How much sugar

[philhead1]

I'm geeting ready to brew up a Brewers Best IPA. how much sugar can I add before it starts to effect the taste?

 

[Yooper]

I wouldn't add any sugar at all. Sugar will thin and dry the beer, and I would think the kit would be balanced. Is there is a reason you want to add sugar to an IPA?

 

[histo320]

I imagine that you want to add sugar to make it stronger?


I am a noob so can't tell you much, but I did make a Cranberry Ale, and added corn sugar to make it more of a cream ale (i;ve heard that corn sugar does that), but i've seen on here that never, add straight sugar becuase it gives you an off flavor.

Let me know if I am wrong on this one!

 

[PseudoChef]

You can add sugar to a beer. It's a common myth and (what I think) bad advice that people give here. The bad reputation comes from some poorly made "kit" beers that call for sugar as a bulk of the fermentables, mainly to cut down on price.

For IPAs, sugar additions can be made in order to dry the beer out and make the hop characteristics more pronounced. Depending on your gravity, I would shoot to add maybe around 5-10% of corn or cane sugar for the fermentables.

There are NHC-award winning recipes out there that call for staight cane sugar for 25-30% of fermentables. If those came out tasting like "cider," I don't think they would be taking home gold medals.

 

[philhead1]

I was just wanting to kick up the alcohol a bit but didn't want to change the taste at all. no brewvint on hand thought about sugar, just going to stick to the recipe. thanks.