Janx
Well-Known Member
My current understanding of candi sugar:
It is in fact just sucrose, table sugar, derived from cane or beets. It dates from a time when refining processes were not what they are today. The Belgian brewers would dissolve the sugar, then let crystals form on strings...rock candy...in order to "refine" it and leave behind impurities. It is my understanding that candi sugar is no different from cane sugar. I have also read that despite the prevalence of beet sugar in Northern Europe, cane sugar was more often used because it was more pure. With modern sugar refining methods, it really doesn't matter which you use, as someone pointed out. Sucrose is sucrose is sucrose.
Invert sugar is different. I've been using that in a lot of my beers. British beers have included invert sugar for a long time. It's more accepted there than in Germany, or even among microbrewers in the states. Invert sugar is where you take sucrose and cook it with some citric acid to split it into simpler sugars, as someone mentioned earlier in the thread. It's much more easily metabolized by the yeast and produces a cleaner flavor. It's really easy to make and a lot of fun to add to a big beer.
It's my understanding that the Belgians do use some sort of liquid candi sugar. I don't know if that would be sucrose or glucose/fructose(invert). There seems to be a lot of confusion on this issue. In any event, most Belgian beers are aged for a long time, so even sucrose would have time to ferment out fully.
British brewers can get invert sugar in syrup form, I understand, and have it delivered by trucks to tanks.
I did some experiments after reading that candi sugar was nothing more than sucrose (because bags of sugar are way cheaper than candi sugar at the LHBS). Compared to invert sugar, the cane sugar took a lot longer to ferment out clean. I didn't taste much if any difference. After all, you add sugar to give a strong beer more alcohol without adding flavor or body. And does it ever work!
Now I just go ahead and invert it, saving the yeast some effort, and producing quicker, cleaner results. Just take however much cane sugar you want to use. Add enough water to just make a thick syrup. Add 1/4 tsp or so citric acid (for 2-3 pounds of sugar). Cook it on the stove until it's at about 300 degrees Fahrenheit. I then just dump the hot syrup into my wort. I always make the sugar during the sparge.
Cheers!
It is in fact just sucrose, table sugar, derived from cane or beets. It dates from a time when refining processes were not what they are today. The Belgian brewers would dissolve the sugar, then let crystals form on strings...rock candy...in order to "refine" it and leave behind impurities. It is my understanding that candi sugar is no different from cane sugar. I have also read that despite the prevalence of beet sugar in Northern Europe, cane sugar was more often used because it was more pure. With modern sugar refining methods, it really doesn't matter which you use, as someone pointed out. Sucrose is sucrose is sucrose.
Invert sugar is different. I've been using that in a lot of my beers. British beers have included invert sugar for a long time. It's more accepted there than in Germany, or even among microbrewers in the states. Invert sugar is where you take sucrose and cook it with some citric acid to split it into simpler sugars, as someone mentioned earlier in the thread. It's much more easily metabolized by the yeast and produces a cleaner flavor. It's really easy to make and a lot of fun to add to a big beer.
It's my understanding that the Belgians do use some sort of liquid candi sugar. I don't know if that would be sucrose or glucose/fructose(invert). There seems to be a lot of confusion on this issue. In any event, most Belgian beers are aged for a long time, so even sucrose would have time to ferment out fully.
British brewers can get invert sugar in syrup form, I understand, and have it delivered by trucks to tanks.
I did some experiments after reading that candi sugar was nothing more than sucrose (because bags of sugar are way cheaper than candi sugar at the LHBS). Compared to invert sugar, the cane sugar took a lot longer to ferment out clean. I didn't taste much if any difference. After all, you add sugar to give a strong beer more alcohol without adding flavor or body. And does it ever work!
Now I just go ahead and invert it, saving the yeast some effort, and producing quicker, cleaner results. Just take however much cane sugar you want to use. Add enough water to just make a thick syrup. Add 1/4 tsp or so citric acid (for 2-3 pounds of sugar). Cook it on the stove until it's at about 300 degrees Fahrenheit. I then just dump the hot syrup into my wort. I always make the sugar during the sparge.
Cheers!