Has anyone here made brewers invert sugar?

marshbrewer · Apr 29, 2018

As per the title, has anyone made brewers invert with sugar and citric acid / boiling etc? If so, can you tell me what I will end up with when it's cooled, will it be a syrup or a solid?

I'm thinking of making a large batch as I've got loads of Ron Pattinsons recipes in my to do list and am thinking it is as much faff to make 500g as it would be 3kg and have a stash of the stuff. So I'm thinking of storage options.

Gunge · Apr 30, 2018

I've made something that was supposed to resemble Belgian candy sugar ( I was bored ****less at the time ), from ordinary sugar and citric acid. It set rock-hard but was difficult to handle due to its incredible stickiness...

chthon · Apr 30, 2018

Yes.

Use 150 ml water per 250 g sugar
Use 0.1 g of citric acid (or cream of tartar) per 100 g sugar
Start with heating the water to 80° C
Add 1/3 of the sugar and stir until dissolved, then heat the mixture again up to 80° C
Repeat these steps until you have dissolved all your sugar, possibly increasing the heat to 90° C, but not boiling yet
Add your acid
Then bring softly to the boil
Always keep your thermometer in the mixture
The temperature will increase and around 108° C the temperature will be stable for some time. At this point the excess water is evaporated.
When the temperature increases again, wait until it reaches 114° C. Let it boil a little bit more at that point, one minute is enough
Take the pot off the heat, put its lid on and let it cool until 80°C. At that point you can do it over in another container.

The main reason for using 150 ml water per 250 g sugar is to make sure that no sugar sticks to the sides of the pot due to cristallisation. Last time I made invert syrup I only used 100 ml water for 250 g of sugar, and after cooling I did not get syrup, but a solid. Mind, it is still inverted, but solid. Now for brewing purposes that is not really a problem of course.