Making British invert syrup at home

[roblanderson]

I attempted to make invert #3 for the first time last week. I followed the guidelines from this thread and from Ron Pattinson's historical recipe book.

I started with 2 lbs of Rapadura raw sugar, 4 cups of water and 1/2 tsp cream of tartar.

I brought the water to a boil, turned off the heat and stirred in the sugar, followed by the cream of tartar. Then I turned the heat back on and stirred frequently. It took a long time to get the temp up to my target of 240F - probably close to an hour. Next time I'll use a larger pot, because even medium heat caused a rapid risk of a boil over.

I has able to hold the temp right around 240F for another 2 hours. I think the highest I saw was 244F. This is towards the end of the boil:

I then turned off the heat and let it cool in the pot before attempting to transfer to some mason jars. I don't think I got any inversion - as it cooled the syrup got very hard and stiff.

I ended up just leaving in the pot. When I needed to add it to my brew (during the boil) later that night I added a little bit of water and heated it back up enough so I could get it to pour out of the pot.

It tasted very good, so I'm not concerned about the beer, but I'll try a few things different next time.

I'll use citric acid instead of cream of tartar. Everything I read indicated the cream of tartar would work fine, but it seems like everyone used citric acid, so I'll try that. I'll also try a demerara sugar that is in crystallized form instead of the Rapdura.

If anyone has other suggestions let me know!

 

[Gnomebrewer]

There's a lot of discussion of invert syrup in this thread
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=472464

I've tried it once and found the process a bit of a PITA. I prefer these syrups
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=114837
which may not be traditional in English beers, but taste great. I've started using them to carbonate my English ales (mostly bitters).

 

[pepperford]

This is a link to the method I use. http://www.unholymess.com/blog/ Be aware if you use turbinado or other dark sugar you are starting with a fairly dark invert from the start and the price is quite a bit more. Using the black strap cheat is a good workaround when you get tired of stirring for over two hours. Good luck with the next batch.