Mashing with cane sugar

[Bru]

I will be adding 1lb (cane) sugar to a beer. I normally add sugar either to the boil for ten minutes or to primary after a week of fermentation.
From what Ive read sugar cane juice is about pH5.3. Assuming refined white sugar is also around pH5.3 or more acidic, is there any reason I can't include it with the grains when I mash ? I figure it will help lower the pH.
I already use CaSO4, CaCl, lactic and pH5.2.
Note that, probably irrelevant but, in SA our white sugar is cane sugar and not beet sugar.

 

[HBDrinker008]

It doesn't make much sense to me to add it to the mash. When you sparge you are trying to rinse the grains of all the converted sugars. By puting the sugar in the mash you are just going to have to get it out again and could even lose some of it in the process. I would just add it to the boil.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

It doesn't make much sense to me to add it to the mash. When you sparge you are trying to rinse the grains of all the converted sugars. By puting the sugar in the mash you are just going to have to get it out again and could even lose some of it in the process. I would just add it to the boil.

This.

 

[2bluewagons]

+1, add to the boil. No good reason to add it to the mash. If your mash is not in the proper pH range, adding a pound of sugar will have little if any effect.

If you need to lower your pH either A) add acid in the case of a light-colored beer with no roasted grains that tend to pull pH down, or B) add salts to buffer the mash, something like the FiveStar 5.2 stabilizer.

 

[Revvy]

Makes no sense to me either.

 

[Bru]

Thanks guys, to the boil as per usual it will be.

 

[BrotherBock]

Trying to resurrect an old thread.

I'm wondering if by mashing with sugar, specifically sugar that is not inverted (i.e. cane, beet, corn), the enyzmes can help break apart the sugars so that the yeast can more easily digest them (like inverted sugars/honey). Granted yeast devours the simple sugars anyway, but just a thought.

Any thought? I may be confusing my brew science with starches and protein rests.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Mashing with sugar in the mash will only leave more sugar and malt extract behind in the spent grain.




Wilserbrewer
Http://biabbags.webs.com/