Cidery because of sugar? Not a kit and a kilo experiment

[Drunkula]

Last night was the 8 week tasting of an experiment where I brewed a full grain version of a beer up against the same thing but replacing some grain with sugar making it equivalent to a kit and a kilo. So 200g of table sugar per gallon which BeerSmith says is 31% of the grain bill.

I knew which was which out of necessity but my mate did it blind. This is horrific but both of us preferred the beer with the sugar. It somehow tasted more like a proper pub pint and we gave it the same score of 8/10.

Without prompting I asked him if he could taste any hints of anything in the flavours, eventually having to say a hint of of cider and he couldn't, nor me. I've been trying the same beers for weeks and nowhere along the way has it been cidery so I'm ready to put this to bed, just like a few threads and articles I've read.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...ng-to-make-it-taste-like-freakin-cider.90498/
https://homebrewingfun.blogspot.com/2013/01/homebrewing-deconstructed-adding-too.html

Later in the night I had a bottle of beer that was the last one bottled and it was only 3/4 full, 1 or 2 cm under the shoulder of the bottle. Straight away it tasted like your uncle's homebrew kits and DID have a sort of cidery hint to it. So I'm wondering if oxidation is part of it and thats how the thing got started because years ago there was no internet and I don't think they were the prissy little darlings that we all are today.

Edit: the last bottle was an all grain, different recipe.

 

[terrym]

and I don't think they were the prissy little darlings that we all are today.

Cue The Four Yorkshire Men sketch.

 

[Zephyr259]

Old basic brewing radio show where Mike Tonsmeire did a candi sugar experiment. The one with table sugar kinda sucked but he confessed that it had been allowed to get hotter than the rest, he later re-brewed the table sugar one with something like 20 - 30% sugar while managing the fermentation better and it was great. So a combo of oxidation and temperature control probably.