Sugar In Belgians

[Tony]

Well i have a pack of 3787 in the fridge awaiting duty.

I proclaimed last year i would start my adventur into belgian brewing but looks like it starts in a few weeks when i get it going in the starter and a Dubbel mashed to start things off.

I was wondering what people use for sugar in theit belgians.

I have only brewed one before........ a trippel a few years ago that got a 2nd place at beerfest and anawbs from memory. I made my own invert sugar from cane sugar and it worked well.

i was looking at getting some belgian candi sugar from Ross but he is out of stock.

I have read lots of text saying to use dextrose, raw sugar, deamerra (spelling) brown sugar........... and god knows what else so im a bit unsure.

What do you all use?

and how much as a %age in what?

Im looking at brewing dubbels and tripples and expanding from there to saisons ect (scary)

cheers

 

[goatherder]

Have you read BLAM Tony? The Belgians use a variety of sugars but plenty use just plain old table sugar. If you can't get hold of the candy sugar, give some table sugar a go. Use specialty grains like caraaroma for your colour and flavour. As for %age, 10-15% is common.

 

[Oblomov]

Cane sugar. Around 15%. I tried candy sugar, chinese rock sugar, brown suger and I even inverted some sugar myself. Methinks the main purpose of using sugar is to avoid an overpowering malt taste while keeping IBU's low and alcohol up.

 

[Oblomov]

Checked my log, 11% to 13% actually.

 

[KillerRx4]

Nice choice in yeast Tony. Ive found it to be my favorite for the style.

Ive been using plain old white cane sugar upto 20%. I bought some candi rocks once, what a rip off. Tried making some once, PITA... Now i just dump it in the kettle straight from the paper bag.

 

[Chad]

The only tripel I have made which came out pretty good used 10% cane. Next time I make it I am increasing it a % or two.

 

[Gough]

G'day Tony,

All those sugar options you mentioned will produce good results. In a Tripel style though I reckon you can't go past plain ol' cane sugar. I'm a believer in adding it after fermentation has commenced for best results in high ABV beers, but it is up to you. Many others swear by boiling it. I'm sure it'll be a good beer either way mate!

Shawn.

 

[neonmeate]

if you're after a good sugar for dubbels, see if you can get this stuff - billingtons light muscovado - it's basically like normal brown sugar, except unrefined (unlike the csr stuff which is white sugar reconstituted with molasses). i just tried it in my gavroche clone and it worked very nicely - not too full on like ross's rochefort sugar, but nice warm flavour.

 

[Stuster]

Where in Sydney can you get that, neonmeate?

And another vote for cane sugar in tripels/blondes etc.

 

[Gough]

Mmmm... Muscovado... That is a nice sugar for the style.

Shawn.

 

[kabooby]

In my dubbel I made the Belgian Candy syrup the Randy Mosher way and some brown sugar.

Link

Kabooby

 

[Snow]

G'day Tony,

All those sugar options you mentioned will produce good results. In a Tripel style though I reckon you can't go past plain ol' cane sugar. I'm a believer in adding it after fermentation has commenced for best results in high ABV beers, but it is up to you. Many others swear by boiling it. I'm sure it'll be a good beer either way mate!

Shawn.

Gough,

your method interests me. I have thought of doing this, but didn't quite know how to work out the gravities. Can you give us some more detail regarding how far into fermentation you add the sugar and how you work out what your OG would have been? Also, how do you prepare the sugar? Boil it then cool it first?

Cheers - Snow

 

[neonmeate]

i get my stuff from alimento deli in summer hill (smith st) - you can also buy it in annandale at that deli in johnston st, various other import-foodie sort of places - the whole billingtons range is great, dark muscovado, molasses sugar too, great in porters/stouts.

 

[Tony]

wow........ great info folks.

Scott......... i have a bag of caraaroma waiting for duty. I have the grain bit worked out, just the sugars are a bit of a mystery.

I was planning half/half cane / brown sugar dor the dubbel and plain old cane sugar for the tripple so im close.

will definatly look into the muscovado..... another option is the deamerera sugar. I have used that in english ales and it has a great profile.

keep the thoughts comming.

ps. Killer Rx4........... what temperature did you find worked best with the yeast?

cheers

 

[Gough]

Gough,

your method interests me. I have thought of doing this, but didn't quite know how to work out the gravities. Can you give us some more detail regarding how far into fermentation you add the sugar and how you work out what your OG would have been? Also, how do you prepare the sugar? Boil it then cool it first?

Cheers - Snow

The easiest way is to calculate an OG with sugar and without. If you are adding the sugar later in the ferment subtract the sugar's contribution from your OG and aim for that figure pre-sugar to balance your recipe. Add the sugar in one or more additions depending on how much you are adding by %. In our Grand Cru for example we add the sugar in two hits on days two and three of fermentation. Our Anniversary Ale likewise.

As for preparing the sugar, you can either dissolve it in boiling water immediately before adding or bring it to the boil in solution carefully stirring to avoid caramelisation - especially in Tripel styles or paler styles generally. I guess you could try cooling it if you wanted to. In our beers we are happy to raise the ferment temps a little across the course of fermentation, especially with the Belgians, so add it hot. I have done it at home simply adding it to the fermenter on day 2-3 by pouring it in the top with good results.

Hope that helps,

Shawn.

 

[neonmeate]

re this yeast: careful with 3787 at this time of year, this yeast will go extremely slowly if you let it drop below 17-18 - but will eventually get there, and is fairly clean and malty that way, which i like as a nice alternative to the hot temp peaches and plums stuff.

demerara is very similar in flavour to light muscovado, only a bit paler and less intense. with demerara the CSR stuff is equally as good as the billingtons, it's imported from mauritius and unrefined. i did an 11% saison with a lot of demerara a few years back that worked out very well. it won't overwhelm a pale beer like darker sugars can.

 

[goatherder]

Shawn, what's the theory behind adding the sugar after the fermentation has kicked off? Is it to give the yeast a chance to chew the maltose before they get onto the easy stuff?

 

[Tony]

i always thought it was so the yeast could get a better start in a lower gravity wort and once it was fifing on all 8 cylinders, you fed it more.

Im also very interested in trying this.

Shawn?

 

[bakkerman]

I have found this recipe useful for making your own candy sugar, served me well in my Rochefort clone.

candy

 

[Steve Lacey]

The theory behind adding sugar later, as I understand it, is that when yeast are in a high osmotic environment it causes malfunctions in meiosis (or is it mitosis :blink: ) and certain genes can be activated or deactivated during cell division resulting in changes to the production of certain enzymes involved in biochemical pathways and, hence, production of more junk byproducts like acetate. By trickle feeding the sugar you reduce this osmotic stress load and have healthier yeast. Which is essentially the same as the last explanation or two with a bit more detail on the mechanism.

Personally I believe a lot of the potential problem is overcome by adding a large starter of healthy yeast (less requirement for division in the stressful wort).