Hi, im trying to make beer at home but can not find dextrose (corn sugar) to use as priming sugar for fermentation.
I know that methods vary, and some just do it with the natural sugars from the barley malt, but Im using a malt extract and need the sugar, and the closes i can find where I live is splenda (95% dextrose). And I have been told that splenda is no good, but can not find 100% dextrose. neither i was able to find maltodextrin. please help!
2007-08-09 02:05:33 · 6 answers · asked by alejandro_levi 1 in Food & Drink ➔ Beer, Wine & Spirits
Splenda will not work because it's not a fermentable sugar. Regular white table sugar will work just fine for priming sugar in the same quantity as the recipe calls for corn sugar and it will work the same and taste the same. Side by side comparisons have proven that there is no difference in flavor, color, or carbonation when using table sugar (sucrose) or corn sugar.
More importantly...get in touch with a larger group of experts on the subject...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/home_brew/ is a great place to start. It's a much better collection of information than Yahoo Answers.
2007-08-09 18:11:11 · answer #1 · answered by Trid 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes, but it will leave some residual sugar that the yeast doesn't like to eat and the beer will be sweeter.
That isn't always a bad thing. I have used all kinds of exotic sugars. My favorite was molasses. Molasses leaves a pretty strong flavor behind and not many people were as enthusiastic as I was. But you can find it in Theakston's Old Peculiar if you want an idea what that comes out like.
Corn sugar isn't that hard to find. You can get it at any homebrew or wine making store. You can also order it on line.
2007-08-09 03:47:16 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You wouldn't want to make ethanol. That's very, very inefficient because distillation takes a LOT of heat energy. Four pounds of coal goes into making six pounds of ethanol. (but it's American coal, and the farm lobby loves the corn subsidies, which is why the government supports it. It's not for the environment, they just say that to sound pro-environment.) If you were going to run a power plant, you would just burn sugarcane directly. Boilers can run on it, and so can diesels. (Really! Ingersoll Rand built em, for sugar plantations where they had plenty of the stuff.) However the smart play would be to grow tropical oil crops and squeeze oil out of em, and use it straight or make biodiesel. (which is much simpler than the other fellow said, and takes very little energy.) Ships can run on vegetable oil as-is, and locomotives could with a little modification. Be good for their engines too. Cars, make biodiesel.
2016-04-01 07:24:22 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Cane sugar or brown sugar will work, however you will need to use a greater amount than you would of priming sugar. I have had good success with brown sugar, however the beers tend to be heady when young, but age very well. Nice flavor and texture.
2007-08-09 06:18:16 · answer #4 · answered by Elmer Fudd 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you're probably in a hurry to bottle it. go ahead and use the cane sugar this time. when you start your next batch, make sure you have ALL your supplies first (sanitizers, caps, priming sugar, 6 gallons of spring water (keep 3 gallons in the fridge for a day) etc.)
2007-08-09 04:29:36 · answer #5 · answered by paul67337 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
go online and get some ordered close to home or call a home brewing company, they might sell it
2007-08-09 02:12:17 · answer #6 · answered by doclakewrite 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