sugar for brewing

Despite being supposedly lower GI, raw fructose is not good for diabetes and is no longer recommended as a safer alternative than other sugars. It has something to do with the special way the liver metabolises it. Although lower GI it increases insulin resistance far more than any other sugar.

Luckily in nature it usually comes in fibrous packaging so the glycemic

That aside, sucrose and fructose both are turned to alcohol. So it's no better or worse > i'm am wandering if anyone can help on a silly question,,,i am a type

Since you're talking about sugar I guess you're a kit brewer. I don't think the kind of sugar used would make a big difference, since it's

I don't know much about being a diabetic but I would guess that the problem is the amount of residual sugar in the fermented beer, and in a kit beer this would come from the unfermentable sugars in the extract.

If you would like to get back into brewing (don't we all? :) - I suggest you move on to allgrain brewing, because there's several tricks you can do to limit the amount of sugars in the finished beer.

The first way to do it is to make a very fermentable wort (say 85% attenuation or more) - that's how most lowcarb beers are made. If you mash between 140 and 145F you'll get a very fermentable wort and very little residual sugar.

The second way to do it is to make a very low gravity beer (like an english bitter or mild) - these beers are normally brewed to be very little attenuatve but since you use a smaller amount of grain for this type of beer you'll still end up with a beer with only a little residual sugar.

Brewing computer programs like beersmith allows you to calculate the amount of carbs in the finished beer. You can download the free evaluation version and play abit around with it, and see if you can come up with a recipe with an amount of carbs that's compatible with your recommended daily intake of carbs. BYO had a good article on english milds about half a year ago - that might be a good starting point.

By brewing low gravity beers, with a significant amount of crystal malts and a high mash temperature (158F) you can make very tasty beers at

Whether you choose beers with high attenuation or beers with low original gravity if of course your choice, but my preference is the low gravity beers, because that's what I like best and it's also the kind of beer with least alcohol, and I know from personal experience that it is easier to keep a diet, when not too drunk :)

Welcome back to brewing!

- Jan

That's what I think too.

Could someone enlighten me a bit about this: why shouldn't a diabetic drink beer, what's in it that's bad if you have diabetes?

With a quick internet search I found the web page of a Finnish brewery which tells that a diabetic can safely drink small amounts of low-sugar alcoholic drinks. Since the sugars in beer (or more precisely wort) are turned to alcohol during fermentation, beer is a low-sugar drink. Thus I would understand that if you don't drink too much you can safely enjoy your beers, even regular ones.

IMHO, you should try calculating how many calories are in a glass of low sugar beer. Alcohol does provide calories, even though it is not as quickly metabolized as sugar. It seems likely that if you limitate your beer intake (low carb low alcohol beer) to something like 8 FL Oz a day, it should be all right... but you'd better check from the amount of calories, and, maybe, if this is too much calories and if you can't do without the beer, then cut down on something else for your daily food intake. If beer is said to be bad for diabetics, I think it is due to the picture of the beer drinker who goes to the pub every night and can't get out until he has drunk at least 4 bottles.

Short term, while the liver chews on the alcohol directly it is less able to release sugar back into the blood, increasing the chances of hypoglycaemic shock. While in the system alcohol increases insulin sensitivity too. Double whammy.

"Small quantities only" is the solution to that problem.

Long term alcohol increases insulin resistance (perhaps thought of as a rebound to the short term increases insulin sensitivity??). I'm not sure why, but I know triglycerides go up and also the endocrine system is out of whack in drinkers.

Again, easy does it. The good cardio health and lower stress of moderate drinking is probably helpful.

(BTW, I'm not a health professional.)

thanks for the feedback, some of what has been said , i already understand and thanks again....but i will look into the all grain brewing set up....i love my beer and have been in my rut of drinking for many a year,so my ignorance with drinking and diabetes is something to be desired..i love my beer..i don't smoke or do drugs but love my beer...a typical aussie or a typical man i guess. so thaks to all who want to help....cheers