This discussion below was sent to me. (Starting from the bottom up).
Person A is saying it does not matter what sugar is used at the beginning of
a brewing process from a health point of view, whilst person B says it
'does' matter. Grateful if the wise minds here can throw some light on this
debate. Thanks.

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B. There is simple sugar and complex sugar, the second is processed in a
different way and also includes various nutriments beneficial to the
organism.


A. Surely all sugar is finally processed to the same end product when
consumed within the human body? Sugar is converted into alcohol via a
brewing process which has fourteen distinct stages. What type of sugar used
at the beginning of this brewing process no longer exists, and so from a
health point of view is not significant, whether white refined sugar, grape
juice or malt.


B. Yes, obviously. Alcohol is fermented sugar, but *quality* alcohol is
made from malt or fruit (usually grape) juice, not refined white sugar which
is toxic (empty calories without nutritional value).

A. Are not all beers made from sugar? i.e. Malt ?

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On 6/19/13 9:24 AM, Jim Stone wrote:

> B. There is simple sugar and complex sugar, the second is processed in a
> different way and also includes various nutriments beneficial to the
> organism.

I think this is pretty much bullshit. There are different types of sugar
(glucose/dextrose, fructose, sucrose, etc.) but these are specific
chemicals and do not "include various nutrments".

> A. Surely all sugar is finally processed to the same end product when
> consumed within the human body? Sugar is converted into alcohol via a
> brewing process which has fourteen distinct stages. What type of sugar used
> at the beginning of this brewing process no longer exists, and so from a
> health point of view is not significant, whether white refined sugar, grape
> juice or malt.
>
>
> B. Yes, obviously. Alcohol is fermented sugar, but *quality* alcohol is
> made from malt or fruit (usually grape) juice, not refined white sugar which
> is toxic (empty calories without nutritional value).

So B agrees with A, then states the opposite.

Like sugar, alcohol is a specific chemical. Saying that alcohol that
was fermented from white sugar is "bad" because white sugar is "bad" is
silly.

Corn sugar aka "dextrose" aka "invert sugar" is the preferred sugar for beer brewing mainly due to flavor considerations and is less sweet than table sugar aka "sucrose." A person can also use all or mainly Malted grain..usually barley..either dry or in syrup form..which gives beer its distinctive flavor. A beer made from malt syrup with additions of dextrose usually gives better results flavorwise than an all dry malt ferment. Table sugar can be used for beer but is not generally a good plan and gives crappy flavor. For wine and hooch making ferments..table sugar works just fine. The trick there is for wine dont give it more sugar than the yeast can handle or the resultant wine will be overly sweet. There are tons of good links out there how the how to aspects of the hobby. Here is one I just pulled up that looks pretty good. Keep us updated on your progess. Thanks.

BeerSmith Home Brewing Guide | Home Brewing Beer Blog by BeerSmith

Informative post. Thanks for sharing!