Csr Brewing Sugar

[the_yobbo]

G'day,

Found myself doing my brewing yesterday (Valentines Day, for the love of beer). Realised pretty quickly that the amount of Dex I had left wasn't going to be enough to prime the brew I was bottling as well as provide the sugarly goodness needed for the next brew I was going to put down.

Anyways, a quick run to the local supermart (only place open on a Sunday) and they sold CSR Brewing Sugar. I assumed it was the same as Dextrose, however was suprised by it's consistency when I opened the packet. It behaved more like icing sugar.

Is it a suitable replacement for Dex? Is it 100% fermentable? What is it?

Cheers

 

[Pete2501]

More than likely it's sucrose that's been ground down to a finer consistency.

Sucrose is 1 fructose and 1 glucose joined. It's 100% fermentable. :icon_cheers:

 

[adam]

I'm pretty sure it's 750g of fine white sugar (caster sugar probably) and 250g maltodextrin.

Coopers also make a brewing sugar which is 750g of dextrose and 250g of maltodextrin.

 

[RobboMC]

Just a suggestion, use the dex you have for priming and visit a HBS to get some malty goodness for your next brew instead of 'sugarly goodnees' that is adding alcohol without adding flavour.

 

[the_yobbo]

Hmm..

Ok, just found a post on an old thread.

"CSR brewing sugar is a combination of maltodextrin and sucrose (plain white sugar)"
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...ost&p=10020

Maltodextrin I beleive is 70% unfermentable
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...st&p=563789

So, possibly not 100% fermentable.

Therefore, I'm guessing it wouldn't be wise to use CSR Brewing Sugar for priming of bottles.
(Crappy store not selling Dex)

 

[Pete2501]

Hmm..

Ok, just found a post on an old thread.

"CSR brewing sugar is a combination of maltodextrin and sucrose (plain white sugar)"
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...ost&p=10020

Maltodextrin I beleive is 70% unfermentable
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...st&p=563789

So, possibly not 100% fermentable.

Therefore, I'm guessing it wouldn't be wise to use CSR Brewing Sugar for priming of bottles.
(Crappy store not selling Dex)

Just use table sugar for bottle priming if you can't find dextrose.

 

[the_yobbo]

Just a suggestion, use the dex you have for priming and visit a HBS to get some malty goodness for your next brew instead of 'sugarly goodnees' that is adding alcohol without adding flavour.

Yeah, I gathered that much, however the recipe I'm currently on (both the brew I've bottled and the one I've now put down) don't really need any more flavour.
1x Tin of Coopers Traditional Draught
1x Tin of Coopers LME Light
300g Dex (or as in the case of the current brew, 150g Dex, 150g Brewing Sugar)
24g Cascade Hops @ 10mins.

 

[Hatchy]

You could leave the dextrose out. That's what I'd do.

 

[manticle]

I'd leave it in. It will balance up the malt and give a little bit of dryness. People are mean to Dex.

 

[Pete2501]

Not everything in the tins are fermentable. I'd go with dex.

 

[benno1973]

I'd leave it in. It will balance up the malt and give a little bit of dryness. People are mean to Dex.

I agree, sugar definitely has its place! I used to brew extract beers just with the Coopers liquid extract tins and some crystal malt, because sugar was deemed to be bad. The beers were all slightly cloying, so adding some sugar allowed me to get a drier end result and the beers improved dramatically.

Once you've used a brand of extract a few times (hopped or unhopped) you'll tend to get a feel for how fermentable they are, and whether you need a little sugar to dry them out.

 

[joebejeckel]

Its a lot of money for a little extra malto, i keep a few bags of sugar around for making a kit of lawnmower lager,

 

[Nick JD]

Dextrose is essential for some of my recipes. I don't always want beers you have to eat with a spoon.

When it's 38 degrees and humid, a 1.008 finishing beer slides down like liquid silk and doesn't hang around.

Sometimes I don't want to taste a beer. I want cold, crisp and refreshing.

 

[Pete2501]

I like the sound of that Nick. A bit late now though

 

[Hatchy]

I'd leave it in. It will balance up the malt and give a little bit of dryness. People are mean to Dex.

Oops, I thought the can of malt extract was a substitute for dextrose. It'll be interesting to see how my current brews turn out, neither of them have any sugar.

 

[manticle]

Oops, I thought the can of malt extract was a substitute for dextrose. It'll be interesting to see how my current brews turn out, neither of them have any sugar.

No need for oops. You'll still make beer and possibly super dooper tasty beer. Beer is traditionally malt, water, hops and yeast.

It's just my experience with malt extract (as opposed to malt from grain) that it tends to be more difficult to ferment as completely and you can end up with some residual sugars. Some residual sugars are good as they provide body, flavour and head. That's why lo carb beers taste so bland as those sugars have been stripped. Dependent on the style you may want a lot of these sugars.

However to much or (more importantly) too much not balanced out with things like hops can result in a cloying, overly sweet beer, just like too much dex can result in an overly thin, tasteless beer. To my mind, it's about hitting the balance you want rather than being purist about it.

A lot of people cry 'all malt, ditch the dex'. This is not necessarily/i] good advice in all instances. Even many award winning all grain brewers (and some of the world's best commercial beers) may use a portion of sugar to balance things out. Just use it well and use it judiciously. An otherwise all malt brew given a touch of sugar might have found the winning ingredient.

By the way - it's not a straight substitute. Dex is almost 100% fermentable whereas malt is more around something like 75 (check this - I can't remember exactly) so you need to compensate with your ratios if substituting.

 

[Hatchy]

Cool, I was thinking it may turn out to be sink food. I could've stuck some dex in there as well. I bought a bag of it before brewday last week to ensure I didn't end up with the same problem as the OP. I may do the same 2 brews at some point but stick some dex in there as well

 

[manticle]

It's about getting to know your brews. Same may be preferable as all malt, others may need a bit of sugar. People don't always want to drink the same thing. Learn to work with the ingredients and adjust accordingly rather than discard one as being automatically 'bad' (unless it actually is bad like fake saffron or browning agents in a stock or chicken stock cubes or margarine or..................................)

 

[Hatchy]

That could be the subject of an interesting thread. The "what not to put into beer" thread. I'm sure there's dudes on here who could get the one onto multiple pages pretty quickly. Sorry if I've just taken this thread off topic.

 

[RobH]

I'm pretty sure it's 750g of fine white sugar (caster sugar probably) and 250g maltodextrin.

Coopers also make a brewing sugar which is 750g of dextrose and 250g of maltodextrin.

Re the Coopers brewing sugar ... do you know those proportions as a fact? I have been trying to find this out for a few weeks.

TIA.