Table Sugar - Yes or No?

[Josh Hughes]

My understanding is for priming the table sugar is not a problem. I can afford the dextrose and have stuck with it for those 1 lb. additions to 5 gal. batches and priming. When bought in 10 lb bags, the dextrose is not all that expensive. I figure if I wanted beer on the cheep, I'd just go to the store. But, I want damn good beer.

I prime with table cane sugar. I’ve used it in beer and was happy with those beers. Lots of recipes use sugar. Use sugar if the recipe calls for it. No one is correct saying you shouldn’t use it. I am not correct saying you should though lol. Brewing is fun

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

if it was bad it wouldn't be an option in countless software or recipes, that said in small quantities its fine, I wouldn't use over a pound in any recipe unless its full of flavor already

 

[Sunfire96]

I was using sucrose to prime my bottles for the last few months, but I've now switched back to dextrose. There was a flavor in the sucrose-primed beers that I didn't like, but I'm not 100% positive it had anything to do with using cane sugar or not. I just know that now that I've switched back to dextrose as my priming sugar, my beers taste better.

I would still use it in a recipe if called for in the grain bill

 

[SabreSteve]

Any distiller should be throwing out the first bit because it's super poisonous. I believe it's methanol in the first bit and it's how you go blind.

However that has no relevance to brewing.
Table sugar works fine.

Remind me never to try distilling...

I've only ever used cane sugar for priming and it's worked fine for me. I've never added it in the kettle. I am ordering dextrose for the community brew but I don't see how using sucrose would make that much of a difference if you're only looking to boost the ABV

 

[Nosybear]

I asked my brew mentor if I should add some table sugar and the prompt reply was a quick, "Never use table sugar". The reason explained was 12 carbons in table sugar vs 6 in dextrose (In science terms, a different molecule). Also, different different byproducts. The moonshiners around here use table sugar but are careful to ramp up the distill slow and throw out the first product because it is poisonous. Is this something we need to be thinking about? Anyone using table sugar and getting a screaming headache from their brew?

Your mentor is wrong. Table sugar works just fine.

 

[Zambi]

Almost exclusively cane sugar here, as cane grows here.
Beet sugar in Europe, definitely in Northern Europe, as beets grow there.
I very vaguely remember some difference in extraction, making the one a vegan product, and the other not. Not that tjis has any relevance to brewing....
Lemme see if I can find something back.

 

[Daniel Parshley]

Your mentor is wrong. Table sugar works just fine.

I don't know that this is a right or wrong thing. I think everyone agrees that table sugar (cane sugar) will ferment and the question is what is produced as a byproduct when a lot of it is in the wort. Being that we don't distill, what we brew up is what we drink. If you know of any articles about chemical analysis of brews made with different sugars, I would be interested.

 

[Daniel Parshley]

Almost exclusively cane sugar here, as cane grows here.
Beet sugar in Europe, definitely in Northern Europe, as beets grow there.
I very vaguely remember some difference in extraction, making the one a vegan product, and the other not. Not that tjis has any relevance to brewing....
Lemme see if I can find something back.

As if this is not confusing enough, there are discussions about folks finding differences between cane and beet sugar even though they chemically contain the same sugar. Depending on who you read, beet sugar should not be used in beer brewing. (Now I'm thinking about yeast specifically used for beet sugar...)

 

[Bubba Wade]

Your mentor is wrong. Table sugar works just fine.

Agreed. The assertion that table sugar produces poisonous methanol is well-meaning but misguided. There are small amounts of methanol produced as a byproduct in most fermentation processes, including beer. There is evidence that fermentation of fruits with pectin may produce higher levels of methanol. However, these are small and the methanol is metabolized in these very small amounts.

When distilling alcohol, the methanol vaporizes at a lower temperature than ethanol. Since ethanol does not vaporize until it hits 173.1 degrees, distillers discard everything until the distillation hits 174 degrees. At a lower temperature, somewhat concentrated methanol is condensed and would be dangerous if consumed.

As far as what happens to table sugar during fermentation, the yeast produces an enzyme that breaks sucrose into fructose and glucose. It is then converted by the yeast into ethanol and CO2. Beet sugar, cane sugar, there is no difference in this process.

As previously stated, some beer styles utilize sugar from beets, others use cane sugar or molasses, and others only use sugars serif rom the malting process.

 

[GFHomebrew]

I'm no scientist, but I think the old traditional candi sugar method of inverting the sugars still happens -- it just happens in the boil and cool versus being pre-inverted. $hit, I hope I haven't been wrong thrice now!

Seems there is alot of beer lore when it comes to trappists beer I've not even bugun to scratch the surface when it comes to this beer style.

