Infusing Invert Sugar.

[poops4president]

I dont know how original this idea is but I am going to give it a try soon. I was thinking about adding a couple oz of nutmeg and ginger and vanilla and cinnamon to the sugar and doing that up per the directions on this site. I know that fermentation tends to ferment off some of the more volatile compounds... but I dont want to beat people over the head saying "OMG THERES HOLIDAY SPICES IN THE CHRISTMAS STOUT!!!!!!" I was thinking of once the syrup is done insted of hardening it, just dumping it in the secondary letting a cool a good bit and racking from the primary ontop of it.

now i need to find a simple stout that would be good for something like this. not too to bold but higher in gravity then your average stout. (9% abv or higher?)

[Barley-Davidson]

I think the sugar would harden in the bottom of the secondary rather than mix with and flavor the beer. Probably be a bitch to clean out of the carboy, too.
You could make a "tea" out of your spices and add them to secondary, but add the sugar to the boil, IMO.

[MrMarbleHead]

Also I don't know if you would want to put sugar in liquid form into a glass carboy. may not be a good outcome if it is still upward of a couple of hundred degrees. I agree that it would mrethen likely end up as hardend sugar on the bottom of your corboy and you would be a real bitch to get out of there.

[poops4president]

u dont think the yeast would eat the sugars? I figgured if tehy can eat the carmalized sugars off brewing stones then they shouldnt have a problem slowly eating away at teh bottom of a carboy... but that is a good point.

[MrMarbleHead]

Yeah they probably would eat up the sugar given enough time but you would want to drop the hardened sugar in there not the liquid.

[Ó Flannagáin]

hot syrup straight to the fermenter would be a bad idea... it would rock up instantly and splash you in the face probably too. then the sticky sugar rocks.. still hot, might hurt your fermenter.

[Lerxst]

if your goal is to get spices into your beer and keep em subtle, then I would look more at creating a tincture w/ some vodka & your spices that can be added to the secondary/bottling bucket at the exact intensity you want than what your thinking with the sugars...

[poops4president]

ok so no hot liquids in the fermenter...but this made me think I've read somewhere that supposidly the belgians use liquid candy syrup not rocks. how does one keep it a liquid then? (i need to make some so I understand how exactly to handle the stuff.)

[Lerxst]

ok so no hot liquids in the fermenter...but this made me think I've read somewhere that supposidly the belgians use liquid candy syrup not rocks. how does one keep it a liquid then? (i need to make some so I understand how exactly to handle the stuff.)

my pref would be a kettle addition at the end/flame-out but if you are going to feed your yeast additional sugar into the primary, I would incorporate it by diluting it w/ hot water first to make it easier to get into solution (and sanitize if necessary).

[Ó Flannagáin]

You can make a syrup somehow... I'm not sure how though. You can also add hot liquids to your primary, if it's a small amount. But hot candi sugar is asking for a disaster, once it reaches "hard ball" stage while cooking it, as soon as it touches a colder liquid it rocks up and will splash everywhere if it's larger than say a spoonful or so.