Has anyone ever tried using ground up simple candies (Pez, smarties, any other basic "compressed sugar" kind of candies) in place of regular sugar when bottling? As a Pez collector and home brewer, I was trying to think of a way to combine the two. I didn't really think adding the candies to the wort would be a good idea, but I thought maybe using the ground candies in the bottling solution could impart both the sugar needed and the flavor of the candies into the beer.
Using candy in beer
- Thread starter bigadam
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
people have done all sorts of stuff with candies, in bottling, in the boil....People regularly make schnapps type drinks with them as well. People have used hard mint candies in chocolate stouts, tootsie rolls, life savers, lemon candies- anything you can think of. If it's sugar, and it can be broken down, it's been used.
Working with candies, of ALL types is quite common.
The best thing to do is to melt those things down first, it makes it easier for the yeast to get to them. Usually a double boiler is the best thing for that. Then you can add them to the boil, or to the bottling bucket.
The biggest thing, if bottling, is to figure out EXACTLY how much sugar is in there, so you don't over and under prime whatever you are doing. You can use any fermentable for priming. I give detailed info on priming with alternative primers including fruit juice (including the link to the podcast,) and other sugars including mollasses in my bottling stickey- Scroll to the lower half of this post.
I even talk about candy in there.
Working with candies, of ALL types is quite common.
The best thing to do is to melt those things down first, it makes it easier for the yeast to get to them. Usually a double boiler is the best thing for that. Then you can add them to the boil, or to the bottling bucket.
The biggest thing, if bottling, is to figure out EXACTLY how much sugar is in there, so you don't over and under prime whatever you are doing. You can use any fermentable for priming. I give detailed info on priming with alternative primers including fruit juice (including the link to the podcast,) and other sugars including mollasses in my bottling stickey- Scroll to the lower half of this post.
I even talk about candy in there.
Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
I could see using hop candy to prime for bottle carbonating. :rockin:
I should send you some. I think I still have a ton of it, when the guy who invented it sent me a fairly large box full....
It would be interesting to break them down (the one's I have are like jolly ranchers) in a double boiler and prime with them.
bigadam, the biggest concern is what fillers are in many candies, also the wax/laquer content, that is usually added to the outside of candies to make the shiny (another benefit from breaking them down in a double boiler is you can skim any wax or laquer from the top of the liquid.)
Gel candies like MIKE and IKES, or Gummies, may not be all that usable if they use a lot of gums and other things in the processing of them.
So it's often better to stick to hard candies.
Thanks for the suggestions, I'm going to mess around with melting some down tonight to see how much I'd have to skim off this weekend when I'm brewing. I'd actually be interested to see what the flavors would add to the overall end product. I'm thinking of making a light lager with either lemon or orange candies to see if that flavor is detectable in the end.
Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
Use the candy in the bottles. Chances are, anything they might add will get blown out the airlock during fermentation.
JonGrafto
Well-Known Member
A guy in my homebrew club makes a beer called electric lollipop... He used 3 lbs of dum-dum lollipops in his... Beer comes out tasting good. Different. But good.
we had a local pub brew a Double Bubble Gum DIPA ... OMG never thought i would be able to stop drinking it.. till we killed the keg 
i think he said he used 300 pieces in the 5 gal batch and was a complete experiment.
i think he said he used 300 pieces in the 5 gal batch and was a complete experiment.
johngaltsmotor
Well-Known Member
so Revvy, you say you know the guy who invented hop candy... any chance he shared the recipe?
I've got more than enough home grown hops for my brewing schedule and making home made caramel at this time of year is a tradition so it would be worth the time to test an experimental batch of Hoppy Ranchers.
I've got more than enough home grown hops for my brewing schedule and making home made caramel at this time of year is a tradition so it would be worth the time to test an experimental batch of Hoppy Ranchers.
Actually I don't know if he INVENTED hop candy, I think a lot of folks did it. He just was one of them to bring it to market. There is a recipe on here for hop flavored lollipops that a woman posted on here a couple years ago.
I thought I did, but I could be wrong. I wanted to make hop scented soap but the scent didn't stick so I tried it with some candy one Christmas when I was making hard tack for gifts and it kinda worked.
I got a report from DeFalco's down in Houston that one piece of candy works to carbonate a pint sized bottle and adds a slight bit of hoppiness to the beer. I've never tried it as I haven't bottled for about 20 years now but could see it working.
Hop On!!
Similar threads
