt flavors and sweetness, all you'll taste is the hops. Probably won't even notice the alcohol that much.

Its not the worst idea for an experiment, but I don't think the end product will taste very good.

Wouldn't it be a meed or wine, like using honey?

The beer is the "Malt" isn't it?

I've seen where people add honey, or syrup, or other to their beer(wort) rather than the plain corn sugar to help fermentation.

Been searching the internet this morning myself looking at SORGHUM, Molasses and other ingredients.


Mostly just curious of the "why" as to the choices we make when making beer,cider,mead.

malkore said:

Without the malt flavors and sweetness, all you'll taste is the hops. Probably won't even notice the alcohol that much.

Its not the worst idea for an experiment, but I don't think the end product will taste very good.

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No, the worst idea ever was when I used sorgham molasses :rockin:

bkov said:

yeah, i meant keep everything else the same, the hops, speciality grains,etc. just replace the lme with sugar/malto dextro

i actually brewed a batch recently with 6lbs lme, 2lbs karo lite, 3/4oz hallertau at 60mins, 1/4 hallertau at the end, us05 yeast around 60F, came out excellent, similar but not exactly corona

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Thread necropoly...

I made a peach mead hydromel with 50% corn syrup (not HFCS) and honey with pureed cling peaches. Trying to make a peach hard water. Calling it Pooch. LOL

Shamrock28 said:

If the premise of an extract is a sweet syrup, could I use corn syrup in place of an extract recipe and then follow the same steps for an extract recipe?

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A friend of mine told me of one of his uncles who made "sugar beer" which was just regular sugar, honey or any kind of sweet sugary goo he could find to make his alkeyhol. My friend wasn't sure but he said he thought Unk just used it to boost the abv in his other drinkables, which could have been beer or anything below the threshold, which is what20%. That's where he got me...I did not know there was a limit to the amount of alcohol one could get from the available yeast and whatever "sugar water or wort" at the time. Now I understand there are some high yield yeasts that will get higher than he 20%. I guess anyone who wants to use the stuff is just trying to find a way around the distilling laws.

I think you would get an alchholic carbonated water water flat no foam?

brewfrog said:

I think you would get an alchholic carbonated water water flat no foam?

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Poor mans Everclear

brewfrog said:

I think you would get an alchholic carbonated water water flat no foam?

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Yes that could be called a hydromel. I made one in August. It's like a peachy hard water. Used Mt Hood hops and honey so it's also like a Metheglin. I used water treatment, nutrients and an acid too.

This is only 4.6% abv. 3lbs honey and 3 corn syrup with vanilla.

There's a little head, but it doesn't last long. I'd say it's mostly Co2. This has low calories and zero protein.

Schlenkerla said:

Yes that could be called a hydromel. I made one in August. It's like a peachy hard water. Used Mt Hood hops and honey so it's also like a Metheglin. I used water treatment, nutrients and an acid too.

This is only 4.6% abv. 3lbs honey and 3 corn syrup with vanilla.

There's a little head, but it doesn't last long. I'd say it's mostly Co2. This has low calories and zero protein.View attachment 593697

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Sure is pretty.