Using Cane Sugar

[geoffny25]

So I was thinking, would it be alright to use cane sugar to bump up OG if it is undershot through loss of efficiency? What kind of off flavors or bad alcohols would the sugar contribute? What levels would I have to add for 1 gravity point?

Thanks,

Geoff

 

[wyzazz]

Sure, but it is better to bump up your OG by using DME.

Cane Sugar will typically add a cidery & thin quality to your beer in larger quantities, in addition to drying it out quite a bit.

Quick and dirty, approx 1lb of sugar will increase your ABV 1% in a 5gal batch.

 

[chefmike]

Sure, but it is better to bump up your OG by using DME.

Cane Sugar will typically add a cidery & thin quality to your beer in larger quantities

in addition to drying it out quite a bit.

Quick and dirty, approx 1lb of sugar will increase your ABV 1% in a 5gal batch.

The cidery and thin is not something I have experienced. There are some great threads here about using sugar for various purposes in recipes.

I use them in several places: mostly to do what you cited, drying the beer out. That certain crisp finish.

I do not think you will find your beer cidery if you adjust with sugar. I know you will change the way the finished product will present. Better choices are DME (as cited above) or less volume (through increased boil time, adjust those hops perhaps).

Depending on the recipe, the sugar may not be detrimental. But why not just enjoy the beer as is? How far off are you?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Up to 30% of fermentables is the oft cited, average, safe limit to avoiding cidery characters in the finished product.

 

[maida7]

If you substitute simple sugar for malt extract the beer will have less body and finish drier. This is a good thing in some beers and a not so good thing in other beers. Using sugar in high gravity beers is a great way to keep them from being overly sweet. I would avoid sugar in low gravity beers as they need the malt for body.

If you go crazy and make a recipe with mostly sugar it will taste cidery.

 

[geoffny25]

Thanks for the responses. I was asking to see if it would be an acceptable alternative (cheap) to DME. So it seems that 30% or less of the overall beer would avoid the cider taste? Good to know.

 

[permo]

If done properly adding sugar to beer will not result in cidery off flavors. It can help increase ABV, encourage attenuation and lighten the body of beers. I personally use either dextrose, or my latest favorite. Homeade inversted sugar syrup. You pour that in the fermenter and it literally takes minutes for the yeast to start consuming it. I am a huge fan of incrementally adding sugars to the fermenter in order to dry the beers out and encourage attenuation.

I tend to use the syrups for belgians and the dextrose for IIPA's...I have also used brown sugar, honey and mollases to limited extents...I have never had cidery flavors.

 

[malkore]

Thanks for the responses. I was asking to see if it would be an acceptable alternative (cheap) to DME. So it seems that 30% or less of the overall beer would avoid the cider taste? Good to know.

but it won't solve the thinning of the body and flavor.

cane/corn sugar ferments 100%. it lends no flavor, and since it is pure alcohol, it can reduce flavor, add alcohol flavors (different than cidery), and thins out the body and mouthfeel.

DME/LME isn't 100% fermentable and honestly is a much better choice if you need to fix efficiency without reducing the previously mentioned qualities.

in the end its your decision. if you go the sugar route and it turns out 'not quite as hoped' you'll know the likely culprit.

 

[ajf]

I think that 30% cane sugar is pushing it. I keep it down to 10% max nowadays, although I admit it is possible to exceed that figure without introducing off flavors.

-a.

 

[SumnerH]

but it won't solve the thinning of the body and flavor.

Note that that's not *always* a problem to be solved--it's actually the reason that sugar is used by a lot of respected brewers. Big Belgians and British IPAs (among others) use sugar precisely to offset what would otherwise be a very heavy body. But they do it knowing going in that it results in a different flavor profile (ie that it _will_ change your beer's flavor noticeably).

As malkore says, for a smaller beer (or basically any time you're not 100% certain why you want the taste alterations that sugar will impart) you're better off using DME to add that extra 1% or hit your OG expectation without disrupting the flavor.

 

[DFoster]

Nice thread here...I've read some on here before but it always goes off of topic. I've added 1lb of sugar to a blonde and it turned out just fine, but that has been my only experience of adding cane sugar.

 

[jpsloan]

I brewed a Belgian Golden Strong this January, which had 30% sucrose additions (I ended up inverting it on my stove, and adding it in three parts during the the fermentation).

Granted, the batch currently tastes like biodiesel, but it's got until October to smoothe out!

 

[maida7]

I brewed a Belgian Golden Strong this January, which had 30% sucrose additions (I ended up inverting it on my stove, and adding it in three parts during the the fermentation).

Granted, the batch currently tastes like biodiesel, but it's got until October to smoothe out!

Harsh alcohol flavors are more likely a result of fermentation temps then the sugar.

 

[maida7]

Nice thread here...I've read some on here before but it always goes off of topic. I've added 1lb of sugar to a blonde and it turned out just fine, but that has been my only experience of adding cane sugar.

Sugar is an important ingriediant in most Belgian styles to thin the body. It's a how Belgian beers can be so high gravity and yet so drinkable. The dry finish is the key.

Compare a tripel to a barley wine. The tripel is dry and light. The barley wine is sweet and cloying. Sugar is the main difference.

 

[Jumbo82]

+1 on the Belgian beers. In Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil and Palmer, they have a recipe for a Belgian Golden Strong Ale named "It's All In The Details" that is 26.3% cane sugar. Its 8.4 lbs of pilsener LME, 3.0 lbs cane sugar, with 2.25 oz of Czech Saaz (3.5% AA) at 90 minutes and a Belgian yeast like WLP570 or Wyeast 1388. That's the most cane sugar I've ever seen in a recipe, but its needed to get the O.G. 1.072 wort down to a F.G. 1.007 beer. All depends on what you're trying to accomplish.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I think that 30% cane sugar is pushing it. I keep it down to 10% max nowadays, although I admit it is possible to exceed that figure without introducing off flavors.

-a.

Yes. The 30% figure is oft stated as the max. Not the standard. some Belgian product have been known to carry up to 45% cane sugar with little discernable off flavor. Depends on the yeast too.

 

[jpsloan]

Harsh alcohol flavors are more likely a result of fermentation temps then the sugar.

Three weeks at 65, slowly ramping up to 75 over the space of five days, then parked it there another week to finish out the fermentation. There's just a whole lotta alcohol in there. But then again, that's why you let the sucker age!