Invert Sugar and Acidity... water adjustments?

[jimyoung]

Hey everyone! I am gearing up to make a belgian tripel recipe I found, and it called for invert sugar. Using the interwebs, I found the following recipe

Table sugar: 1kg
water: 2 cups
lactic acid 88%: 3ml

I raised it slowly to 113c, and ended up with a light coloured syrup, a little yellow. That's what I wanted

Now I'm no chemist, but that acid I put in. 3ml of lactic... that was a catalyst, and it's still in there, right?
So when I do my brew, I should pay attention to that lactic acid for my water adjustments?

Or am I missing something?

What do others do?

Thanks!!!!

 

[Vale71]

You are correct in assuming the acid is still there and will end up in the wort. However since sugar is usually added to the boil kettle or, even better, to the cooled wort in the FV, it will in practice have no effect on mash chemistry and can therefore be ignored.

 

[jimyoung]

You are correct in assuming the acid is still there and will end up in the wort. However since sugar is usually added to the boil kettle or, even better, to the cooled wort in the FV, it will in practice have no effect on mash chemistry and can therefore be ignored.

Thanks. Yeah I was thinking of that. Wasn't sure if the acid addition would hurt my poor yeast...

 

[kevin58]

Don't use table sugar for making invert. Use a natural cane sugar. The product I use most is called Sugar in the Raw. You can find these sugars in the baking section of your grocery store... buy them from Amazon - or - you can buy already made invert from Adventures in Homebrewing: Welcome to Adventures in Homebrewing - What is your Adventure?

 

[jimyoung]

Thanks Kevin - table sugar is natural cane sugar (where I live), just more refined (to pure sucrose) than turbinado sugar. Turbinado is still (thankfully) highly refined; "raw" is a bit of a marketing misnomer unfortunately.

Why specifically did you suggest using the raw sugar? I'd love to hear your experiences with the flavor it imparts. If I wanted a dark invert, maybe turbinado would be a good option to add complexity to the flavor!

I want a very clean flavour, without the extra flavor tones you'd get from leaving some of the molasses in the sugar, so I opted for the more pure sucrose.

 

[Vale71]

Actually the dark cane sugar is just refined sugar with some molasses added back for color and taste. Any refined sugar regardless of whether it's beet or cane is just pure saccharose.