Is Brewing Sugar really better?

[Cwrw666]

Well I got the joke, but there again I used to live in Hampshire.

I often use half a kilo of white sugar in my AG brews to use a bit less malt and squeeze an extra brew out of a 25kg sack. There is no noticeable effect on either taste or body. But I wouldn't go over 500g.

Never used brewing sugar, but there again I re-use crown caps so I'm a tight-wad.

 

[dad_of_jon]

here's an unbiased article I learnt a lot from....

https://byo.com/article/sweetness-brewing-sugars-how-to-use-them/

basically brewing sugar is a monosacharide. Table sugar is a di-sacharride 'two sugars - bonded together.
candi sugar is fully inverted - (table sugar split into two separate sugars)
golden syrup is table sugar partially split.

I've never used table sugar in my beer so can't comment on that, but I to use the other sugars. A can of golden syrup is a nice compromise where you want to use inverted sugar without paying more for candi sugar. Table sugar is viewed generally as the bottom of the ladder when used in brewing, but you may find it perfectly acceptable, others say differently. I say I'm not going to take the chance.

this could help you decide.....

https://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/03/pale-belgian-sugar-experiment-tasting.html

 

[Drunkula]

I did a five priming sugar experiment when I first started brewing but the problem was all the beer came out crap so I'm going to do it again, and I did one with 5 different brewing sugars - also came out crap. I will repeat the experiment. I'll do the priming one in a few days and leave them at least a month because if carbonation produces any diacetyl then I want it to be gone in case the cideryness is just diacetyl.

The Mad Fermentationanist really needed to do triangle tests with more people like Brulosophy do.

For me because glucose and fructose get converted 100% to alcohol by the yeast the only thing that would settle it is if the invertase that the yeast release to split sucrose into those can be perceived. I've only come across one mention of it and that wasn't really tested it was "Some people say" they can taste it, so I don't disbelieve it but you don't know what biases are in place.

 

[MyQul]

Is there not also a question of usage here. I'm assuming the question is for the purpose of fermenting rather than carbonating - I did have a homebrew shop convince me to buy brewing sugar for the carb which was frankly a waste of money compared to good old caster.

I use brewing sugar for carbonating rather than table sugar. The reason being that if you just chuck table sugar into your beer it'll just sink to the bottom. So you need to dissolve it in a pan with a bit of boiling water then mix it in. With brewing sugar, you dont need to do this as it's a lot finer and you can just chuck it in and give it a stir

 

[Wouter]

I use brewing sugar for carbonating rather than table sugar. The reason being that if you just chuck table sugar into your beer it'll just sink to the bottom. So you need to dissolve it in a pan with a bit of boiling water then mix it in. With brewing sugar, you dont need to do this as it's a lot finer and you can just chuck it in and give it a stir

Or you shake the bottle .

 

[MyQul]

Or you shake the bottle .

I should have been clearer. I batch prime so use a secondary/bottling bucket. If you prime each individual bottle, table sugar is fine and you can just pour some into each bottle without having to worry about dissolving it first or course

 

[Wouter]

I should have been clearer. I batch prime so use a secondary/bottling bucket. If you prime each individual bottle, table sugar is fine and you can just pour some into each bottle without having to worry about dissolving it first or course

Ah sorry, I wasn't thinking haha.
I also use a bottling bucket but I do mix in the sugar in solution.