Belgian candi sugar - Page 2

DeadYetiBrew · 09-25-2007, 02:59 AM

Funny this came up, was chatting with my brewing partner. He got some out of the NB catalog (8 dollars for 4 i think). We did the math for promash and the entry should be sugar with a pppg of 1.040 and remember that each pound is actually 1 cup...

The rock candi you get is actually the crystalized form of the syrup, the monks use the syrup and sell the rock candi.

**Jaybird** · 09-25-2007, 06:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_bird

From what I've read/heard, Candi Sugar (the rocks) adds little more than plain white sugar would. Highly fermentable, not a lot of added flavor. Not a traditional ingredient to Belgian brews, more a bastardization.

This stuff, on the other hand, is supposed to be the real deal:

IIRC, this is the stuff that's not fully fermentable, the rocks are essentially 100% fermentable and leave little residual flavor. Pretty sure it was in "Brew Like A Monk" I was reading about a lot of pro brewers moving away from the rocks, as they are a very expensive way of adding very little more than gravity points.

Two caveats:

T'aint tried it myself, and the Belgian I just bottle today, using the rocks, well, it

It's not currently available, at least at Northern Brewer.

and expencive @ 8$ that adds 16+$ to the brew and now I know its expencive to buy and brew belgians but WOW I think I am going to try my hand at making the stuff then if ( WHEN ) it turns out KILLER I have even more braggen rights

and the artical showed how to make the syrup. Good call guys thanks
JJ

iamjonsharp · 09-25-2007, 07:35 PM

I've made the candi sugar before (the rock kind), it's really easy to do, saves alot of money...just follow JayBird's link on his first post, you can make the candi syrup or rocks

zoebisch01 · 09-25-2007, 07:52 PM

From what I have read the main difference between normal table sugar and invert (aka Candi) sugar is that the inversion process produces a more readily digestible form of sugar for the yeast. *shrug*

Where it gets interesting though is the cooking process, you can carmelize the sugars to a degree making for some interesting flavors. Basic brewing radio had a good podcast on a sugar experiment they did.

If you look into many of the great Trappist brews, they use sugar. Sugar certainly does something to the body and mouthfeel that imho is pretty awesome if used properly.

**Orfy** · 09-25-2007, 08:28 PM

I'm trying to gather info here.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/invert-sugar-39732/

**eddie** · 09-25-2007, 08:37 PM

Maybe I'm missing something but isn't candi sugar basically just caramelized invert sugar?

mr x · 09-25-2007, 08:44 PM

I guess it depends on what type (color). I read the Brew like a Monk book, and a US brewer sent clear candi sugar to a lab at ADM to see if they could make it for them locally. The company came back and said buy cane sugar.

**Jaybird** · 09-25-2007, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zoebisch01

From what I have read the main difference between normal table sugar and invert (aka Candi) sugar is that the inversion process produces a more readily digestible form of sugar for the yeast. *shrug*

Where it gets interesting though is the cooking process, you can carmelize the sugars to a degree making for some interesting flavors. Basic brewing radio had a good podcast on a sugar experiment they did.

If you look into many of the great Trappist brews, they use sugar. Sugar certainly does something to the body and mouthfeel that imho is pretty awesome if used properly.

Thanks for the link to the podcast I listened to it and learned a bunch (I think) I am going to take the advice of Mike and use some of the dark syrup like he made and I am only going to use about 1# of it per 10 gal batch and the rest I am going to use the dark Belgian candi sugar my Aunt is bringing me back from Belgian next week.
also do any of you know where to get the ammonium carbonate??? I think I would like to use that instead of the diammonium phosphate.

Cheers
JJ