Whereas original versions of IPA tended to balance malt and hops, the last couple

decades have seen a shift toward lower malt character with increased hop pungency,

one goal being to emphasize the crisp drinkability of this relatively

strong style. While this can be accomplished with simplified grain bills, often absent of anything

but base malt, many brewers rely on the use of, well, a simple adjunct ingredient to achieve

this goal. You're listening to the Brewlossophy podcast. I'm your host Marshall Shot,

and this week I'm joined by contributor Jordan Folks to chat about the use of simple sugars, namely sucrose and dextrose in brewing.

Sugar is so hot right now, Marshall. You know, it feels like we've come full circle. It seems like it was a pretty common ingredient in recipes when, you know, you and I first started cutting

our teeth.

Mainly is probably just a way to like compensate for the fact that you're doing partial

mashes and couldn't fit everything in your little pot on your stove top.

But now people are really geeking out on sugars and, you know, dry beer is really hip

and, you know, why not make a super

crushable beer and use some really cheap sugar to help us get there. Yeah. You know, when I started

brewing, what, 2002, 2003, I viewed the use of sugar as almost sacrilege. You know, and everybody

talked about the fact that the crappiest, you know, kits come

with sugar or if you're using sugar, you're cheating, right? You're not using malt. Well, when,

when that phase passed, as it did for a lot of people, I think, when they were new to brewing,

I was then worried that it would contribute certain off flavors. Well, I no longer harbor such

concerns. And I have used, just like you,

Jordan's sugar, different types of sugar and different styles of beers many times over the years.

But does that type of sugar matter? That's exactly what we're going to be digging into today.

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