Brewing Sugars

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Shed

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I noticed that a lot of the American recipes use corn sugar for bulk priming.

Is corn sugar the same as corn syrup and are these also called Maltodextrin?

I use dextrose to bulk prime with, what effect would using corn sugar have on the final product? Taste, head etc?

I'd appreciate it if someone could clear this up for me.. I've read conflicting reports from different sites and am now a little confused.

Thanks
 
Ok, there are two questions here.

Maltodextrin, Corn Syrup and Corn Sugar are all the same thing.
See Grain Processing and Food Resource.

Secondly you need to prime at different rates for dextrose/sugar/corn syrup. See the HBD article here.

Cheers,
Doc
 
Doc, are you sure that Corn Sugar, corn syrup and Maltodextrin are the same thing? I thought Corn Sugar is dextrose and corn syrup is glucose?

I e-mailed John Palmer from howtobrew.com about this a while ago (last year, i think), and this was his response:

Hi Steve,
Thank you! Glad to here it. Hopefully ESB Brewing Supplies in Sydney
will start carrying my book in their store sometime this year. If we
can figure out how to get it there...

Hmmm, this is a tough one, one because I am not sure everyone (country)
is using the same terminology, especially in the supermarkets.
The "corn sugar" that Americans talk about for priming is indeed
Dextrose, which is actually glucose of a particular chemical structure.
Maltodextrin powder is not fermentable, being composed of unfermentable
heavy sugars (polysaccarides). Fructose is a slightly different kind of
sugar that tastes sweeter than sucrose (cane table sugar). So when you
see Corn Syrup (ie. high-fructose corn syrup) at the store, you can use
it for priming. It is 99% fermentable, compared to sucrose and glucose,
but the key is that it contains 1% unfermentable sugars, AND WATER. You
need to know how much water is in the syrup to know how much priming
power it has. Try using a hydrometer and perhaps diluting with a known
amount of water if it is too thick to give a good reading.

So, to summarize: Maltodextrin powder is composed of unfermentable
dextrins (polysacc.s) and is not dextrose. Dextrose is glucose. (This
is equivalent to saying that women are human beings, but not all humans
are women.) I could extend this metaphor to fructose (invert sugar),
but I think you get the idea. ;-)

Let me know if you have any more questions,
John
 
I wasn't 100% sure, and I tried to find something on the net that categorically stated otherwise. I couldn't.
I like John Palmers answer that you posted, and would accept that one over what I found on the net.

Beers,
Doc
 
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