How to: Make your own invert (candi) sugar cheap (with pics)

[Ó Flannagáin]

Some keywords for the goog: How to make your own candi sugar with pictures, belgian candi sugar, candy sugar, invert sugar

Candi sugar is a popular ingredient in Belgian ales due to its ability to boost alcohol, keep the body of the beer light and add a non-existent to moderate aroma and flavor that is caramel like.

Making your own candi sugar is very easy and 1/10 the price you would pay for candi sugar from a brew store. There are three ingredients needed: water, table sugar (sucrose) and a form of citrus acid or cream of tartar. You will also need a pot, spoon and a dish of water. The solution will need to be set out to cool, once it is cooked. It turns rock hard and will stick to whatever surface it is touching. I recommend a silicon mat which can be found at Bed, Bath and Beyond or online at cooking stores.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/images/c/c2/Ingredients.jpg


The following is step-by-step to make 2lbs of Amber Candi Sugar, without a thermometer

First weigh out how much candi sugar you will want in sucrose. Here is 2lbs of sucrose ready to be inverted.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/images/e/e5/Sugarweighed.jpg

Add the sugar and enough water to the pot to create a syrupy mix. Squirt around a half tbsp of lemon juice, citric acid or a tsp of cream of tartar per pound of sugar then place on a heat source and set the temperature to high.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/images/f/fb/Syrupy.jpg

Syrupy water and sugar mix

The boil will start not long after. Be sure to stir a LOT. You do not want sugar getting burnt onto the bottom of the pot. You should also turn the heat down to medium/medium-high.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/images/9/9a/Boilstarts.jpg

Once the sugar water begins to turn yellow you have clear candi sugar, here you follow the next step and proceed to have clear candi sugar (although it will actually be slightly yellow). Otherwise, you can add a tablespoon of cool water every couple minutes and keep it at this temperature. It will slowly turn darker and you can stop and follow the next step whenever it reaches the color you are after. Here we go to a nice deep amber color.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/images/8/82/Yellowstarts.jpg

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/images/5/5a/Amber.jpg

Once you reach your desired color, turn the heat all the way back up to high and let it get really hot for a minute or two. I like to cover the pot to help achieve a really hot state quicker.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/images/f/f4/Lidon.jpg

After a couple minutes, pull the pot off the heat and pour onto your silicon mat.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/images/3/3b/Pouring.jpg

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/images/5/51/Inpan.jpg

Set the pan into a refrigerator and let cool until hardened. Once hard, pull out of fridge, break into pieces and put into a plastic bag. You will have close to the same weight of candi sugar that you had of table sugar. Store in freezer until you are ready to use!

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/images/1/10/Hardened.jpg

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/images/d/d9/Endweigh.jpg

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/images/2/2e/Rocks.jpg

[sanders5x]

That is a nice guide! Us homebrewers are always looking to make our own!

[MrMarbleHead]

Sweet, guess I should have looked around a bit first. Thanks Flanny!

[BeerBilly]

Built a batch of this today for tomorrows brew,a witbier.Thanks for the great info!

[mr x]

Has TBH torched the thread over there? Pic links don't work.:(

[MrMarbleHead]

Just needed to be fixed, I got it. a lot of the threads from before the switch to vB got skewed, if you see anymore like that just let a mod know so they can fix it.

[JustDave]

Pics look fine for me.

Which is odd, because I could have sworn they didn't work in the past for this thread.

[Ó Flannagáin]

Thanks WOP! Thought I had gotten this one

[MrMarbleHead]

I do have a question about this though. Since i have seen of lately that true belgian breweries don't use the hard candy sugar, how would you make this as a syrup? Is there any difference? I would assume that you just don't heat to as high of a temp, maybe just simmer it. I have a candy thermometer at home and it has marked on it lables at different temps to achieve different consitancies in sugars, i.e. "hard crack", "soft Crack" and so on. I think that there is one on there that says syrup but i can't remember right now.

