Does Beer Have Sugar In It

[fergi]

i know it sounds like an easy answer, but one of the guys at golf made a statement that beer is 30 percent sugar,
i have a 6 pack on this and my answer was it doesnt have any sugar added its only the sugar from barley that it contains, and its not 30 percent.then he went on to say that sucrose/dextrose are sugars, yes they are but they are not added , not including KK or specialty beers.

his original statement was it is made up of 30 percent sugar, this was in relation to the fact i said i didnt want to drink coke because of the added sugar.

he has changed his story a bit now looking at google and seeing malted barley produces, "SUGAR" but his original statment still stands as far as i am concerned,
what do you think.

fergi

 

[Kranky]

Yes it has sugars in it but the amount of sugars is very variable. The mash temperature(s), the yeast, the fermenting temperature and the different types of malt used all play a part - and that is just for starters.

If dextrose is added it is fully fermentable (usually) so the yeast eat it all - so it affects abv not sugar content.

To suggest that all beers are 30% sugar is pretty silly. if that is what was said.

 

[kelbygreen]

well, its a tough one as you extract the sugar out of the grains so he may be right.

No to down on the science of what grain turns into and what % this is in the wort (would be recipe dependent of coarse)

But a sugar is of 2 types

Monosaccharides, Which is glucose, fructose and galactose

Disaccharides, which is sucrose, maltose and lactose.

So if you determine how much of them is in the beer and at what % you will get your answer

 

[dr K]

I think you have a lot to learn.
Wort (not beer yet )may be say 10% sugar, those sugars being for all grain mainly maltose and commercial breweries may make 30% of their sugar bill up from sucrose.
Our friendly yeast converts these sugars int (eventually) alcohol, it does not covert all sugars (for exammple lactose) and indeed of itself does not convert sucrose, it has a handy little enzyme, invertase, that splits the di-saccharide sucrose into the mono saccarhides glucose and fructose.
Yeast will also run out of power before it coverts all the sugars so ther will be some residual sugar, but given that wort is far less than 30% sugar to start with, and that most of that sugar gets converted to our buzzy friend, you have a six pack coming your way.
Holed out in one.

K

 

[bum]

Joined: 20-October 04

You've been brewing for 8 years, maybe more. Why don't you already know what beer is made of?

 

[kelbygreen]

but did he mean it has had 30% sugar added or it has 30% sugar left in solution??? the sugar will be turned into many things and carbs are one so this may be his standing point! I am not sure.

 

[dr K]

Derrrr
Sugar is a carbohyrate to start of with
In the fermentation process a fair whack of the carbon and oxygen get split off (sorry thats very crude) to form CO2, yes beer will still contain carbohydrates but as sugar is one already it hardly gets converted (or turned)

K

 

[winkle]

This is what LN sayes about one of its lagers.

XXXX BITTER is a traditional Australian Lager with a clean, crisp taste and a satisfying after-bitterness. It is made from true Australian raw materials, including unique golden cluster hops, pure Queensland cane sugar, malt and barley. Each brew is the result of bottom-fermentation at low temperatures to produce a full flavour.

or the green stuff,

Like most Australian Lagers, VB is made using a wortstream brewing process, and uses a portion of cane sugar to thin out the body of the beer.

Which is what your mate was refering to I guess, 30% sounds high but....

 

[fawnroux]

Whose beer??

Is your mate being general and saying all beer? Or does he mean the mass produced beers? If he means macro lagers, then yes, they add sugar. Maybe even 30% adjunct, who knows. That ferments out first though.

Or does he mean, that there is 30% residual sugars left in your beer? If so, then no, there is not 30% sugar. A beer with an OG of 1.048 has about 12g sugar(s) per 100g wort, so, if it ferments down to about 1.012, there is about 3g left. So a 330ml beer should have about 10g residual sugar in it. Hardly 30%....

