Do i need to se brewing sugar

[superplum]

Hello i am fairly new to wine making and yesterday i brought a muntons premium cellar kit medium red as it was on offer after reading instructions it says to use brewing sugar my question is is this really necessary as i have brewed fruit juice and country wines with no problems using granulated sugar.
ps what is the kit i brought like is it any good many thanks.

[Cellar_Rat]

absolutely not necessary. As for granulated, cane (tate & Lyle + others) is better than beet (silver spoon) - and then it is very subtle.

[superplum]

thanks cellar rat i was pretty sure i could use ordinary sugar thanks for confirming feel more confident now and will start kit when time is free.

[Emeraldclaire]

I only ever use ordinary sugar for wine, but I use brewing sugar for beer. I am told by lots of people that ordinary sugar imparts an odd taste to beer, but it's absolutely fine for wine making.

[mcblades]

i disagree, brewing or invert sugar is a bit more palatable to yeast. but they can digest normal sugar quite easily and do not impart off flavours. If you are brewing all grain then you probably don't need to use sugar (malt is best)

[Cellar_Rat]

1,000,000% agree about odd tastes! Thanks you EC - I began to think it was just me!!
I have isolated this to sugar beet derived sugar. Sugar made form cane (Tate & lyle et al) doesn't carry the off taste.

If you want to make your own invert, you can simply boil it with a with a little lemon juice or some citric acid (think it 1/1 tsp per gal - will check if any wants it). Although I this is the first thing the yeast does so .......... well I gave up doing it.

[lockwood1956]

The process of fermentation inverts the sugar immediately it is added due to the presence of invertase. Using brewing sugar offers no advantage and in fact it tends to contain a great percentage of crystalised water (up to 20%) due to the way it is processed. Invertase will convert sucrose into 50% glucose and 50% fructose and it is therefore much more efficient means than the commercial method of production.

According to Acton and Duncan (progressive winemaking) experiments have shown that invert sugar offers no advantage over sucrose in terms of either the rate of fermentation, the attenuation or the quality of the finished wine. In blind tests an identical must was split into two parts, sucrose added to one half and invert sugart to the other. No difference could be found in bouquet, clarity, colour or in any other way, even after long periods of maturation. It was concluded that for the purposes of winemaking invert sugar and sucrose are to all intents and purposes identical.

hope tht helps

regards
Bob

[lockwood1956]

1,000,000% agree about odd tastes! Thanks you EC - I began to think it was just me!!
I have isolated this to sugar beet derived sugar. Sugar made form cane (Tate & lyle et al) doesn't carry the off taste..

Emeraldclaire was referring to sucrose giving off flavours in Beer, not the difference between beet and cane Brian

I do not disagree that you can tell a difference , but for most people it makes not a jot of difference

I feel a blind taste test coming on at Grapefest this year


regards
Bob

[Cellar_Rat]

Emeraldclaire was referring to sucrose giving off flavours in Beer, not the difference between beet and cane Brian

I did a two sugar wines to prove the earthy taste. I now use T&L in everything, I doubt I could consistently taste it in a beer, but we can have a go!

[Original Mac]

I did a two sugar wines to prove the earthy taste. I now use T&L in everything, I doubt I could consistently taste it in a beer, but we can have a go!

A martyr to the cause again Brian?

[Cellar_Rat]

always

[fatbloke]

I did a two sugar wines to prove the earthy taste. I now use T&L in everything, I doubt I could consistently taste it in a beer, but we can have a go!

Well, for different reasons (non-wine context) Brian, you could save yourself a few pennies by looking around i.e. British Sugar a.k.a. is indeed beet based, but for cane based table sugar, you could try Whitworths or if you look in Aldi or Lidl, you'll often find one of theirs that is specifically labelled as "Cane Sugar" and it's invariably cheaper then T&L......

[Cellar_Rat]

oh yes - but beware - some say nothing more that 'sugar' on the ingredient list !!