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Sugar, Extract, Malt - Which produces heavier beer?
OK, I'm a newbie and only on my third batch and it's from a Brewer's Best kit (American Pale Ale), though I am dry-hopping this one. 
I liked the flavor from the kit (first batch was American Pale Ale also), but the beer overall seemed "heavy" or perhaps the correct word to use is "full". Not that I mind full beers, but I am curious as I prepare to embark on an all-grain venture soon. . .
If all fermentable sugar is gone at the end of fermentation, what causes one beer to be heavier than another?
I have read that substituting sugar for extract should make a lighter (feel) beer than with the extract without affecting the flavor of the beer. Is that a one-to-one substitution? If that assumption is true, would an all-grain recipe make a heavier beer than one that uses extracts?
Thanks in advance.
-E
emusum wrote:
OK, I'm a newbie and only on my third batch and it's from a Brewer's Best kit (American Pale Ale), though I am dry-hopping this one.
I liked the flavor from the kit (first batch was American Pale Ale also), but the beer overall seemed "heavy" or perhaps the correct word to use is "full". Not that I mind full beers, but I am curious as I prepare to embark on an all-grain venture soon. . .
If all fermentable sugar is gone at the end of fermentation, what causes one beer to be heavier than another?
I have read that substituting sugar for extract should make a lighter (feel) beer than with the extract without affecting the flavor of the beer. Is that a one-to-one substitution? If that assumption is true, would an all-grain recipe make a heavier beer than one that uses extracts?
Thanks in advance.
-E
You will get more specific information if you post the recipe ingresients, but I'll give you some basic answers.
1. All fermentables are not gone at the end of fermentation. The ingredients and several other factors determine how fermentable a wort is and overall attenuation determines how much of the fermentables are converted to alcohol.
2. Using sugar will make a dryer and lighter bodied beer, but I wouldn't use more than 15 to 20% .
3. The difference in all grain and extract is who controls the body of the beer, among other things. You have no way of knowing what grains and mash conditions were used to make the extract, especially the darker ones. All grain brewing puts you in control of not only the body of your beers, but many other aspects as well.
hope this helps a bit,
Bob
If you want to lighten the body of an extract based beer recipe substituting table sugar for some of the base extract is a good way to do it without losing too much of the malty taste of the beer.
I did a couple extract brews last year and I found that using replacing 10% of the gravity with sugar worked great to lighten the extract mouthfeel and dry the beer out a bit. I really wish I had known that years ago. Its not a pound for pound conversion though. You need to sub it out based on gravity points.
As for residual fermentables. Table sugar ferments out completely which is why its a great way to dry out a beer. You never get down to 1.001 with extract because there are non-fermentable sugars in there. Those residual sugars are what give you residual sweetness and to an extent body. Extract tends to have a bit more of these non-fermentables than when you make wort with all grain.
"If that assumption is true, would an all-grain recipe make a heavier beer than one that uses extracts?" I don't understand what the assumption is for this statement.
All grain brewing does not make a heavier beer than extract in general. Even if you mashed in at the same temp as the extract was made it; it tends to be lighter in body. The main reason is that the process of taking wort and making extract tends to create small amounts of these non-fermentable molecules. Regardless, of that fact you can dial in all grain to make the body lighter or heavier. That's the primary reason why people go all grain in the first place.
BBB and brewchez-
Thank you for that information - it is very helpful.
It sounds as though the all grain approach will work well.
The recipe used for the American Pale Ale is:
2 oz Cascade Bittering Hops 5.0% Alpha Acid
1.5 oz Willamette Aroma Hops 4.7% Alpha Acid
1LB Crushed Caramel 20L Malt
6.6 LB Light LME (I don't have the brand).
11 g Nottingham Brewing Yeast
After steeping the grains, bring the wort to a boil and add only 3.3 lbs of LME. When it returns to a boil at the bittering hops.
Boil 40 min
Add remaining 3.3 lb LME
Boil 15 min
Add aroma hops
Boil 5 min
Terminate boil
Cool. Transfer. Pitch yeast.
What would happen if the 2nd 3.3 lb of LME was added earlier?
I very much appreciate you sharing your experience.
-E
adding all of the extract early will make the beer darker. it is also possible that it could lead to scorching or caramelizing some of the extract if your not able to keep stirring for as long as it takes to add all the extract. I think as long as you keep it stirred so it doesn't sink to the bottom and burn, the only change is a darker colored beer.
Its not uncommon to see recipes where the extract is being added in two parts, with a significant part being added late. This is called late extract brewing.
When extract is boiled it does tend to darken somewhat. But in my experience it is a slight darkening. Regardless of when extract is added to a pot it should be done off the heat source. The extract, especially LME, tends to sink right to the bottom of the pot. If the heat is on some of it can scorch leading to darkened color, and at worse a burnt taste. (But that step has nothing to do with late extract additions).
The other reason for a late extract addition is to benefit hop utilization. Most extract brewers are doing partial volume boils. Meaning all the extract is being added to less that 5 gallons of water. This creates a gravity that is much higher in the boil kettle than most any one uses. Higher gravity tends to limit the amount of hop oil isomerization, i.e. less bitterness. Again the decrease is slight. The solution is to either use more hops or do extract late.
Extract late keeps the gravity at a more normal level during the boil which helps maximize your hop utilization. At the end you add the rest of the extract to just sanitize it.
I also think there is way too much crystal in that recipe. Almost every recipe I see for an IPA, uses too much crystal, and being a pale ale, the crystal should be even more subtle. Here at 1 pound it represents about 13% of the fermentables. This will give a residual sweetness that instead of being background and subtle, will be noticable. residual sweetness gives the perception of a "fuller" beer with larger body, which was the original concern.
not to knock these kits, but I think they are designed to pronounce the characteristics of their intended style, and may go overboard to make them detectable. Even in my Imperial IPAs I try to keep the crystal under 10%, usually, 6-7%. A little goes a long way.
If you were to convert this to an all grain attempt, I would suggest something like 10#s 2 row pale, a half # of crystal 10-20, and a 1/4 # of crystal 60. A nice neutral base start for a Pale ale that can be tinkered after efficiency and final outcome are achieved. My $.02
Thanks to everyone for the information - it is all very helpful. Thirsty - I was thinking the recipe was a little sweet as well. I'm planning a recipe next instead of a kit, but until I get a new (larger) pot I am limited to the smaller boils for now.
I see I have much to learn. Too bad it takes so long to sample the results!
Thanks again.
-Eric
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