Inverse Sugar to Honey conversion

[Aguirre]

Hi all,

I have a recipe that calls for 1/3 lb of Invert Sugar. The guy at my LHBS suggested using honey instead. Should I use 1/3 lb or a different amount?

Thank you for any help you can provide.

 

[SnickASaurusRex]

Invert sugar is easy. Just take the sugar, add a little water and bring it to a boil. continue to cook over medium heat until about 270F-280F then add a little more water and stir continue to cook this until it it reaches 240F this will yield a nice syrup.

I would suggest making a pound of it.

1 lb sugar
1/2 cup water
boil to 280F
1/2 cup water
boil to 240F

Use a candy thermometer.

or just use regular sugar. 1/3 pound will not cause any problems.

Honey's not a bad substitute in small amounts, but stick to very neutral honey if you don't want it to impart a honey-ness to the beer.

use a little more than 1/3 lb as honey has some water weight to it. Maybe 1/3 lb + 1-2 oz

 

[yermej]

Invert sugar also has water in it. As in baking, you can make a 1:1 substitution by weight - the only issue might be the flavor that honey will add, but that depends on what you're looking for in the final product.

If you want to make invert sugar, you should add a very small amount of cream of tartar or another acid to help the inversion along.

As SnickASaurus mentioned, I think 1/3 regular sugar wouldn't be too big a deal in place of the invert, but if you want, post your recipe so we can be more certain about that.

 

[Aguirre]

Thanks for the help gentlemen.

The recipe isn't too complex:

1/2 oz black patent
4 oz crystal malt

steeped for 30 mins at *150 then sparged w. a gallon of *170 water

4lbs extra light dme
1/3lb inverse sugar (used honey)

1 oz Williamette hops
1/2 oz Golding hops
(for 45 mins)

1/4 oz Williamette hops
1/4 oz Golding hops
(15 mins before end of boil)

1/4 oz Golding hops
1/4 oz Williamette hops
(3 mins before end of boil)

It's supposed to be an English Bitter, but it was a little darker than I expected. I went ahead and used the honey, I'll be sure to post how it turns out.

 

[rocketman768]

Inverting sugar is easy...if x is the amount of sugar, just compute 1/x to invert the sugar

For real, if the honey isn't really dark, you won't notice the difference between using invert sugar and honey.