Table Sugar Cubes for Carbing?

[BrewOnBoard]

(I've done searches, and didn't get my answers. At least not one's I liked )

Can one use regular sucrose sugar cubes for carbing? Actually, I know you can, but how do y'all think it would work? I ask because they'd be dead easy to measure, cheaper than cooper's drops and more available around the world.

I did find while searching old threads that sucrose can give a "cidery taste" to beer. Is this true? How about if I limited my use of them to brewing cider (which I love) "cidery" taste shouldn't mess up a batch of cider eh?


One more carbing question if I may. Munton's tablets are listed as containing dextrose, DME and heading powder. Why add DME at this point? And more to the point what the HE!! is "heading powder"? Sounds like "liquid smoke". Is it going to give me liver cancer? I need my liver.....

BoB

 

[ifishsum]

First of all, you could use sugar cubes for carbing. How many, I have no idea - but they would certainly work if you get the right amount. I've carbonated a few batches with table sugar, the small amount of sucrose that would be used for producing carbonation would not be near enough to cause a cidery taste IMO.

I think heading powder is probably maltodextrin or something.

 

[BrewOnBoard]

I think heading powder is probably maltodextrin or something.

Maltodextrin or something eh? Are you sure? What if "something" is something like 6,1,2,12carbohydroxymethyldextraethanoicarcinogen? That could be bad.

Anyone know for sure what the "heading powder" is? Does it head better than coopers or plain corn sugar?

BoB

 

[ifishsum]

Here's what I found re: heading powder

Heading Powder - 1 oz.. This additive may be used to promote head retention in your beer. Add 1 oz. powder to 1 pint of cold beer at bottling time. Mix thoroughly, and pour into bottling bucket. Intended for 5 gallons of beer or soda. Contains dextrose and gum arabic

also: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/question-re-heading-powder-12543/

Basically names the same ingredients. I was wrong about the maltodextrin, but it was a good guess

 

[heyvail]

I may be wrong but table sugar is a disaccharide, it has to be changed to fructose and gluclose to be fermented by yeast. I think this needs heat but it may not, I am no chemist. I would check into that.

 

[Yooper]

I may be wrong but table sugar is a disaccharide, it has to be changed to fructose and gluclose to be fermented by yeast. I think this needs heat but it may not, I am no chemist. I would check into that.

No, sucrose is easily fermented by ale yeast. No worries there.

I use 4-5 ounces (by weight) of dextrose in a 5 gallon batch. I've read that there are people who put a teaspoon or so in individual bottles to carbonate. If you can figure out how many sugar cubes would be the correct amount (for all I know one is fine, but you might need one and a half for example) then that would work ok. If you add too much sugar, you'll have bottle bombs, though, so I'd make sure of the correct amount.

 

[bull8042]

The other consideration I would have is sanitation. Unless someone corrects me, my understanding is that the bottling sugar be boiled with a minimal amount of water to kill any nasties, allow to cool, than add to the bottling bucket/beer.
I know the "carbing drops" are not boiled, but rather just added to the bottles. My assumption would be that they are packaged in such a way as to protect them from contamination. Sugar cubes are not.

 

[Homercidal]

Well, it's 3/4 cup for 5 gallons. See how many cubes you need to crush to fit into 3/4 cup. I got a feeling that each cube will be too much per bottle.

I think that table sugar for carbing would be OK if you dont' have any corn sugar around. It's not that much sugar total volume, so I doubt you'd notice any flavor difference in the beer.

 

[Bobby_M]

If I'm not mistaken, the cubes are 1/2 teaspoon each. If that's the case, one is a bit too little and two is a bit too much. I've had success with 3/4 tsp.