Marzetti Old Fashioned Caramel-Dip

[soGGy]

Making a caramel beer. I have some brewing caramel on the way but I found Marzetti Old Fashioned Caramel-Dip at the grocery store and I've been thinking about throwing it in the boil. The problem is it looks pretty fake in the ingredient list and I'm not sure how it'd ferment out. Does anyone have experience with this stuff or other modified foods?


http://www.marzetti.com/products/marzetti/detail.php?bc=36&cid=2&pid=4&i=pl

 

[Revvy]

EWW......Doesn't look anything like what I'd want in my beer. Just make your own caramel with sugar and water and a long boil.

 

[soGGy]

How does butter effect beer? Wouldn't it kill head retention?

 

[Revvy]

You don't want to add any dairy to your fermentation. And all you need to make caramel for brewing is sugar and water. If you want to get fancy with inverting it add a pitch of cream of tartar or lemon juice, but you just boil the heck out of the sugar til it's the color you want, then add it to the boil. You don't need fats or anything to give it a chewy texture, since you're not gonna be chewing it, the yeasts are, and they really don't care what it's texture is, nor do they want any of the fats (they probably are just as weight conscious as we are )

 

[soGGy]

At that point you're just using home made brewing sugars =/

 

[Revvy]

At that point you're just using home made brewing sugars =/

What???? Yeah I guess so.

There's no point in buying "special" sugars from the homebrew shop, it's a ripoff. You think big brewers buy that crap? They use whatever is the cheapest. Buying stuff is for amateurs, including "Belgian Candi Sugar" which is the biggest rip-off there is.

"Belgian candy sugar" is really just whatever sugar the monks and Belgian brewers bought in bulk, then inverted and boiled down to whatever darkness they wanted in their beer. It's not a special magical sugar, grown for them by secret society of castrated elves specially for the monks to brew beer with. It was whatever was reasonably priced in bulk. More often than not it was beet, but it could have been cane, depending on what traders had for them...but "Belgian Candy Sugar" is really just "the sugar that the belgians happened to use." And to me, buying overpriced sugar is ridiculus, especially when you can make your own. I think that the original Belgian Monks would laugh at us silly American homebrewers who pay 3 times as much for it from the LHBS, when we can buy it from bulk food warehouse.

Graham Sanders on the aussie craft brewer radio first brought it up with one of those authors of Beligian Style books, can't recall who.

We've been discussing it for years.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/quick-interesting-read-dubbels-99971/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/candi-sugar-necessity-148786/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/candi-syrup-all-out-stock-128960/#post1445241

And many even argue that if you're just using "clear" cadi sugar or syrup, then just dump it directly in the kettle, since the sugar theoretically inverts itself during the boil. If you are using darker grades in your recipes, then inverting them with a little cream of tartar, citric acid, lemon juice or vinegar, and pre carmalizing them to the level you want is a good idea. There are "recipes" for making candi in both rock and syryp form. It's really easy. No harder than making Candy.

If you want to use interesting sugars go to the nearest Asian or Mexican, or Middle Eastern Market and buy some of those sugars, they'll be 10 times more interesting AND cheaper than any overpriced sugar from the homebrew shops. I've used all manner of fun ones in different beers. Like this in my Sri Lankin Stout.

But for "normal" things that are really just white sugar based, then just make your own.