sugar adjunct?

does any know the advantage of using additional sugar adjunct in addition to the DME and malt extract? Is there any difference in taste? or is it basically not worth it.

 

Adding too much sugar can cause a cidery taste and will produce a drier beer without adding any body. It will add alcohol. Some people say you can add up to 1 pound per 5 gallons, but I would strongly recommend adding additional malt instead. I've used it before and within two batches stopped.

 

Yeah, it's one of those things where unless you know what you're doing, I would totally avoid it. Because sugar is so fermentable, it contributes alcohol and nothing else - no lovely unfermentable sugars, no lovely mouthfeel, just alcohol. As a result, beers made with a significant proportion of sugar can be ass-nasty, with an unpleasant taste that's often described as cidery. If you wanted to make a stronger beer, you'd be much better off adding more dried malt extract (DME) - you can make some great beer using just DME.

On the other hand, I'm about to make a big Belgian beer, which will end up at around 10% alcohol by volume. For beers that big, adding some sugar can be a good thing, precisely because it ferments out so completely. If you made a 10% beer using only malt, there would be a lot of residual sugars left, so the beer would taste cloyingly sweet. In those instances, using sugar can be a good thing - but even then, only in small amounts.

 

First, the cidery off flavor is produced by yeast when they ferment too much sugar. If you keep your additions to 15% of fermentable content or less, you are generally gonna be ok. I have gone well over 15% with out any hint of cidery flavors but the recipe could support this addition. The Second factor to consider is body; sugar will produce ABV but will not contribute to body like a similar malt addition would giving you a thinner body and drier brew in comparison...again, you have to account for this in your recipe.

If you just want to bump the ABV, adding more malt is generally your best bet if you are not sure (of course you might want to up your hops to retain your BU:GU balance). I agree, if you don't know what it's going to do...watch out.

 

thanks, I'll keep that in mind, will probably avoid it.