Trouble making dark Candi sugar

[Monkhouse]

I’m trying to make a batch of dark Candi sugar for a quad I’m making on Monday but I can’t get it to darken past an amber colour. Any advice at all?

 

[YeastFace]

Here's a guide from Jacques, who is an accomplished brewer of Belgian styles.

He makes a syrup rather than bakes it into crystals.

https://londonamateurbrewers.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Candi_Sugar_Recipe

 

[Agentgonzo]

Cook it longer

 

[Nottsbeer]

Here's a guide from Jacques, who is an accomplished brewer of Belgian styles.

He makes a syrup rather than bakes it into crystals.

https://londonamateurbrewers.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Candi_Sugar_Recipe

Hi, just curious. The link you gave notes to add the syrup at high karusen (around day 3). When I used bought syrup the info I found was to add it during the last 10 mins of the boil. Do you think this makes much difference? Just wondering what effect the different addition times may have to the final brew, if any. Cheers.

 

[Monkhouse]

Cook it longer

I cooked it for well over an hour. I don’t think I could watch a sugar thermometer bounce between hard ball and soft crack for over an hour and a half … surely I must be missing something. I’ve seen other recipes for dark Candi using soft brown sugar/ is t is the way forward?

 

[Pennine]

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/belgian-candi-sugar-rocks-dark-1kg-2/?v=e892e780304d
Time is worth more than 6.50.

 

[chthon]

You can do this better in the oven, on a fixed temperature for a couple of hours.

However, technically (and legally), this is not candy syrup. Candy syrup is the liquid remains of an oversaturated solution of sugar, where the candy suga

 

[Monkhouse]

Well I managed to get the darkness I wanted in the end, it only took me around 3 hours

 

[RoomWithABrew]

I had success with

Thread '20 lb of sugar and a jar of yeast nutrient' https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/20-lb-of-sugar-and-a-jar-of-yeast-nutrient.114837/V

 

[dad_of_jon]

Well I managed to get the darkness I wanted in the end, it only took me around 3 hours

As a lover of candy syrup I let someone else pay the energy bill to make it, based on an unproven idea that they get a better price per KWH than me and economies of scale and all that.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Took me about an hour, stove top not on for all that time. Energy use can't be that much. Clear and amber are about 7.50 pounds converted for 500g so a lot cheaper to make. That doesn't include the postage either.

Remnants that I used for the bottling of a dubbel.

 

[peebee]

You can't kid me. That post has nowt to do with "Candi Sugar" <sic>. You're just showing off that even in the middle of your Winter, your weather is better than we've got over here,

 

[crescent city Mike]

Here's a method a friend of mine came up with for making invert syrups. It works!
https://crescentcitybrewtalk.com/brewing-sugars-iii-inverting/

 

[peebee]

I've been very good of late of not exploding in reaction to minor slips in bull$h** about "Candi Sugar", and now we have "invert syrup" it seems.

What people put in their beer is entirely up to them, and I'm sure some "Candi Sugar" brews are very nice. But start making false claims that they are necessary and were created that way historically, and I am going to argue and attempt to shout down those spreading such fallacies!

Note: @crescent city Mike makes no such claims, but the character he's linking does (possibly an old uneducated article?), making suggestions by referring to the old numbering scheme used for real Brewers Invert Syrups - even Ragus (the last remaining manufacturer of Brewers Invert Sugars) don't do that anymore, using the terms "L", "M" and "D" (their Invert Sugars are "emulations" of what originally happened).


Newbie homebrewers have enough on their plates without leading them to believe they must boil hot-as-Hades sugar solutions for hours on end to get "authentic" results (or give someone wads of dosh to pretend to do it for them).


Eeee ... haven't had a good rant for ages!

 

[Agentgonzo]

I use dark sugar syrup in my strong Belgians. Chuck sugar, a teaspoon of water and a pinch of citric acid* in a pan, heat on stove until it's the colour you want. Job done in maybe 15 minutes.

*I still don't know whether the citric acid has any effect.

 

[peebee]

*I still don't know whether the citric acid has any effect.

May be? Could be causing some "inversion" (sucrose -> glucose + fructose). The fructose caramelises without ramping the temperature to silly heat (which will destroy any fructose!). But perhaps bicarb. is better? The alkaline environment helps so-called "Maillard" reactions. Apparently, a pinch of bicarb. does wonders for caramelising onions (I think it was our leader on this site that gave me that tip).

[EDIT: Not this site, the "other" site! Sorry @Chippy_Tea if I caused any confusion! Sometimes I forget which forum site I'm on (causes major confusion when I start ranting about something sparked off on the "other" site!).]

 

[Agentgonzo]

May be? Could be causing some "inversion" (sucrose -> glucose + fructose). The fructose caramelises without ramping the temperature to silly heat

I was meaning in terms of flavour

 

[RoomWithABrew]

@peebee
Hopefully this vista will calm you. Inverted sugar is different from candi sugar. Necessary who's to say. Beer was good with it though.
First taste of the dubbel last night at brew club we all enjoyed it
Weather at weekend was better.
Wellington not always windy.

 

[dad_of_jon]

I use all sorts of sugars and syrups. Next up is a maple porter, made with maple syrup and coconut sugar.

 

[peebee]

@peebee
Hopefully this vista will calm you.

Calm me! You are just rubbing in that we've got lousy weather in the UK all the more! Grrrr