Candi Sugar

Following instructions from this board and a few other places on the internet, I made candi sugar last night for my upcoming brew of a Belgian Strong Ale this weekend. It went quite well, that is, after 25 minutes in the grocery store looking for non-existent citric acid. (I eventually just bought a lemon).

It didn't take as long as I thought, either. I got it to about the color of a Newcastle in about 30 minutes.

cowain said:

It didn't take as long as I thought, either. I got it to about the color of a Newcastle in about 30 minutes.

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That was about my experience as well. I made two different batches a couple weeks ago: a pound of light (for a saison) and a pound of maybe dark amber (for a dubbel).

I really don't know if it's necessary--sounds like plain-old sugar would probably be fine if the recipe only calls for a pound. But it was easy, and we made a little extra of the darker and the kids enjoyed eating some.

cweston said:

I really don't know if it's necessary--sounds like plain-old sugar would probably be fine if the recipe only calls for a pound.

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Not me. I did Mr. Beer before doing real brewing and made the mistake of using regular sugar for bottling. Every batch I made except the stout had a strong cidery flavor. I'm not tossing any plain cane sugar in anything I make because of that experience.

Candi sugar is actually just plain sucrose...table sugar. So if you want to use candi sugar, you can either buy the expensive stuff by the ounce that your LHBS or you can buy the cheap stuff at the grocery store, but either way it's exactly the same stuff.

What you made is Invert Sugar, which is sucrose broken down into simpler sugars glucose and fructose, and, yeah, it isn't hard at all, especially if you just use the molten sugar in liquid form.

Citric acid can be gotten from homebrew stores. morebeer.com has it I think and I know beveragepeople does. It's much more concentrated than lemon so it does work better.

Cheers

Where can I find the instructions on this board regarding how to do this process?

Also, if I am making hard candy from sugar . . . is this different than just putting sugar into the brew?

I will assume that it is . . . but I'd like to know how/why?

Making hard candy isn't really any different from just adding table sugar except that you'll caramelize some of the sugar and change the color/flavor/fermentability a bit. If you want to use the ingredient "Belgian Candi Sugar", you can either spend a lot at the HBS or use bags of white sugar from the grocery store. The real Belgian Candi Sugar is just sugar dissolved in water and then allowed to crystallize on strings hanging in the water.

Invert sugar involves cooking the sugar with citric acid. This breaks the sucrose into simpler sugars that the yeast can ferment much more easily. It will taste cleaner and ferment faster and more easily.

They each have their place in the sceme of things. But it can get confusing.

To make Invert Sugar:
Take as much sucrose as you want (table sugar) and add just enough water to make a thick paste. You'll have to cook all the water off anyway, so the less you add the better. Heat on high stirring constantly. Warning, this stuff can boil over like wort, but it's MUCH messier.

Add about 1/4-1/2 tsp of citric acid (from morebeer.com or beveragepeople.com). Continue to raise the heat until it's at 300 degrees F. Hold it there as long as you'd like. It will darken and generate more unfermentable sugars as it caramelizes. I usually go for the lightest sugar I can.

Then you pour it into your wort. Be careful. It's much hotter than the wort. Stir well so none sticks to the bottom.

Alternately, you can make it ahead of time, heat the sugar to "hard crack" stage and then cool it and keep the "Invert rock candy".

A good time to make the sugar is while you're sparging or while the boil is heating up. Takes me maybe 20 minutes.

Cheers

I was under the impression that Belgian Candi Sugar was invert sugar, only with the additional step of some carmelization. Regardless, that's what I made and that's what is going into the Belgian Strong Ale this weekend.

Also, I tasted what I made and it is much different than regular sucrose. Reminds me of some of the malt extract I used to use for Mr. Beer.

sonvolt said:

Where can I find the instructions on this board regarding how to do this process?

Also, if I am making hard candy from sugar . . . is this different than just putting sugar into the brew?

I will assume that it is . . . but I'd like to know how/why?

Click to expand...

Here is the link to the post.

Good luck,
Wild