Determining the yield of homemade Invert Sugar

[goodgodilovebeer]

I've gotten seriously obsessed with English Ales lately and recently purchased Ron Pattinson's book "The Home Brewer's Guide To Vintage Beer".

I've made a batch of No.2 invert sugar, and was curious to know if anyone's got a calculation / procedure for determining the potential yield of a homemade version? I want to accurately add it as an ingredient in BeerSmith since it's used in quite a few recipes.

 

[bitteritdown]

Dissolve 1 lb. in 1 gallon of distilled water and take a hydrometer reading? Perhaps scale it down to 1/4 lb. in a 1/4 gallon.

 

[ajdelange]

What do you mean by yield here? Usually that would be interpreted to mean the pounds of invert sugar produced by reacting 1 pound of sucrose but I suspect that what you really want to know is whether invert sugar produces less extract per pound than sucrose. The answer is that for all practical considerations a pound of sucrose will produce just as much extract as a pound of invert sugar. Furthermore, the specific gravities of 10 °P solutions of sucrose and invert sugar differ by only 1 unit in the fifth decimal place.

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

So, treat it the same as sucrose? Yes, I believe extract yield is what I’m after.

I’m this article it states that: 1 pound added to enough water to equal 1 gallon will give the gravity number I’m looking for.

 

[ajdelange]

Yes, but I don't really see the point in using inverted sugar rather than sucrose. Sucrose is inverted by heating it at a pH of around 5. Acid is added to bring about the low pH (and thus the inversion) and this is subsequently neutralized which, as the article says, introduces salt into the mix. I'd guess that conditions in the mash tun and if not there the kettle bring about the same result without the added salt flavors resulting. But perhaps someone wants those flavors. Now you hinted that you did the inversion yourself presumably using citric acid followed by neutralization with sodium bicarbonate. Perhaps, assuming you either want or don't mind the citrate, and could think about skipping the neutralization. Just consider the citric acid as part of the lactic/phosporic addition you will be making for the grain and water alkalinities. This is not a recommendation as I have never done this. Just something to ponder.

Lyle's was mentioned in the article and I can't see that name without thinking of my colleague whose wife asked him to bring back a couple of tins of Lyles from a business trip to Australia. When he got to his hotel in Sydney (to catch the plane back to the US) he opened the suitcase containing the Lyles to get a clean shirt for the next day only to find that the lower pressure of his internal Australian flight had resulted in the lids popping off both tins so that all his kit was floating in Lyles.

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

Using the invert sugar is more of a traditional recipe exploration for me. Technically speaking, a gravity point is a gravity point, but there's something fulfilling about using authentic ingredients, and judging by the taste of the finished syrup (roughly 35 SRM), it's definitely going to impart something unique.

No, I didn't neutralize the syrup afterwards. But, thanks for mentioning the acidity of it...not something I'd given much thought to, honestly.

Oh wow, that would suuuuck! I'd imagine the laundry at the hotel had a chuckle bout the Lyle's scented shirts.