brewing with corn sugar.

[nobody]

since i started brewing i have always used lme and dme adding my own hops at my own hops schedule. what i was wondering is has anybody ever used corn sugar instead of the dme? i'm going to try it on my next few brews just to see what the big difference will be. same lme, same hops schedule just corn sugar instead of dme. what do you guys think?

 

[ChshreCat]

There's a lot to DME than the sugars. Sugar doesn't contribute anything to flavor, body or color. It produces alcohol, but it thins out your brew. It makes a good addition to certain styles of beer. I put a pound of sugar in my saison and it's tasty, but the recipe is designed for it. Simply replacing DME with sugar will give you something I'm sure you'll be disappointed with if you have any taste at all. If beer is just an alcohol delivery system for you, then you probably won't mind it.

 

[KevinW]

That sounds like the first step towards hops whiskey:cross:

 

[avidhomebrewer]

Yeah, adding corn sugar will only increase the alcohol. It will not add anything to the body of the brew. If you replace an equivalent amount of dme for corn sugar, you will be disappointed.

 

[lumpher]

i wouldn't. just thinking about the result (almost) makes me want to put my glass down for a moment of silence.

 

[Zeward]

I wouldn't replace DME with Corn sugar. DME not only add to ABV, but also to flavor and body of the beer. Essentially it is just dehydrated LME.

Corn sugar is mostly fermentable so does not add much to flavor or body to beer till there are fairy high amounts of sugar. Corn sugar is mostly used to raise the ABV in your beer with out adding excessive unfermentables. I just used 3 LB in my barley wine to get my OG up to 1.114 for the higher potential alcohol.

 

[ajf]

IMO there is nothing wrong with using corn sugar (or even table sugar) in moderation when brewing. If you keep the sugar additions down to less than 10% of the total fermentables (that would be about 8.5% of the weight of LME if using corn sugar, or 8% if using table sugar), then you should avoid off flavors. However, as has already been said, this will produce a less flavorsome beer. Personally, I would cut those percentages in half if I was using sugar.

-a.

 

[C3Candy]

I would use as little as possible, the first batch of beer I made I used Coopers wheat beer extract along with 2 pounds of dextrose, It turned out with a strong cidery taste to it. From what I've read on these forums that's because of the corn sugar.

 

[nobody]

since you guys say not to i'll just add the sugar to the next beer i make. i added a pound to the last wheat beer i made and was thinking about trying the sugar only. thanks alot.

 

[ArizonaDB]

I've used up to 1 lb of light brown sugar in some of my beers, but only when it lends itself to the recipe like a porter or brown ale. I just recently used some in a pumpkin ale I made. So I would consider brown sugar if the style of beer you are making is appropriate for it.

 

[nobody]

i've used honey and brown sugar in a few brews before. they turned out pretty well. i have a few brews that call for two pounds of corn sugar in them. they normally turn out in a very high abv brew.

 

[BeerJorge]

The best advice we can give to kit brewers is to replace corn sugar with DME or LME to improve their beer... you are taking a step backwards...

Corn sugar is just a simple sugar... DME has simple sugars and complex sugars... complex sugars add body to beer. Simple sugars are highly fermentable and if you overdo simple sugars you can end up with a watery beer or even a cidery tasting beer...