Been watching this thread for a couple of years now and finally pulled the trigger and made some Sugar #5 for a Belgian Dark Strong. I used an All-Clad pot which has a really thick bottom. I also put a 1/4" aluminum plate under the pot on the gas stove to further distribute the heat. I had 3 thermometers - one candy thermometer, a Thermapen, and an infared. I found the candy thermometer awkward to use as it was always in the pot and it seemed to lag the other two by 5 - 10 degrees and was difficult to read so I scrapped it and went mainly with the infared and double checked from time to time with the Thermapen. I used fairly low heat throughout the whole process (it took over an hour to get to 290° the first time!) I found it interesting that I started seeing color at about 230° (about like the 260° picture). By the time I got to 290° the syrup was at least as dark as the 300° picture and the flavor was close to the description of the 300°. I'm trying to figure out where I went wrong so I can correct for next time. Any Ideas? I know somebody mentioned earlier in the thread that they just go by color and don't even use a thermometer. Maybe that's the way to go.