why is beer harder to ferment than cider?

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jakejake

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Hi,

Why is is that cider generally goes down to a gravity of below 1, whereas it's a struggle to get beer down to 1.01?

Is it because beer uses speciality malts which contribute non-fermentable sugars (which are obviously there for colour and flavour)?

If so, then an all grain brew with a grain bill of pure base malt, with no speciality malts added, should go just as low as cider does. Is that right? Has anyone ever made a beer like that or know of any commercial beers made that way?

Cheers,
Jake
 
Hi Jake

The only sugars in apples (fructose) are almost 100% fermentable.

Malted Barley contains a mix of sugars of which roughly 75% are fermentable (depending on many factors, such as yeast used).

The sugars in the speciality grains tend to be scarcely fermentable at all.

This explains why beer has more "body" than cider.
 

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