Do you get to pick the 6 pack? :chug:

 

[fergi]

kelby his original statement was really that it has as much sugar as a can of coke that i didnt want to drink,

most of the sugars that were extracted from the grain have been converted into alcahol, dont know how much sugar beer has left in it after the yeast has gone to work but as DK said ,its far less than 30 percent to start with, golf buddy is saying the finished beer has 30 percent sugar , same as coke, not a chance.

fergi

 

[fergi]

Whose beer??

Is your mate being general and saying all beer? Or does he mean the mass produced beers? If he means macro lagers, then yes, they add sugar. Maybe even 30% adjunct, who knows. That ferments out first though.

Or does he mean, that there is 30% residual sugars left in your beer? If so, then no, there is not 30% sugar. A beer with an OG of 1.048 has about 12g sugar(s) per 100g wort, so, if it ferments down to about 1.012, there is about 3g left. So a 330ml beer should have about 10g residual sugar in it. Hardly 30%....

Do you get to pick the 6 pack? :chug:

yep he is saying its got the same amount of sugar left in it as coke.
i doubt i get to pick the 6 pack, he is a farmer, they are pretty tight with their coin, but they are always right, never wrong.


fergi

 

[pyrosx]

I reckon, given that the "beer" this "guy at golf" is referring to is the beer lovingly known around these parts as megaswill, that he's actually, almost, kind of right - there's a fair chance that standard aussie lager contains a fair proportion of plain ol' sugar in it's grain bill. 30% is probably a bit on the high side - but i'd not say it's completely out of the question. So he may be right... sort of.

Thing is - by the time the yeast does it's thing - i.e. converts sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide (i.e. fermentation) - there won't be much of ANY sugar left - regardless of whether it came from malt, table sugar, or anything in between.

Finally though (and I'm assuming that you were actually drinking beer when you said that about soft drink, so if i'm off base here, i apologise) - you're absolutely ******* kidding yourself if you think that drinking beer is in any way better for you than drinking soft drink "because of the added sugars" in the latter. There's just so many things wrong with this, it's not funny. For starters - Alchohol contains more calories, gram for gram, than sugar. And this is a horrible over simplification, but in essence, as far as your body is concerned: sugar is a basic building block of life; alchohol is essentially a poison.

 

[Tony]

I used to work in a starch plant that made Dextrose, maltodextrin (corn sugar) and glucose. They made a very thin watery glucose (easy to handle) for one of the big boys...... wont say who. It was for beer.

So this was actually wheat starch, that was converted via enzymes to a clear sugary syrup that was being purchased in bulk for beer production.

I never used a drop of it ....... but the evil mega-swill factory did..... and lots of it.

It was essentially liquid sugar with a controlled fermentablity via its conversion process.

So..... when it comes right down to it..... "beer" is a broad term to be saying it contains this and that. Id say some megaswill beers contain close of that, but anything worth drinking wont.

And... i agree with bum...... dude you owe us all a 6 pack of LCPA for asking this. You have been on here almost as long as me :blink:

 

[pk.sax]

I know Carlton is made from beer

 

[pyrosx]

I know Carlton is made from beer

Only if you squint and hold your nose

 

[fawnroux]

yep he is saying its got the same amount of sugar left in it as coke.

Well, i think coke has about 10.6g sugar per 100ml (or around 1.042 if you prefer :icon_cheers

 

[pk.sax]

Only if you squint and hold your nose

The billboards tell me it's sered by cheerleaders. I'm interested.

Well, i think coke has about 10.6g sugar per 100ml (or around 1.042 if you prefer :icon_cheers

ferment test?!

 

[fawnroux]

ferment test?!

:beer: mmm, coke beer...

 

[fergi]

well as usual some of you guys are obviously pissed by now and cant be bothered reading the original few posts, sure beer has sugars , how the **** would the yeast make alcohol if it didnt,
the argument was my mate is saying a glass of beer has as much sugar in it as a can of coke finished product, a can of coke has about 7 teaspoons of the stuff in it, what bloody beer are you drinking that has still got 7 teaspoons of sugar left in it, some of you must be making some **** tasting beer then.
fergi

 

[hoppy2B]

:beer: mmm, coke beer...

Fergi will drink that.

Give him a six pack. :lol: