@ KBAR
Concerning what type of sugar to use if you are a permitted brewery, the TTB has explicitly exempted Brown sugar (a sucrose sugar) and candi sugar (an invert sugar) from triggering a recipe approval. Invert sugars are a mix of glucose and fructose usually made by splitting a sucrose sugar into the two parts with the enzyme invertase. Brown sugar is usually a mix of white/table sugar and molasses. The ruling does not specifically exempt table sugar (a sucrose sugar). I don’t know if the TTB considers table sugar and candi sugar to be the same. See the TTB website at
http://www.ttb.gov/beer/exempt-ingre.shtml for Ingredients and Processes Exempt from Formula Requirements under 27 CFR part 25”.
Brown sugar will add color and a caramel/molasses flavor. Candi sugar if made from beets instead of cane could add a flavor that you may not wish in your beer. Also since invert sugar is easier for the yeast to metabolize than brown sugar, it will more completely use the candi sugar and leave less residual sweetness in your finished beer.
I didn’t mention water which could also affect the dryness of your finished beer.
Per John Palmer and his “water” work, the following rules apply:
• Sulfates bring hop character forward.
• Chlorides bring malt forward.
By adjusting the Sulfate to Chloride ratio you can alter the beer balance; ratios of 1:2 will bring forward the malt character while 2:1 up to 9:1 brings forward the hop character and will dry the beer out. So when adding salts for use calcium sulfate to increase hop bitterness; use calcium chloride to increase malt character.
At the Benjamin Beer Company we usually develop a recipe first and get it as close to perfect as we can. After that if we wish to add sugar, we’ll experiment with the different kinds of sugar to tweek it to the final product. Just keep in mind that if you use too much sugar you risk having it taste like an overdone extract brew with that distinctive “winey” character.