Candy Sugar.

[Dave70]

I'll be needing some for my next batch, probably a double or Belgian something or other.
Could you substitute with golden syrup (depending on the style) ?
There seems to be plenty of info around on how to make your own, but is it just one of those things where you are better off just saving the time and hassle and buying it off the shelf ? If so, where do you get it?

cheers

 

[Shed101]

You can buy it from all the usual suspects, but it's bloomin' expensive for what it is.

Maybe because it uses beet sugar which you can't get easily here?

I made a batch using a Siena cake recipe with just honey and cane sugar (no water), the beer (an EKG Pale Ale experiment) has taken six weeks to smooth out nicely.

Tate & Lyle Golden Syrup will be beet-based I suppose - is that why people use it as a substitute?

 

[manticle]

Whether it comes from beet or cane, it's still sucrose which has been inverted. There's a forum around somewhere discussing the ins and outs including some information from the manufacturer.

The D2 syrup is pretty extraordinary and worth buying at least once (even if just to see what you're aiming for). Personally I like to melt my sugar dry first before adding water (most recipes suggest dissolving sugar in water then reducing). Hot sugar will spit when water added so take care if you follow this method.

 

[churchy]

Gryphon brewing one of the sponsers here sells it.I bought some just a few days ago for a Belgian ale, currently fermenting nicely.

 

[megs80]

I followed this technique to make some light candi sugar, which was pretty straight forward. If your wanting dark candi sugar it might just be easier to buy it.


Candy sugar technique

Cheers

 

[hazard]

I followed this technique to make some light candi sugar, which was pretty straight forward. If your wanting dark candi sugar it might just be easier to buy it.


Candy sugar technique

Cheers

I've followed this technique before to make dark candy sugar. Tokk maybe 1/2 hour, noyt "hours" as stated in the article.

Home brew is esentially a BYO prject, so why not make this another aspect of home made rather than store bought? Its easy enough.

 

[megs80]

I've followed this technique before to make dark candy sugar. Tokk maybe 1/2 hour, noyt "hours" as stated in the article.

Home brew is esentially a BYO prject, so why not make this another aspect of home made rather than store bought? Its easy enough.

Good to know. The thought of standing around a hot pot of goo for hours isnt appealing

 

[Phoney]

I followed this technique to make some light candi sugar, which was pretty straight forward. If your wanting dark candi sugar it might just be easier to buy it.


Candy sugar technique

Cheers

I followed that technique too. Everything went swimmingly.... to a point. I poured it into a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, allowed it to cool overnight, and by the next day it stuck to the paper like shite to a blanket. Trying to separate it brought back childhood memories of making toffee's in those little muffin paper cup things that were always a bitch to separate too. I ended up having to remelt it in the oven and then fish out the paper bits with a fork.

So for the next Belgian I splurged out on the $6 bucks for the 500g bag from my LHBS and haven't looked back! Speaking from a bad experience, all that effort for a couple of bucks saved just isnt worth it

 

[barls]

i had the same thing phooey, ive since been using a silicon cooking tray and its damn easy to pop it out as it doesnt stick

 

[Dave70]

[quote name='phoneyhuh'

So for the next Belgian I splurged out on the $6 bucks for the 500g bag from my LHBS and haven't looked back! Speaking from a bad experience, all that effort for a couple of bucks saved just isnt worth it
[/quote]

All things considered, unless you really like making it, I think this will be my chosen path.

And with power now costing about a thousand bucks every time you switch on the stove, probably cheaper.

 

[Fourstar]

doing it dry in a non stick frying pan and constantly agitating the sugar until it liquifies is the simplest method (ateast i find). As soon as the last few granules are about to turn you turn it out onto some decent greaseproof paper that actually works or pop it into a non stick loaf tin (which you should cool over a sick full of ice water to reduce the colouring. once dry its as simple as peeling off the sheet or popping it out of the cake tin.

not difficult, no effort and take about 5 minutes from start to finish.

which is alot less in energy than it would cost in fuel to get down to the LHBS.

 

[manticle]

doing it dry in a non stick frying pan and constantly agitating the sugar until it liquifies is the simplest method (ateast i find). As soon as the last few granules are about to turn you turn it out onto some decent greaseproof paper that actually works or pop it into a non stick loaf tin (which you should cool over a sick full of ice water to reduce the colouring. once dry its as simple as peeling off the sheet or popping it out of the cake tin.

not difficult, no effort and take about 5 minutes from start to finish.

which is alot less in energy than it would cost in fuel to get down to the LHBS.

Not sure about the sick but since I started doing it dry, I found it's a lot quicker. I add water once the sugar has melted (as mentioned above) and the whole lot remains as a syrup rather than solidifying to a hard rock.

The $6 bag is probably candi rocks and is different from the syrup. I wouldn't spend the 6 on the rocks but I would spend the 15 on the syrup. I'll also keep trying to replicate it at home.

There is a major difference between the rocks and the syrup - if using rocks, you can probably just buy rock sugar from an asian grocer for less than a third of the price or even just use straight sucrose/dextrose.

 

[Swinging Beef]

You really dont need it.
Regular table sugar works just as well.
Any other caramel/toffee/honey flavours you can get from malt selection.

 

[Phoney]

There is a major difference between the rocks and the syrup

Pleeeease explaaaaain. They're both invert sugars are they not?

 

[petesbrew]

You really dont need it.
Regular table sugar works just as well.
Any other caramel/toffee/honey flavours you can get from malt selection.

Yeah but it's cool to know you made "belgian" candy sugar especially for your beer.

I've also used the asian palm & coconut sugars in some belgian ales.

 

[Swinging Beef]

Yeah but it's cool to know you made "belgian" candy sugar especially for your beer.

That is very true.

 

[manticle]

Pleeeease explaaaaain. They're both invert sugars are they not?

Without getting you to spring for the syrup (expensive) it's not easy to describe how rich some of the syrups are. There are numerous references on various forums as well as this section from Brew like a monk:

"References to 'candi sugar' when belgian began using such an ingredient most often described caramel syrup, not the clear to dark rocks sold in the USA as 'Belgian candi sugar'.

The rocks you liquefy by tossing into a kettle are made by lowering strings of cotton into hot solutions of sugar............................Today when brewers at westmalle and orval refer to candi suggar, they specify using it in liquid form. trappist and secular who once used clear candi sugar have replaced it with sucrose or dextrose.............................................Rochefort includes cassonade brune. While that translates roughly to brown sugar, Candico in Antwerp produce something much different..........................granulated crystals obtained from cooling down strongly concentrated sucrose solutions boiled at very high temperatures. Most of candico's sales to confectionery producers, biscuit factories and breweries are 'candysugar' in syrup form.' (summarised from page 167)

Swinging beef is probably right although I reckon everyone should have a crack at making their own at least once and should have a crack at the proper syrup at least once before settling on straight sugar additions.

 

[felten]

Basic brewing has a video/articles on making candi sugar http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=video "May 27, 2009 - Cooking Sugar for a Belgian"

Though they advocate adding DAP to the sugar, I always assumed it was to replicate commercial caramel production where they also use ammonia.

 

[Adr_0]

I just went to get some candi syrups from www.candisyrup.com. They are doing an 8lb shipped to Aus for US$80.

I went to throw some cassonade in... 1-2lb is US$60 shipping. Ouch.

www.belgianshop.com has Candico Brune Cassonade, $10 + $8 shipping for 1kg if I'm not mistaken.

So syrups might be good value for the hard to get stuff (in the 8lb pack) but looks like there are better sources for other sugars.

 

[panzerd18]

There are some instructional videos on youtube on how to make it.

Is it advisable to follow these recipes?