July 27, 2021
Day 14
After my visit to the brewery and distillery on Sunday, I had a comment about beer not being made with sugar. This got me thinking why do I think of alcohol as sugar? So, I did some reading about how beer, wine, and spirits are made to clarify this for myself.
Beer and wine do contain sugar, and are made by fermenting the natural sugars from the plant ingredients. In beer, the sugar comes from the starch in malted cereal grain, typically barley. In wine it comes from grape juice. With spirits, starches such as grains or potatoes, and fruit are fermented, and in some spirits, the fermentation starts with cane sugar. No mistake there - that is added sugar.
It is true that there are no added sugars in beer. But some wines can have added sugars.
With wine production, additives can legally be used without being disclosed, so unless we contact the winemaker, we don’t know what’s in the wine. With regard to added sugar, regulations vary by state. In California, added sugar is not allowed at any point in the winemaking process, however unfermented grape juice is used to tweak the sweetness. Along with adding sugar for the purpose of sweetening wine, some producers add sugar before or during fermentation in order to achieve a certain alcohol level.
Fruit juice with or without added sugars is off limits on my sugar free journey too because all of the natural sugars are consumed without any of the whole food package containing fiber, thus causing a dramatic blood sugar spike. Wine without added sugar does contain natural sugar and is in liquid form, just like the juice.
So, yes, even though beer doesn’t contain added sugars, it’s still off the list.
Had a great day today and feeling good. Thanks for being here.
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