Newbie

[stepeo]

I have titled my message as Newbie, as I have never brewed before. I like beer, but after reading about ingredients that are in beers IE sucrose I am very tentative at what I buy and what I drink. I do drink mainly German brews, and Theakston's Old Peculiar. I do not see any sucrose mentioned on their bottles. I was told sucrose is used to hurry the fermentation, I don't know if that's true. The reason I am not liking this additive is because our liver doesn't know what to do, so puts it into fat. If that's true I don't know, but it's a bit weird. I also tried a craft beer called Black Sheep, brewed by someone related to Theakston. I will be interested to brew my own when I have enough information, and equipment. Thanks

 

[dad_of_jon]

yeast will usually break down sucrose into fructose & glucose. so in bottle conditioned beers there should usually be none. unless the yeast have been filtered out and the beer back sweetened.

 

[Stevieboy]

If you're gonna drink beer, expect a beer belly.....

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I have titled my message as Newbie, as I have never brewed before. I like beer, but after reading about ingredients that are in beers IE sucrose I am very tentative at what I buy and what I drink. I do drink mainly German brews, and Theakston's Old Peculiar. I do not see any sucrose mentioned on their bottles. I was told sucrose is used to hurry the fermentation, I don't know if that's true. The reason I am not liking this additive is because our liver doesn't know what to do, so puts it into fat. If that's true I don't know, but it's a bit weird. I also tried a craft beer called Black Sheep, brewed by someone related to Theakston. I will be interested to brew my own when I have enough information, and equipment. Thanks

I’m not sure if you don’t know what sucrose is or if you’re just worried about sugar in general.

Sucrose is just regular table sugar, the stuff you put in your tea. Every cell in your body needs sugar for energy and it takes it from your blood. If you have too much sugar in your diet then any excess is stored as fat for use at times when you haven’t got enough. This is a normal healthy process.

A pint of beer will have around 200 calories of sugar whether it’s on the list of ingredients or not which is about the same as a small to medium sized potato.

When sucrose or sugar are mentioned in the ingredients it just means some of that sugar has come from table sugar rather than from grains. A brewer will normally do this to get the mouthfeel they want from the beer or to add more alcoholic strength without having to use more grain.

 

[stepeo]

When it say's Sucrose, it is because it is Corn Syrup. I don't think German beer mentions sugars/ Sucrose on the ingredients list on their bottles. A man made syrup, it's why the kidneys push it to fat. Are hops a sugar/ sucrose alternative?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

When it say's Sucrose, it is because it is Corn Syrup. I don't think German beer mentions sugars/ Sucrose on the ingredients list on their bottles. A man made syrup, it's why the kidneys push it to fat. Are hops a sugar/ sucrose alternative?

Not hops. Grain (Barley, Wheat, Oats, etc.) all have sugar in the seed to feed the growing plant. It’s that sugar we extract by mashing the crushed grain in hot water. That sugary water is called wort and we boil it up with hops to add flavour. When it’s cooled down we add yeast. Yeast eats most of the sugar and produces the alcohol we want from it, converting the wort into beer

 

[stepeo]

Not hops. Grain (Barley, Wheat, Oats, etc.) all have sugar in the seed to feed the growing plant. It’s that sugar we extract by mashing the crushed grain in hot water. That sugary water is called wort and we boil it up with hops to add flavour. When it’s cooled down we add yeast. Yeast eats most of the sugar and produces the alcohol we want from it, converting the wort into beer

This is why I am more comfortable drinking German beer.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

This is why I am more comfortable drinking German beer.

Sure, fructose and sucrose *may be* marginally more damaging than glucose but really, alcohol leaves all these sugars at the starting line when it comes to health. If you’re drinking alcohol, the sugar used to produce it is pretty much irrelevant. Worry less, drink more!

 

[obscure]

I have titled my message as Newbie, as I have never brewed before. I like beer, but after reading about ingredients that are in beers IE sucrose I am very tentative at what I buy and what I drink. I do drink mainly German brews, and Theakston's Old Peculiar. I do not see any sucrose mentioned on their bottles. I was told sucrose is used to hurry the fermentation, I don't know if that's true. The reason I am not liking this additive is because our liver doesn't know what to do, so puts it into fat. If that's true I don't know, but it's a bit weird. I also tried a craft beer called Black Sheep, brewed by someone related to Theakston. I will be interested to brew my own when I have enough information, and equipment. Thanks

Their is nothing inherently wrong with sugar in brewing at the end of the day it’s going to be broken down into alcohol and in some styles particularly a lot of Belgium beer is integral to the style.

The key question should always be are you using sugar because it’s a cheap source of carbohydrates, in which case don’t (seriously the cost per pint of extra malted barley or malt extract is minuscule) or are you using it because it suits the style in which case use it, I.e. I personally prefer bitter made with a small amount of sugar (we’re talking maybe 150g in an 11L batch).

 

[stepeo]

I quite like the Malt as a ingredient. Is it a substitute to sugar?

 

[Stevieboy]

Malt is sugar. Liquid Malt Extract, and Dried Malt Extract are just concentrated worts. Steep the grains in warm water, the starches in the grains are converted by enzymes contained within the grains to sugars.