Sucrose (table sugar) can be used interchangeably with dextrose in all Mangrove Jack's Cider kits without a problem.
Note that using sucrose will give slightly more alcohol per kilogram compared to dextrose since sucrose has approximately 10% more sweetening power.
Dextrose will always give you a better quality of beer, with a cleaner taste profile. Using sucrose (table sugar) can give a cider-like off flavour.
Therefore, using sucrose (table sugar) with any of the Mangrove Jack's beer kits will result in a different flavour profile and alcohol than if the kit is made with Dextrose.
You may have been told, in some way or another, that adding sugar to your brew is a big no-no if you want to make the best beer. In fact, some styles of beer call for simple sugars as a requirement.
That being said, in our blog post all about sugar, we look at the different kinds of sugar, how to use them and what they will add to your beer. In order to make alcohol, yeast needs sugar to convert.
In wine, cider and in some spirits, this sugar is easily available from natural fruits, but when it comes to brewing beer, the brewer is responsible for extracting the sugars that are needed for fermentation. This is done by converting the starches in your grain into sugar during the mashing step. Sugar that is extracted from grains is not the only sugar that is available to us as brewers, there are actually many different forms with various uses. Still, some homebrewers are wary of utilising sugar in their beers because it seems like a short cut or it may seem inauthentic to the traditional brewing process (go away Reinheitsgebot).
The good news is that sugar is not something to be afraid of using in your homebrew! Many commercial beer styles make ample use of sugar – especially a lot of Belgian and British ales. As with any ingredient, though, you should be aware of how to use it and what it will add to your beer.