[Ó Flannagáin]

You can always melt the rocks down into syrup before adding... pretty much the same thing I believe. I think that Alton Brown episode about making candi tells how to keep it as a syrup, I don't remember what he did though.

[PseudoChef]

Start from corn syrup and add some yeast nutrient (diammonium phosphate). I have no idea what the DAP does, but this is how Mosher describes it, and in a tasting I did with my club it was the hands-down winner. Costs a little more than using cane sugar, but still more than half the cost of buying it from the homebrew store.

[Ó Flannagáin]

I suspect the DAP does the same thing as citrus or tartar. Alton said there needs to be something during the cooking process that keeps the crystals from recombining once they start breaking down. SO you could probably use lemon juice with the corn syrup as well.

[MrMarbleHead]

After brushing up on my candy making skills on the interwebz (i't been a long time since culinary arts school), the only difference in "rock candi" and syrup is the temp you allow it to reach during the boiling.

To keep it as a syrup don't let it get above 275 during the boiling of it. And keep on hand some cool water to add to the boil to help maintain your temp. Then when you are done with the boil add some water to bring back to the desired consistancy.

From a couple of different sources i read, most of the candi syrups that are imported use straight sugar (beet or cane) and no acids. Given enough time and heat the sugar will invert itself. Great for making dark syrup, but not so if you are making a light syrup.

Think I am going to try and make some syrup for a Belgian Dark Strong I want to make.

[PseudoChef]

I suspect the DAP does the same thing as citrus or tartar. Alton said there needs to be something during the cooking process that keeps the crystals from recombining once they start breaking down. SO you could probably use lemon juice with the corn syrup as well.

I'm not so sure. He talks about making hard candi sugar as well where he states to use the acid. I don't know why he would use DAP one instance and acid in the other if you could just use the more common acid both times.

EDIT:

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[flyangler18]

Here's some hard candi I made this morning; I still prefer using corn syrup for flavor and ease of handling.

http://www.homebrewchatter.com/board/picture.php?albumid=128&pictureid=971

[Ó Flannagáin]

Looks good! Guess I need to try the corn syrup method. Basically the same as table sugar method?

[Cliff]

Cream of tartar is potassium bitartrate.
It's a by-product of the wine making.
A substance called argol or tartar forms during the fermentation. It's recovered from the sides of the wood casks. That's cream of tartar.

In candy making the acidity serves as an interfering agent facilitating the inversion of sucrose into fructose and glucose while interfering with crystallization.

In candy making this is good because it prevents crystallization giving the candy maker a more manageable product. You can stop the process while the sugar is yet crystal clear or keep cooking to get some caramel color and flavor.

In beer making it gives you more readily ferment-able sugars.
Conceivably, you could just use corn sugar but you'd pay more for it while not getting the amber color one gets by taking the candy into the caramel-ish coloration.


The lemon juice is another acid in the interfering process.
Some candy makers also use vinegar.

[Ó Flannagáin]

Hey, tyhanks for the write up, cliff!!

[shrekfx]

Damn it. I just made some and well turned out a bit darker then I wated. I wanted amber candi sugar and ended up with dark candi sugar LOL..

[PseudoChef]

I just made some last night, but used the DAP method to create the Maillards. Really need to keep it over low heat and shoot for a longer reduction or else you'll end up scorching it. Add a little water at the end and incorporate completely to bring the temp back down below 240 (soft ball) to avoid recrystallization. A smidgen of corn syrup can be added for shelf life, but may not be necessary.

http://imgur.com/8Lxkk.jpg

http://imgur.com/2FcwJ.jpg

[shrekfx]

I think I did scorch it at the end using flans method. I got to the color i wanted a nice amber color, turn it to high, covered it for not more then 30 secs and it got real dark real fast. I just cracked it up and tasted one and it does taste burnt.. Is this batch ruined or is that what dark candi sugar taste like?