Golden Syrup in Brewferm Triple?

[marshbrewer]

Tomorrow's brew is Brewferm's Triple.

It says to use 500g of sugar with the kit, but ads 'to get a specific taste you can use candy sugar or raw cane sugar instead of white sugar. In that case you have to use 5% more'


Right, so I did a little research and need some advice. By Candy sugar, do they mean this ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candi_sugar ?

If so, I see it's an inverted sugar, so what do peeps think about using 550g of golden syrup, which is partially inverted?

 

[Aleman]

I see it's an inverted sugar, so what do peeps think about using 550g of golden syrup, which is partially inverted?

And don't forget that golden syrup is 20% water whereas candi sugar (inverted and caramelised) is not . . .so you have to use 20% more golden syrup than you thought

 

[marshbrewer]

So, I make that 660g of Golden Syrup. Cheers for the tip! Asda Smart Price GS comes in 680g jars, so that looks like the ticket ~ gives me 20g of stuff I can't get out, stuck to the sides, that I don't have to worry about I'll have that on me toast.

I didn't realise Candi Sugar was caramelised, though. Is there anything else commonly available that is, treacle, perhaps? Or would that be too dark? Has to be a supermarket ingredient, I'm afraid, as I need to fit this into my brew schedule tomorrow (week off work, lots of fishing and shooting to do :rofl: ), and my local HBC, good as it is, doesn't do Candi Sugar.

 

[Kyral210]

Sounds like it is a good idea. Please let us know the results when you have finished and tasted your brew.

 

[luckyeddie]

Candi Sugar is so easy to make - it must be, because I've made 2 kilos in the last 2 weeks. It's important to have a jam thermometer handy when you are doing it - I bought one the other week for about £3, and it's got a spring clip on it so I can affix it where I want in the pan.

Dissolve a kilo of common-or-garden sugar in a smallish amount of water in your saucepan to make a syrup (about a cupful should do). It doesn't matter if you use too much water - sugar boils at a temperature proportional to its concentration in solution - it just takes a bit longer to get it to the right temperature at which the chemistry magic occurs. You will also need another quarter to half a pint of water and some food acid. You will also need something to pour your finished sugar into - I suggest an oven tray or roasting tin lined with greaseproof paper.

Heat until it reaches around 260 degrees Frankenstein (127 Centipedes) but keep it below 275F (135C). Add half a teaspoon of citric acid, cream of tartar or just squeeze half a lemon into the sugar syrup. You want to stir it (use a wooden spoon - metal gets hot) and you will notice the temperature slowly creep up. As it approaches the upper limit, add a couple of tablespoons of extra water and carefully mix in (it may spit a bit). The temperature will drop again. Do this as often as you need to - until you get the colour you want.

It takes about 15-20 minutes for the magic to start to work - first of all, the sugar solution will turn pale yellow. The longer you go on, the more it will tend to turn amber and will eventually take on a reddish hue. When you've got it to the colour you require (depends upon the type of brew - pale yellow for tripel, darker or amber for dubbel, somewhere between for a golden ale), crank the heat up and allow it to rise to 300F (150C). As soon as you reach that temperature - off the heat, tip it straight into your tin or tray.

Leave it for an hour or so to cool, then crack it with a toffee hammer and bag it up and pop it into the freezer. It'll keep for months. A word of warning - don't leave it out overnight to cool - sugar is hygroscopic (it sucks up water) and will become sticky. Oh yeah - don't whack it in your boiler with 15 minutes to go either like I did yesterday. It sinks below the heating element, sticks to the bottom of the boiler and it's a bugger to get off afterwards. Next time, I shall stick it in a hop bag and suspend it in the boiler to melt / dissolve.

 

[marshbrewer]

Great info, Eddie, I'll have a kip and think it over... Perhaps GS this time and make my own Candi Sugar next time to gauge the difference? Just out of interest, do you need to smash / grind / whatever the candi sugar up before adding it to the wort, or does it just dissolve?

 

[Aleman]

Do you need to smash / grind / whatever the candi sugar up before adding it to the wort, or does it just dissolve?

If you take a quantity of wort from the boiler and add it to the candi sugar, the sugar will dissolve . . .you can then add it to the boiler as a liquid :whistle: :whistle: . . ..You may need to do this a couple of times to dissolve it all depending on the qty of cani sugar you are using