Cane suger

jtrux · Feb 17, 2012

I read a lot about cane suger drying out a beer. Is this because it ferments fully and replaces some of the grain bill? If you have a recipe which produces 5.5% ABV and you add sugar to boost to 6.5 ABV but leave all else the same, does it actually dry out the beer or does it give you the same beer with more ABV?

nebben · Feb 17, 2012

You are correct in your assessments. In your example of a 6.5% ABV beer that has 1% of its alcohol from pure cane sugar, it in effect dilutes some of the sweet that otherwise would have been leftover. Because sucrose ferments fully, there is less residual sweetness from the malt left to spread around.

TyTanium · Feb 17, 2012

Bingo. If you want to know more, there's a book called Brew Like A Monk that explores brewing Trappist/Abbey/Belgian-style beers, most using large doses of sugar.

Don't fear the sugar, embrace it

PseudoChef · Feb 17, 2012

jtrux said:
I read a lot about cane suger drying out a beer. Is this because it ferments fully and replaces some of the grain bill? If you have a recipe which produces 5.5% ABV and you add sugar to boost to 6.5 ABV but leave all else the same, does it actually dry out the beer or does it give you the same beer with more ABV?

Adding sugar to a beer that usually ferments to 1.014 is not going to make it ferment to 1.010. If you replaced an equal portion (pppg) of your grainbill with sugar, then yes, it would have a lower final gravity.

So, hypothetically, it would give you the same beer with more abv if you did not change the grainbill. However, depending on your taste perception of that extra alcohol, it could have further implications into your perception of the body of the beer.

unionrdr · Feb 17, 2012

I like demerara sugar (raw cane sugar). It has a light brown sugar laced with honey flavor that adds a nice complexity to a beer after the sugar part gets metabolized. Great for priming dark amber & darker beers. Especially where higher carbonation is desired. More residual flavor from that which makes it darker.

jtrux · Feb 17, 2012

Thank you for the quick response. Does rice or corn have similar effects? Just wondering why BMC use rice and corn when sugar would more than likely be cheaper.

beergolf · Feb 17, 2012

Just adding sugar to a recipe to boost the alcohol will throw it out of balance. If a recipe is designed with sugar in mind it works great. Belgian beers are a good example of this.