which sugar is best to use

[lilcark]

hi i have just started my 3rd brew so still new to it i have brewed the cheap lager and cheap cider now my 3rd brew is in its 1st stage (European lager ) with all 3 i have used brew enhancer i was wondering if i was to use other sugars would that change the taste i have seen people talk about Dextrose ,BE2 and raw sugar the main 3 but i was thinking about a darker house hold sugar has any 1 had any joy from this ??

 

thanks

[cool]

[AnnM]

Don't do it!!!! [pinched] That is, not any sort of household sugar on its own. In a forum recently someone insisted that he always uses a can of Draught and 1 kg of raw sugar and it made a great brew, so I stupidly thought I'd try it, thinking I'd save even more money! I'm now in the process of tipping the whole lot down the drain. Absolutely disgusting!! [crying] However, I think I've read you can use brown sugar in some Stouts - I'm sure someone will clarify.

 

M2C. Ann

[AndrewC5]

Ann, don't be so hasty, how long have u primed? My first beer was the lager that came with the kit, tasted HORRIBLE after 2 weeks, after a month it came good. The temp your conditioning may be making it take longer.

 

March, Dextrose is a good one, its finer and good to bulk up the ABV, "Dextrose avoids the sharp cidery characters that can be produced by white sugar" quote from the lable.

Light Dry Malt(LDM) extract can be good, adds flavor and glucose in to your beer which can give a good enhancement to malty flavours. This can replace sugar altogether.

I used "dark brown sugar" in a recipe recently, it was an amber ale. Its maily used in darker ales. Dark brown sugar has some molasses in it, this will not break down from yeast(someone confirm this?). However the rest of the glucose will make alcohol. So this can add colour and flavour too. I wouldn't use too much (more then 300g to 23lt batch) as it may be too sweet.

 

Basicly, if you are using Cans, u need 1 Can and 1kg Glucose product to get a full strength beer. The glucose can come from a number of things. Even honey (again, don't add too much).

[lilcark]

so to that point its trying the same beer and then tweeking down to personal taste like i said i got a eu lager on so won't be trying any time soon thanks

[Muddy Waters]

Yep that's the trick March2 you learn a lot by tweaking your beers from brew to brew. I tend to agree with Ann in regards to not just using simple sugars for fermentables. I've only done it once with the lager I got with my Cooper's kit. Tasted horrible at first but after a few months it turned into something drinkable but only in a VB pub swill kind of way. I think I still have a few that I didn't manage to give away [pinched]

 

Dextrose is pretty good to bring up the ABV but I only use it with malt these days (with a higher proportion of malt to dextrose).