adding dextrose to boil

[andrew416]

Hi, just getting started with all grain brewing and I was wondering.. Is it necessary to add dextrose to the wort for the yeast to consume or is enough fermentable sugar produced when starches are converted in the mash?
Any advice is appreciated, Thanks!

 

[hotbeer]

For many beers you'll get the sugars you want from the mashing of the grain and malts. How many of those sugars are fermentable is what you control with your mash temps. Some beer styles will want a certain amount of unfermentable sugars. You get those by using higher mash temps.

There are some beers that you might want to add various sugars for, but unless the recipe calls for it, don't add any. Unless you are doing your own thing and don't care if it's true to the recipe.

 

[MaxStout]

Adding sugar to the boil will add ABV to the final beer, but it will also make the beer thinner.

 

[hotbeer]

Get a hydrometer to measure specific gravity (SG). They are very inexpensive. The higher the SG then the more sugars we assume the wort or beer contains. Though SG isn't going to tell you if those are fermentable sugars or not.

The most important gravity's to most of us is the OG (original gravity) which is at the time you put it in the fermenter. And the FG (final gravity) which is the SG when the beer is finished fermenting. Knowing those you can decide how well your beer fermented and also calculate the ABV (alcohol by volume) of your beer.