Brewing Sugar vs. Normal Sugar

Naitch1982 · Jan 5, 2013

So I'm about to keg my first beer and the instructions are telling me I need to put a water\glucose solution in the barrel first.

My question is, does it have to be brewers sugar or can I get away with normal sugar?

I've googled this and some people say it can make the beer taste off, others say it's fine. My friend who is a regular home brewer says it's fine if you don't use too much.

What are your experiences?

SloeBrewer · Jan 5, 2013

You can use whatever you like, really. Sugar adds alcohol, but not body/flavour, whereas malt extract, treacle and other exotic adjuncts add both alcohol and body. However, for carbonation, you are adding so little, that you might as well go with the cheapest or whatever you have to hand. It's all yeast food and the yeast will find it and produce the CO2, so the end result is the same.

pittsy · Jan 5, 2013

+ 1 for all of the above :thumb:

Naitch1982 · Jan 6, 2013

Thank you! :thumb:

guyb · Jan 6, 2013

For each brew experiment with carbonation, granulated sugar vs dextrose vs malt extract for the same batch of beer even if you just bottle a couple differently to the keg - then do a blind tasting to see if it makes a difference to your palate.

I used dextrose over granulated, i found granulated made the beer taste green (ie like homebrew) - but I have a hyper sensitive palate

I now use corny's so force carbonate with CO2

Brewing Sugar vs. Normal Sugar

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Brewing Sugar vs. Normal Sugar

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