Expert: Matt Dick - 10/17/2008

Question
hey Matt,

me and my friend are doing a chemistry experiment at school for our assignment, and we are testing how the different kinds of sugars effect the fermentation of the beer.
i was just wondering what kinds of sugars that we should use? we need about 8-10 to get a good result.
can you help us?
Thanks

Answer
A good way to categorize different alcohols is by the sugars.  When yeast eats sugar, it produces alcohol and carbon dioxide (which you can use to carbonate beer or wine).  So you've basically asked the question that distinguishes different drinks.  Aside from adding a flower (hops) to beer, the only real difference between beer and wine is the base sugar (barley malt versus grape sugar).  So the list is:

Most beer is Barley Malt
Wheat beers are Barley Malt with some Wheat Malt
Most Light Lagers (like Budweiser and Miller) are Rice Malt
Wine is Grape Sugar
Mead is Honey

The distilled alcohols are initially fermented and then distilled, but they can also be broken down by type of sugar they're based on:

Most Whiskeys are Barley Malt
Rye Whiskey is Rye Malt
Rum is Cane Sugar
Tequila is Cactus sugar
Vodka was originally Potato Starch
Brandies are from a variety of fruit sugars

So that should give you a great base for starting your project.