A few months back I posted a thread about force carbed beer vs. bottle conditioned beer, asking fellow BA's if they knew that the majority of US craft breweries didn't bottle condition but rather force carb their beers. Seemed to be common knowlege as most people said, "yeah, sure, I know it's force carbed, who cares?!?!" etc. Some people had some interesting feedback, discussions, etc. Now I'm coming at you all with this: I'm sure a majority of us know that Belgians/Belgian Style beers are often brewed with sugar of some sort (dextrose, candi sugar, etc) But, do most of you know that some of your favorite West Coast DIPAs are brewed with sugar to bump the abv to it's 8,9,10% ? Pliny the Elder, for example: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/0000/6351/doubleIPA.pd It was news to me, wondering if it is to everyone else...
Big West Coast DIPA's have a ton of malt to balance the large amount of hops used. That's why they are so sweet sometimes. Even when I brew a DIPA, it ends up around 9%. No extra sugars added.
I guess I never really put much thought into it but it makes sense. I've seen a lot of homebrew books and recipes talk about using sugars to bump ABV so I would assume professional brewers do it as well.
The only reason I knew they added extra sugar was because of my homebrewing and from looking up articles by Vinnie about how he made Pliny to try to use his tricks in my hoppy brews. In fact, the link you posted is the exact source I used. The sugar helps to give it that classic dry finish also from what I hear. Cheers!
Just to clarify, the addition of sugar is not to "bump the abv" I am sure that most craft brewers have the skill to brew an all malt DIPA to 10%. The use of sugar, as runner440 pointed out, helps to dry out the beer. If only malt is used it will inevitably add, wait for it, maltiness in a beer like Pliny the Elder Vinnie wants the hops front and center so he uses sugar to dry out the beer a bit and let those hops shine.
"I highly suggest you use some dextrose (cornsugar) in the boil to help bump up the gravity. Not only will the use of sugar help bring up the gravity of the wort, but because there are simple sugars that the yeast can ferment straight through, you will end up with a lighter bodied beer." It's all of the above
Fair enough, my point was that when "bumping up the gravity" a brewer has many choices for sources of sugar (malt, corn, rice, sugar, molasses, honey). The reason refined sugar is used in DIPA's is to dry it out.
I did learn that a while back. That’s one reason I chuckle a bit and ignore posts knocking mass market beers brewed with adjuncts like corn syrup, corn surgar, etc. They are even funnier if the person making the post happens in the same post to both praise Pliny for being a great beer and knock the mass market breer for using things like corn syrup. Doesn't happen often, but...
I almost always use regular ol' sugar in place of malt when I make IPAs. Helps make them dryer (and better, IMO).
The issue here is not whether or not a beer contains refined sugars of some sort, the issue is WHY it contains those ingredients. In the case of Pliny it is being used for a specific purpose, to dry out the beer and accentuate the amazing hop profile. In the case of the "mass market beers" that you are referring to, they are using corn, corn syrup etc. primarily because it is cheap, which leads to a cheap tasting beer.
It is cheaper, but the main reason rice and corn syrups are used is to lighten up the body so people will drink more without feeling as full.
As I did my first Pliny the Elder homebrew clone a long time ago, yes I knew this. I also knew that hop extracts are used for the early boil additions to get the bitterness that he wants and to get more wort yeild from the kettle (hops absorb a lot of wort).
Seems like it is in fact "common knowledge"... now, since everyone (almost) that has posted in this thread thus-far, is aware of pliny being brewed with sugar, let me ask you all this. What other brewers/breweries brew their DIPAs with sugar? Guess I am realizing why Hopslam is brewed with honey...
I'm sorry, are neophyte beer, but I think that in the old sugar was not used. Sugar cane is from America, I think. Safe sugar beet is American. So the natural sweetener have to be honey (myrrh?)
Sugar beets are from Europe and Asia, if I can beleive the search I just did. The process to extract sugar from beets was discovered in the 19th century.
