The message
from "David W.E. Roberts" contains these words:
"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
...

snip
Best of luck with the beer. Oh, a word of warning: if you are going to
use any sugar in the brew, check on one of the proprietory beer kits how
much they recommend. ON NO ACCOUNT exceed this as a ratio to the malt
they use, as too great a proportion of sugar in a malt brew will lead to
severe headaches and can kill you.
snip

Are you sure about this?

Yes. I've been brewing beer since 1955.

Given that sugar is turned to alchohol by the yeast, which won't ferment
above a certain concentration of alchohol, all you risk AFAIK is that not
all the sugars released by mashing are turned to alchohol.
This will tend to give you a sweet beer, but not AFAIK a deadly brew.

I'm talking about proportions, not concentrations. You mustn't overstep
the adjuncts (sucrose, dextrose, fructose etc) when brewing with
maltose.

What is this fatal product of which you speak?

Products. The higher alcohols, 5 ppm of which can be fatal in some cases.

ISTR in my student days beefing up malt extract beers with additional sugar,
and never killed anyone.

It depends how much you drink. Around 1970 two blokes made fice gallons
of stout and beefed it up with a lot of sugar. They drank it over a
weekend: one died and the other was vegetablised.

Beer kits used to have a warning on them in the days when I sometimes
used them, but usually I make my beer from malt and hops, and never use
any sugar at all. The idea of using sugar is to make something
approximating to keg beer - and why anyone should think that is a good
idea beats me.

A slightly puzzled

HTH then.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
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