Dextrose/Sugar For Brewing Beer

1273 days ago

I guess one of the most misunderstood ingredients in beer brewing is dextrose or sugars. Many brewers think that using dextrose or any form of sugar is bad and should never be used in brewing in the first place. Experienced brewers are especially very much against using sugars in their beers. I have seen brewers saying that if a beer has sugar in it, it is not actually a beer. I once believed that to be true as well (probably being influenced too much by these advanced brewers), so the beers I had made were all-malts. However, I soon realize even if the beer I made was all-malt, it doesn’t necessary mean that it is better.

Well, in my opinion, using sugars in beer brewing is all about styles and personal preference. I have nothing against using sugars, especially if the style requires it, by all means use it. It lightens the body of the beer and if you are doing a light lager, it is just fine. Of course, you don’t have to carry it too far and add like 5 pounds of dextrose to your wort. As I said, it is all about the style and how much is required. I had once done a Pilsener without any sugars and I was told that although it tasted great, it is not as “refreshing” as the ones bought from the stores. Yes, if you are doing something “light”, sugars will get the job done and at a much lower cost as well. So Belgian beers also require the use of inverted sugars for brewing. Basic sugars (like dextrose) ferment completely and thus only serves to boost the alcoholic content without adding any flavour or taste to the beer.

In Singapore, we are so used to drinking Tiger beer that a lot of Singaporeans automatically assumes that all beer taste like Tiger. The truth is Tiger beer taste very bland without much flavours and one of the reasons is because they have a lot of adjuncts in the beer. One of the cheapest adjunct is sugar. As you know, the companies making commerical beers tend to find ways and means to lower the cost of production and what better way than to use sugar instead of malt? And since Singaporeans are so used to drinking light lagers like what is being offered by Tiger, then it is very difficult to ween Singaporeans out of it. So most of your friends will be only drinking light lagers and if you offer them something very malty, most likely they won’t like it. I know that for a fact. A lot of my friends can’t or won’t drink malty beers with too much body or flavours, which may be sad but that’s a fact of life. If some people are so used to a certain type of beer, they won’t like something else even if it should taste better.

Singapore Beer Brewing