Does cane sugar impart flavor in beer?

No flavor. It is used to boost alcohol content.

 

^^ This. The final beer will probably be drier too. Effect would similar to Belgian brewers use of candi sugar. Some reading: https://beerandbrewing.com/brewing-with-candi-sugar/

 

It can add a cider like flavor to beer.

 

It can depend... The article discusses it briefly... some types of Belgian candi sugar have some "impurities" (compared to pure cane sugar) that can impart some additional flavors to the final beer, but the main impact is raising ABV and drying out the beer. The same concept would apply to brewing with honey, maple syrup, or other simple sugars.

 

This is a great blog looking at history of English beer:

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/

He posts historic brewing records weekly from the past 150 years or so. Sugar additions are a very common thing in English beer historically - often as various shades of invert syrup.

I have brewed a number of these recipes - the darker invert syrups do impart some flavor (caramel, toasted marshmallow, and raisin) although the contributions are typically fairly subtle

 

Just a quick note that adding cane sugar to the wort makes more alcohol in the beer, and alcohol has flavor it adds to the beer.

 

that’s old info. I’ve heard many reputable homebrewing podcasts do experiments and in no Case does it produce cider flavor. The idea that it produces cider taste is because old yeast was being used back in the day.

i use white sugar or dextrose in my ipas and have never had a cider flavor.

 

This! I was going to say the same thing. Will you get a sugar taste? No, but by adding sugar you are changing to wort composition thus changing the flavor. Sugar can dry the beer out leaving less body so that will change the over taste. Also, more alcohol.

 

Right on. That’s good to know. Thanks!

 

Earlier posts pretty much hit all the answers.

One other addition is to note if the sugar has been added post fermentation.
If the beer is pasteurized, sterile filtered, cold filtered or otherwise "dead" and the fermentable is added then it will increase sweetness because it will not ferment.

It is also possible to sweeten a brew by overloading the viable yeast. They will crap out, sooner or later depending on the yeast, and go dormant before full attenuation. This will leave residual fermentable.

So a traditional brewer might do any of the following, each with different result.-
Add fermentable post fermentation, pre-fermentation, during fermentation.
So I guess that is two other things to note.

Finally, sugar is a very cheap adjunct. We like to fetishise Old World brewers, Belgian brewers in particular, but these guys are foremost savvy businesses. The unique brewing traditions of Belgium are mostly the result of tax avoidance for instance. Trappists use sugar all the time. Hop jelly too.

Cheers

 

Technically it's not usually for an alcohol boost; it's better to think of it as a malt substitute by design, so the gravity and alcohol are similar in the end.

Not only is the sugar more fermentable, it more importantly doesn't contribute proteins (and it's actually diluting whatever proteins are there as well). In certain styles having a leaner body and drier finish are desirable, resulting in a more elegant finished product.

 

If you are using a less-refined or unrefined sugar you can get more flavor out of it. Piloncillo is a good example of cane sugar that will impart flavor if the rest of the beer permits it.

 

Yes, brewers sugar isn't the same as what you have on the dining table. There are grades, No4 is like black treacle. All offer more than just fermentable material.

 

The terminology of “brewer’s sugars” may be confusing to some folks. Brewers utilize a variety of sugars when brewing beer. Some sugars that are used are cane sugar, corn sugar and others. The fact that brewers use simple sugars such as cane sugar, corn sugar, … to brew beer could mean that these are too “brewer’s sugars”. These simple sugars will not in and of themselves contribute flavor to the resulting beers.

Cheers!

 

If it's raw cane sugar, it will add flavour. I'd be surprised if Sam Smiths were using pure sucrose. That's not the type of sugar British brewers used.

 

Nothing more traditional than using sugar in British beer.

 

Dextrose would be a better substitute and used basically for the same thing. Drying out the final product and lightening the body. Not entirely sure but I believe dextrose might affect the final taste moreso than cane white sugar. Can dextrose be used during bottling to add carb? I believe so.