# Best Sugar to use?



## koolaide187

Is there a best sugar to use for wines? I mean one that just works better than the rest? I could understand different wines could be better with different sugars. But I have heard use brown sugar by a lot of people and use granulated cane sugar by a lot of other people. Any suggestions from anybody on what would work best for a basic wine such as white grape or concord grape?


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## robie

I only use plain old cane sugar. 
Most of the time with grape wine, one doesn't need to add sugar. Same is true for grape wine kits. They come balanced, ready to ferment.

To what kins of wine are you referring?


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## TouronVineyards

I use regular cane sugar in all my wines. I had a friend use brown sugar once and he said that you could really taste it in the final product. I've never used it though. Good luck


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## Turock

Your better of with good old cane sugar. Use some of your wine to dissolve it so you don't dilute your wine with more water.

Brown sugar might be good on some things--maybe pear? Never used it so I have no info for you. But if you're tempted to try it, do some bench testing with a small volume before you commit all your wine to it.


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## rjb222

Dextrose (Corn /sugar) Table sugar. Are fine to use Dextrose will leave more of a deposit than table sugar. Do not use brown sugar as it contains molasses unless you want rum flavored wine.


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## Turock

If your concord is on the weak side as far as flavor goes, you can sweeten with some grape concentrate. Just be sure it's 100% juice---there are some out there that are not, and the flavor is weak. You still might have to add some sugar to get it where you want it. We always use plain old sugar for our concord and Niagara.


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## koolaide187

robie said:


> To what kins of wine are you referring?


Basically just the simple easy stuff you get from walmart in the 100% juice concentrate cans.


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## DoctorCAD

I always use C12H22O11


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## hvac36

dont you mean C12H22O11?


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## Sirthomas42

I use all kinds of different sugars. One example, I've made apple-juice wine from dextrose, sucrose, brown sugar and honey (cyser, yum!). They all have a different taste. I use regular ol' sucrose the most, because I can get it the cheapest. I've largely moved away from dextrose b/c it's expensive. But I love meads so I'm not giving up on my honey! I made 3 apple batches last year at the same time, same yeast, same gravity... the only difference was dextrose/sucrose/brown sugar. Turns out, the brown sugar one is my favorite!


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## Luc

koolaide187 said:


> Is there a best sugar to use for wines?



All natural sugars are basically the same. 
Do not consider artificial sweeteners as they will not ferment. We are talking here over normal natural sugar.

If you use table sugar it is the most neutral in flavor.

Most other sugars (take for example brown sugar that contains molasses or caramel for flavoring)m add flavor to a certain amount to your wine.
Other sugars may also give a colour hue to your winer (brown sugar).

Honey only contains 80% sugar. Therefore you will need to add more honey as would you do with plain sugar to get the same alcohol level.
Besides that honey certainly adds flavor.

This does not mean that these other sugars are bad for winemaking, they just add something extra to your wine. If this is beneficial or not is up to your own taste. 
Just taste the sugar upfront using it and decide if the added flavor is suitable to your wine.

Concerning better or not.
Most sugars are made up out of glucose or fructose, a mix, or a chemical binding of these two (sucrose) like table sugar.
Yeast have enzymes that will transform the sugars in their single components and use these. So there is no difference in the way yeasy uses these.

Luc


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## BernardSmith

*Cane vs corn sugar*

I have always used cane sugar but I have a few pounds of corn sugar (I think from beer making) . Is that something I should avoid using when making fruit wines?


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## Sirthomas42

Certainly not. Lots of wine recipes call for corn sugar, some for table sugar. I usually avoid corn sugar because it's a little more expensive. But I feel totally comfortable using table sugar and corn sugar virtually interchangeably.


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## mmadmikes1

I use what is Cheapest, except when making mead. Cheap honey = usually bad honey


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