Clear Candi Syrup

[Adr_0]

This follows a few experiments I have done trying to get a more complex clear candi syrup to use in goldens/trippels/saisons. While I think it's worthwhile getting darker syrups (and sugars, such as brown cassonade) I haven't been fully convinced by some products, e.g. Simplicity by CSI.

So a disclaimer straight away:
- I'm not claiming this is Belgian candi
- I'm not trying to make dark candi syrup, and definitely not dark Belgian candi syrup

What I do want to do is:
- Something flavoursome and fermentable
- Something easy and replicable
- Something cheap without $60US shipping

In terms of flavour, I have read in a few places the importance of amino acids and their flavour contributions. The main ones that seem to stick out in beet sugar are serine, glutamic acid, aspartic acid and leucine/isoleucine. Depending on pH and heating time, these typically produce fruity, "pleasant/sweet", fresh dates, caramel, coffee, burnt flavours. Read about it here, which I have shared on another post:
http://www.lsse.kyutech.ac.jp/~asiacore/japanese/topics/pdf/2008/sensory_aroma_from_maillard_reaction_of_individual_and_combination_of_amino_acids_with_glucase_in_acidic_conditions.pdf

For a clear to use in golden/saison etc, I didn't want burnt/chocolate/coffee flavours but did want fruity, flowery, datesy flavours. There are a few health/bodybuilding places that stock serine, alanine, valine, aspartic acid, etc. - I went with alanine.

I have also seen citric acid, lemon juice or tartaric acid used. I did a bit of a flavour comparison between citric and tartaric: both made citrusy candi syrup, but the tartaric was sour lemons vs citric's sweeter citrus notes. Given I wanted a slightly lower pH than neutral, the plan was to put some citric in as well but I didn't want it to dominate.

And for heating, I don't want to stand over a stove for half a day. I'm only making clear, so if I can hold it at 90-100°C for a few hours I will be happy. Oven it is.

So, experiment results, firstly with just citric/tartaric (no alanine):

This was tartaric on the left, tartaric with sodium bicarb at the end, citric, then citric with bicarb soda.
- all were on the stove at ~100-110°C for 20min
- none were properly inverted (all thick, toffee-like)
- all flavours were as described, with the sodium bicarb versions notably less sharp and more 'toffee'

Next experiment was using the following:
50g caster sugar
0.5g citric
100g water in the control
0.5g alanine in the second one
Baked in the oven at just under 100°C for an hour

- properly inverted (watery, stayed that way)
- no colour change
- citric was very strong citrusy, sharp, but also sweet
- citric w/ alanine was as above, with some slight flowery notes on top.

I did a third experiment with 0.1wt% citric and 1wt% alanine and baked for 3hrs to see any colour change. Still no colour change, but the balance of flavours was far better. Still not as intense as it could be.

Fourth experiment was as above, but baked for 5hrs.

Really intense flowery/datesy flavour with a nice citrus background. Tempted to lift the citric a bit, to say 0.2wt% or so.

Cool, think I have done it - a cheap, flavoursome, replicable clear candi syrup. I will try it in a beer next weekend.

 

[Mardoo]

Very cool. I'm interested in this. I too have tried the CSI syrups, and do find them a bit more flavorful, but I suspect this is largely due to the packaging. There is a definite effect of using the Simplicity in beers, but it's very subtle and needs the right beer to show in.

 

[Adr_0]

It's different to the Simplicity. There are similar flavours but there is definitely more caramel (honey?) in the Simplicity. It has been cooked somewhat as it's a real yellow colour and this may give it some of the caramel flavour. I haven't neutralised my syrup (still fairly acidic pH but not harsh at all) but I'm pretty confident the Simplicity would be significantly less acidic. I should neutralise it to see the difference...

I don't dare heat the clear syrup much further as I don't want to spend hours at the stove and it will throw my consistency out the window. But if one were so inclined one could do this... if you neutralise first of course (slaked lime, sodium bicarb).