Will adding two cups of dextrose

[The Bone2]

impact the flavor of the beer. Specifically, does it impact the influence of the hops on the overall flavor of the beer?

 

[Fingers]

Is this to get your ABV up? I don't think two cups of dextrose will do much to your beer other than give you a bit more alcohol. I believe the rule of thumb is to add no more than 1 lb of dextrose to 5 gallons if you want an alcohol boost. I'm just parroting what I've read though, I've never added dextrose to my beer. A little bit of LME or DME would do the job better.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I did an extract + dextrose kit brew once (it was about 6 lbs of LME and 2 lbs of dextrose, IIRC). It definitely had the "cidery" flavor that many people cite as a problem when using sugar as a large portion of the fermentables.

 

[FlyGuy]

It really depends on the recipe. If this is a low gravity beer, you might pick up some cidery off flavours. If it is a higher gravity beer and/or it is a recipe with lots of roasted malts, it shouldn't.

Generally, the effect of adding simple sugars to your recipe will be to dry out the beer. At the amount you used, I am guessing that this will be all you detect. Often, simple sugar is added to increase the alcohol content without changing the overall flavour profile of the beer. But sometimes, it is added instead of base malt to dry out the beer and keep it from becoming cloyingly sweet from unfermentables, particularly in higher gravity beers (e.g., I2PA).

 

[brett]

I'll echo what has already been said: Adding dextrose will dry out your beer. It can also impart a cidery taste if used in large quantities... and I hate cidery notes in my beer.

That being said, I've had pretty good luck with using small amounts of dextrose as a cheap way to adjust/boost OG. You just have to be really careful not to add too much. I recommend using some DME over dextrose any day.

 

[Orfy]

It will impact on the flavour.
Will you be able to tell? At 2 cups probably border line.

Why do you want to do it?

 

[The Bone2]

We put the 2 cups of Corn Sugar in for a 5 gallon batch of Anchor Steam Clone. I probably could dig up the recipe, but I know we used White Labs 810 Yeast. Anyway, it was my buddies idea to do it to boost the alcohol content. Our beginning gravity was 1.052 and the ending was 1.010. We did only a primary, for three weeks and it has been in the bottle for only 8 days. I know I cheated, but the beer seems a little "sweet" to me. So far, in my knowledge of beers, this is the best word I can use. Perhaps after I wait the proper amount of time in the bottle, the hops will come out more. Or maybe it is the placebo affect and I just imagined the sweeter flavor.

 

[Yooper]

We put the 2 cups of Corn Sugar in for a 5 gallon batch of Anchor Steam Clone. I probably could dig up the recipe, but I know we used White Labs 810 Yeast. Anyway, it was my buddies idea to do it to boost the alcohol content. Our beginning gravity was 1.052 and the ending was 1.010. We did only a primary, for three weeks and it has been in the bottle for only 8 days. I know I cheated, but the beer seems a little "sweet" to me. So far, in my knowledge of beers, this is the best word I can use. Perhaps after I wait the proper amount of time in the bottle, the hops will come out more. Or maybe it is the placebo affect and I just imagined the sweeter flavor.

It should not taste sweet with that fg. But sometimes beer will taste thin and/or underhopped, and that can give you a sensation of sweetness. If it tastes a little sweet, my thought is the bittering hops weren't quite enough. If you dig up the recipe and post it, I could tell you for sure.

 

[Orfy]

Sugar will not make beer sweeter. It makes it drier. (As long as the yeast olds out)

 

[joey11bball]

The dextrose will not give any sweet flavor in the finished product because corn sugar is nearly 100% fermentable. So it will be completely turned into alcohol which will lead to a dry taste. However I shouldnt be worried at all about 2 cups of dextrose. Although I have read that it will give a cidery taste if used in high doses I have never experienced it. I have used dextrose up to 20% of my fermentables and have noticed no off taste at all. Your beer should be fine.