brewing with sugar

[nathanm]

Can someone point me to a book/article that will give the ins and outs of brewing with sugar?

I'm a little unsure of when to use it - as in recipe and also time/place during the brew process. it seems some people add it during primary for some belgian recipes, some add it to the boil for increasing gravity (barleywine etc) or for flavor - brown sugar in a spiced beer.

Thanks

[brewinhard]

I think it really depends on what you are brewing and what your overall goal is for the finished product of the beer. If you toss some ideas out there we can help you out. As for some literature on the topic I have not found any. your best bet is to post here for some good tips from everyone. Try to give some specifics as to what style of beer you are brewing so we get your idea!

[balvey]

I seem to recall a small section in The Joy of Homebrewing on using sugar. I think there is a chart out-lining how much to use in combination with malt and what to expect.

[captain carrot]

Randy Mosher's book Radical Brewing has a section on sugar varieties for brewing including flavor descriptions. This is a great book to have in your brewing library.
Most of the time I use C&H cane sugar. I dissolve the sugar in some wort before adding it towards the end of the boil. Dissolve the sugar first so it doesn't scorch on the bottom of the kettle.

[Bugeater]

I don't really know of any references on how to use sugars. You outlined the ways to use it in your question.

I generally only use sugar in high gravity beers (1.075+). The reason is not so much as to raise original gravity as it is to lower final gravity. A pound or so of sugar will make the difference between a barleywine finiishing at 1.025 rather than 1.030+.

Sugars really should be added either late in the boil or in the fermenter. Late additions will improve hop utilization in the boil. For really big beers, I like to add the sugar about half way through fermentation. High gravity wort puts a great deal of osmotic stress on the yeast cell walls, decreasing their viability. This in turn reduces their ability to ferment the wort down to your target final gravity. Adding the sugar during fermentation helps ensure that the gravity never gets high enough to do enough damage to the yeast to affect viability.

What kind of sugar to use varies with the style. Plain table sugar works just fine in most cases. Some folks like to use an inverted sugar since it contains simpler sugars that the yeast can digest more easily. However, regular sugar is also fully fermentable so it doesn't make that much difference in my opinion.

Brown sugar is sometimes used to add flavor. Keep in mind that most brown sugar is simply white sugar with molasses added to give it color and flavor. Molasses can add a bitterness that some folks find unpleasant. When I want to use a brown sugar in a beer, I use either turbinado or piloncilo sugar. These are semi-refined sugars that are still brown rather than brown added. These will avoid the harshness sometimes found when you use a bit too much regular brown sugar.

One of the myths about using sugar is that it will add a cidery taste to beer. This comes from the early years of extract kits where the instructions called for the addition of a large amount of sugar in addition to the extract. These kits often sat on the store shelf for extended periods of time and the extract would turn stale and cause the off taste that folks erroneously attributed to the sugar.

This is about as much as you will find anywhere about the use of sugar. There is lots of room for experimentation here. I try not to use more than a pound or pound and a half of sugar in a 5 gallon batch. Beyond that, you are on your own. Good luck!

Wayne

[ApresSkiBrewer]

Another reason to add your sugars to your primary after fermentation just begins to slow is if you are using a high percentage of simple sugars in your recipe (ex. BCS Belgian Golden Strong recipe) - yeast will preferentially ferment the simplest sugars up to the most complex (that it can ferment). High proportions of glucose and sucrose can actually cause the yeasts enzymatic metabolism to shift and become deficient at fermenting maltose later in the fermentation. If you let your initial fermentation run its course, and then charge with the simple sugars after a significant gravity drop, you avoid this possibility.

That and osmotic pressure are the two biggies, as Bug mentioned. Things you don't really need to worry about until >20% of your recipe is dervived from simple sugars. If its less than 20%, you're fine just adding to the kettle (there again, unless it is a very high grav. beer and your goal it to minimize osmotic pressure as well).

+1 on Randy Moshiers Radical Brewing.

[SacoDeToro]

I don't really know of any references on how to use sugars. You outlined the ways to use it in your question.

I generally only use sugar in high gravity beers (1.075+). The reason is not so much as to raise original gravity as it is to lower final gravity. A pound or so of sugar will make the difference between a barleywine finiishing at 1.025 rather than 1.030+.

Sugars really should be added either late in the boil or in the fermenter. Late additions will improve hop utilization in the boil. For really big beers, I like to add the sugar about half way through fermentation. High gravity wort puts a great deal of osmotic stress on the yeast cell walls, decreasing their viability. This in turn reduces their ability to ferment the wort down to your target final gravity. Adding the sugar during fermentation helps ensure that the gravity never gets high enough to do enough damage to the yeast to affect viability.

What kind of sugar to use varies with the style. Plain table sugar works just fine in most cases. Some folks like to use an inverted sugar since it contains simpler sugars that the yeast can digest more easily. However, regular sugar is also fully fermentable so it doesn't make that much difference in my opinion.

Brown sugar is sometimes used to add flavor. Keep in mind that most brown sugar is simply white sugar with molasses added to give it color and flavor. Molasses can add a bitterness that some folks find unpleasant. When I want to use a brown sugar in a beer, I use either turbinado or piloncilo sugar. These are semi-refined sugars that are still brown rather than brown added. These will avoid the harshness sometimes found when you use a bit too much regular brown sugar.

One of the myths about using sugar is that it will add a cidery taste to beer. This comes from the early years of extract kits where the instructions called for the addition of a large amount of sugar in addition to the extract. These kits often sat on the store shelf for extended periods of time and the extract would turn stale and cause the off taste that folks erroneously attributed to the sugar.

This is about as much as you will find anywhere about the use of sugar. There is lots of room for experimentation here. I try not to use more than a pound or pound and a half of sugar in a 5 gallon batch. Beyond that, you are on your own. Good luck!

Wayne

+1. Very sound advice from Wayne.

[nathanm]

Forgot I posted this - thanks all for the detailed responses, they don't go unnoticed. I have tried to wrap my head around the idea of adding sugar (and thus gravity) for the purpose of achieving a lower gravity. Seriously this doesn't make sense to me no matter how much I think about it. Does it just get the yeast going again and they eat all the added sugar and while they are at it, eat some more the maltose etc?

Thanks again.