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Adjuncts--I'm confused!
Hi all,
I'm new here and happy to find some good information!
Ok, so I'm going to make a Belgian Wit. I have two different recipes and one calls for sugar as an adjunct. If I go ahead and add sugar when brewing, is it still necessary to add priming sugar when it comes time to bottle? I'm a little confused about this!
The adjunct sugar means it is sugar that is being added from a source other than malted grain. When the prefermented beer or wort is done fermenting, all of the consumable sugar will be eaten by the yeast, and co2 will be a bi-product, but will escape from the fermenter. Your bottling sugar will then be added at time of bottling to give the leftover yeast that is still in suspension a new meal to consume, and a new batch of co2 to produce, which is why you want this process to happen in the bottle producing carbonation.
You will need to add the second dose of sugar at priming time in order to carbonate your brew.
Got it! Thank you both!
I wonder why both recipes didn't call for adjunct sugar? Would that have to do with the malt used? The recipe that calls for it uses wheat malt extract and the one that doesn't calls for pale 2-row malt.
Recipes can be formulated using sugar for a couple reasons. First, its cheap. But just because its cheap doesn't mean it should be used as a substitute for malt extract. Another reason for using sugar is that it ferments completely. I've noticed some higher gravity extract beers I've done have had problems attenuating and have left me with a higher final gravity than I wanted. Substituting a small amount of sugar (less than 1 pound) for malt extract allows the beer to reach a lower final gravity without really affecting the body and flavor of the beer.
This is just my 2 cents; some people may object. I heard it on the Jamil Show and tried it out.
What are the recipes? We could probably help a little more with some details.
BTW, welcome. There is a lot of good information & help here. Took me a long way in a short time.
Welcome to the board and welcome to the hobby.
Not all recipes use sugar in them like that, but some do. Its often style specific and sometimes used to get a certain end result. Most craft brewed beer you drink is all malt though, meaning that there is not adjunct sugar added to it.
Adjunct usage isn't a bad thing though, its just a matter of what you want the final product to taste like.
Good luck and ask plenty of questions.
Somebody correct me here if I misspeak but typically sugar added to the brewing process allows you to get higher alc. levels in a cheaper fashion ( sugar being cheaper than extract). It can also ( if used in larger quantities) make your beer somewhat thinner ( mouth feel). There are recipes out there that do this exact thing... use sugar to keep the costs down and keep the beer on the lighter side ( both mouth feel and color). Some recipes use sugar to get a higher alc. level without changing the base beer flavor.
Bull wrote:
Somebody correct me here if I misspeak but typically sugar added to the brewing process allows you to get higher alc. levels in a cheaper fashion ( sugar being cheaper than extract). It can also ( if used in larger quantities) make your beer somewhat thinner ( mouth feel). There are recipes out there that do this exact thing... use sugar to keep the costs down and keep the beer on the lighter side ( both mouth feel and color). Some recipes use sugar to get a higher alc. level without changing the base beer flavor.
You are basically correct.
The addition of sugar to a recipe will increase alcohol, but the base beer will remain similar in terms of fullness.
The SUBSTITUTION of sugar for malt will certainly lighten the mouthfeel while having a smaller impact on total alcohol levels (because you removed some malt to change the mouthfeel).
Brewski wrote:
What are the recipes? We could probably help a little more with some details.
Here there are:
Recipe 1:
5 lbs pale 2-row malt
2lbs wheat malt or flaked wheat
3AAU pellet hops
1/2 oz orange peel
1oz coriander
Belgian wit yeast
Recipe 2:
6lbs Wheat malt extract
0.5lbs honey, corn sugar, or candi sugar adjunct
7oz carapils
1oz Belgian aromatic
4AAU pellet hops
1/2 oz orange peel
1/2 oz coriander
Belgian wit yeast
The biggest difference seems to be the malt used. So would you predict recipe 2 to have a little bit lighter mouth feel?
Interesting info here! I've already got some experiments I want to try 
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