Owly055
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- Feb 28, 2014
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I did a recipe today that called for a dark candi sugar. I made my own using my own procedure, which results in a dark candi syrup instead of a hard sugar like Belgian candi sugar. The process was to take a quantity of sugar, half a pound in this case, mix it with some citric acid, and add just enough water to make it stirrable... to keep the boil time down. I then put it on medium heat, and pulled some wort from my boil, which I heated to a bare simmer. The sugar thickened very quickly due to the very small amount of water. I don't have a candy thermometer or any other that reads in this temp range....... approaching 300F, as the syrup began to darken, so I did it entirely by color. Of course when the sugar turns dark, it will cool to a solid, hence "candi sugar", but I wanted a liquid. I also wanted invert sugar, hence the acid.
Just as you cannot add water to hot oil, you cannot add water to super heated sugar solution unless you want and explosion, hence the pan of simmering wort. I gradually poured the hot sugar (napalm) into the simmering wort to keep it from boiling out of control over the top......... and it will boil violently. Once it was all transferred, I then poured the hot liquid back into the sugar pan to dissolve the sugar that remained, heating and stirring, then back, and forth a few times to make sure it was all in solution. It was then added to the now cooling wort of my brew. This may sound complex, but it is actually quite simple, and doesn't take long. It lent the brew that had only two row in it, a lovely dark amber color.
I had a few tiny beads of dark brown candi sugar that had dripped off my spoon on the counter at the end. They were rock hard.
Note that this is a dangerous process. Sugar at that temp will take your skin right off, and sticks and burns like white phosphorus or napalm. If you try this, do it very carefully without children present.
H.W.
Just as you cannot add water to hot oil, you cannot add water to super heated sugar solution unless you want and explosion, hence the pan of simmering wort. I gradually poured the hot sugar (napalm) into the simmering wort to keep it from boiling out of control over the top......... and it will boil violently. Once it was all transferred, I then poured the hot liquid back into the sugar pan to dissolve the sugar that remained, heating and stirring, then back, and forth a few times to make sure it was all in solution. It was then added to the now cooling wort of my brew. This may sound complex, but it is actually quite simple, and doesn't take long. It lent the brew that had only two row in it, a lovely dark amber color.
I had a few tiny beads of dark brown candi sugar that had dripped off my spoon on the counter at the end. They were rock hard.
Note that this is a dangerous process. Sugar at that temp will take your skin right off, and sticks and burns like white phosphorus or napalm. If you try this, do it very carefully without children present.
H.W.