 

[Zambi]

Depending on who you read, beet sugar should not be used in beer brewing. (Now I'm thinking about yeast specifically used for beet sugar...)

Strange that, since the whole of Northern Europe uses beet sugar.....

By the way: all beet sugar is vegan, but not all cane sugar is, as bone char is used in most (but not all) cane sugar..... (Thank you google )

 

[Daniel Parshley]

Agreed. The assertion that table sugar produces poisonous methanol is well-meaning but misguided.

Here is an interesting insight.

"A complaint in the early days of modern home brewing was that using table sugar in beer-making resulted in a "cidery" beer. The symptoms were that a beer made with table sugar that was added to the boil produced a cidery flavor that faded after several weeks in the bottle. Therefore the rule of thumb became 'avoid all table sugar'. While this is still a good idea when using malt extract, this old-(ale)wives tale is misleading. That defect most likely came from poor yeast due to a too low pitch, insufficient free-available-nitrogen, or a lack of other necessary yeast building materials in the wort. Table sugar can be used in small amounts with no harm and it is certainly cheaper to use for priming." Source: brewerylane.com​

I'm still hunting for articles about fermentation by products produced by sugar type. In the end, I suspect this will be also yeast-type dependent.

 

[Bubba Wade]

In the end, I suspect this will be also yeast-type dependent.

I think you will also find it to be style-dependent. The byproduct of fermented sucrose will not be nearly as noticeable in a Belgian Tripel as it would be in a light American lager. There are lots of recipes where table sugar (or cane syrup, molasses, honey, treacle, etc) is appropriate and lots of others where it is not.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I still contend that if the Belgian Monasteries can make some of the worlds highest regarded/ranked/priced beers while admittedly adding relatively large amounts of common beet sugar, then everyone else should also be capable of doing the same.

In deference and correction to my prior contention that they use refined beet sugar, they are more likely using something more along the lines of a Demarara or Turbinado sugar.

 

[Nosybear]

I don't know that this is a right or wrong thing. I think everyone agrees that table sugar (cane sugar) will ferment and the question is what is produced as a byproduct when a lot of it is in the wort. Being that we don't distill, what we brew up is what we drink. If you know of any articles about chemical analysis of brews made with different sugars, I would be interested.

It's sucrose. That's a fructose and glucose. Yeast metabolizes it by splitting it into its components, then fermenting it. It is the first sugar yeast will metabolize, even over glucose. I've read all the beer lore on off flavors from sucrose. Ever use "hard" candi sugar? Sucrose. I primed with sucrose for years before kegging. No issues. Let me be clear about "tang", acetaldehyde or whatever it is that sucrose is supposed to produce: Beer lore. Period.

 

[NorthWest Small Batch Brewing]

Any distiller should be throwing out the first bit because it's super poisonous. I believe it's methanol in the first bit and it's how you go blind.

However that has no relevance to brewing.
Table sugar works fine.

You won't go blind. It just doesn't happen. Watch Still it on youtube. You would have to drink so much to go blind other bad things would happen first. But for taste alone you dump the heads, and of course the tails. But going blind is a huge old wives tail. I wouldn't go drinking strait methanol I'm just saying I don't think there are verifiable reports of home distilling causing blindness -- or expositions for that matter. It's an open sytem.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

You won't go blind. It just doesn't happen. Watch Still it on youtube. You would have to drink so much to go blind other bad things would happen first. But for taste alone you dump the heads, and of course the tails. But going blind is a huge old wives tail. I wouldn't go drinking strait methanol I'm just saying I don't think there are verifiable reports of home distilling causing blindness -- or expositions for that matter. It's an open sytem.

Good to know. I don't know if I'll ever try distilling, but the possibility of dying is much the reason I wouldn't even consider it before now. On the explosion possibility, I'm sure you are correct about the still itself not exploding but, since alcohol is flammable it can ignite. Mythbusters did an episode on that aspect and they blew up the shed the still was in. They blocked the outlet tube which forced the alcohol vapor to leave the still as a gas instead of a liquid. Once the oxygen & alcohol vapor hit the right ratio they triggered a spark.....BOOM! Loved that show.

 

[Daniel Parshley]

Beer lore. Period.

For sure this sugar type thing is one that a lot of people have an opinion about. I think a lot of it goes back many years and to a time when we did not have as good sanitation, pure yeast strains, and a bit of lore developed to explain one snafu or another. Over 6,000 years of brewing, I'd imagine a bit of lore could develop. That is a good call.

 

[Mark Farrall]

...Watch Still it on youtube...

Jessie is good fun and lots of interesting information, even for a brewer who probably won't ever end up distilling

 

[Hawkbox]

Yeah I learned most of what I know from old Newfies and I have no interest in stilling so it never built on it.