My Candi Sugar is really bitter

mr x · 11-17-2007, 05:40 PM

I tried making some dark candi sugar using info from Ó Flannagáin' thread and this page:

http://www.franklinbrew.org/brewinfo/candi_sugar.html

I used a clean ss pot with a good thick base for the pot and RO water for the syrup. I tried making three pounds, and put in 1 tsp of Crosby and Baker dry citric acid powder.

I started slow with the heat and gently boiled for 2 hours at around 265f. The color gradually changed from clear to very dark over that time. Appearance wise, it looks fantastic. But the taste is wicked bitter. Did I put in too much acid? I tasted at the early stages when a light yellow color, and there was no bitterness, but I could clearly detect a lemony flavour before the sweetness kicked in. At amber it was about the same. Once it went to deep amber (about one hour), the first flavour is very bitter. Is this what you are supposed to get? It definitely didn't burn...

**Orfy** · 11-17-2007, 07:18 PM

It's caramelised. If you take it to far then it will go bitter.

mr x · 11-17-2007, 07:39 PM

That's really strange. It didn't seem to be very dark at all when it became bitter. So is it basically useless?

**Orfy** · 11-17-2007, 07:41 PM

You can use it in smaller amounts if you want to.

Ó Flannagáin · 11-17-2007, 07:48 PM

I don't understand how it could be bitter. It's pure sugar. You must have used to much citric powder I guess? I figure that would make it sour though. The powder is 100% citric? I would still think too much of that would just make it sour/tart if anything. I use lemon juice, but I've read over and over that people use citric acid... 2 hours seems like a long time to me as well, I dunno.

**Orfy** · 11-17-2007, 07:50 PM

Caramelising sugar does add bitterness.

Ó Flannagáin · 11-17-2007, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orfy

Caramelising sugar does add bitterness.

Oh, well then yea, I suspect it's from how long you cooked it then. Usually takes me less the 30 minutes to get amber and less then 45-50 for dark.

mr x · 11-17-2007, 07:58 PM

I don't understand how it happened. I was trusting the Franklinbrew link above for making the sugar. It said keep the temp at 260-275 until you hit your color, which I did. Then go to 300. No problem. I did this with my rtd temp controller, and I double checked with another rtd , so I'm pretty confident about that(next time I'm getting a candy thermometer as well). They also mentioned that the dark sugar is really dark and can take hours, so I thought 2 would suffice going very slow with the heat. Pics I've seen of the bottled syrup are very dark. Anyway, back to the drawing board. I'm cutting way back on the citric next time.

They looked so pretty

mr x · 11-17-2007, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ó Flannagáin

Oh, well then yea, I suspect it's from how long you cooked it then. Usually takes me less the 30 minutes to get amber and less then 45-50 for dark.

It was bitter at amber though, and I'm not sure about the dynamics, but I thought that if you didn't go out of the temperature range between hard ball and soft crack, it should have been ok. More reading to do...

Ó Flannagáin · 11-17-2007, 08:07 PM

OH, man, they did look pretty. Are you sure that they aren't supposed to be a bit bitter at that level? I've never tasted dark candy sugar, just thrown it into my boils.