My Attempt At Making Some Belgian Candi Syrup.

[chadjaja]

I wanted to give this a go and had a look at a number of how to's available on the net.

The light coloured jar is the first batch I made and it came nowhere near as dark as the instructions said it should. It also ended up too thick and would have to go in the boil to dissolve.

The second darker jar is sort of what I wanted and I followed another method and I got the syrup to a more liquid type of consistency. Better to be able to mix in the primary a few days into fermentation as some do for bigger dark belgians.

Basically its inverted sugar.
Batch one was white sugar
Batch two was Dex(corn sugar as the US recipes said)

Both used lemon juice as the acid addition to help and some say use yeast nutrient and others say other additives.

Its not the real thing but it tastes alright and in one of my recipes I used dark brown soft sugar and I plan to substitute the darker jar in that. Thats a 500ml jar.

Anyone else made up this syrup or the candi hard rock version?

 

[warrenlw63]

Chadjaja

Good to see somebody being innovative. There's a great podcast on this subject on Basic Brewing radio.

Here

The guy is a little boring but covers some great ground on making candi syrup.

Haven't attempted the syrup myself (although I plan to) but have done some rocks and enjoyed the process. The results in the finished beer have been encouraging.

Warren -

 

[Renegade]

If you make rocks, you can also throw them into the blender for a powdery like consistency (almost like LDME). A word of warning though if you do too many batches at once the heat will start to goo up the sugar all over again and your blades will get stuck (OK for me, I have the mother of all blenders, but your average domestic job might not be as tough)

Warren, out of intyerest how do you use the rocks, do you redissolve in hot water as required or just throw the whole chunks into the fermenter ? I went for the end-user-friendly option of powdering first, but its quite a pain in the butt and probably pointless of youre making it then adding it straight into the ferment/

 

[warrenlw63]

Warren, out of intyerest how do you use the rocks, do you redissolve in hot water as required or just throw the whole chunks into the fermenter ? I went for the end-user-friendly option of powdering first, but its quite a pain in the butt and probably pointless of youre making it then adding it straight into the ferment/

Renegade

From my limited experiences thus far I just let the sugar cool in the tray and then put the chunks into some ziplock bags (which are supposedly sterile inside) and bung it in the freezer.

Last brew I just added it around the 4th day of primary fermentation. Your yeasties will eat it even in large blocks. There wasn't a trace of sugar left in the primary after racking.

Warren -

 

[Renegade]

That makes sense, I did note with some surprise that the cake tin I used that had some bits stuck to it, as well as the steel spoon that was encrusted with toffee, both came clean simply by soaking in water. I think it might be the liquid dissolving them rather than the yeast consuming it. So rocks straight in the fermenter is going to be much easier & quicker.

 

[TidalPete]

Renegade

From my limited experiences thus far I just let the sugar cool in the tray and then put the chunks into some ziplock bags (which are supposedly sterile inside) and bung it in the freezer.

Last brew I just added it around the 4th day of primary fermentation. Your yeasties will eat it even in large blocks. There wasn't a trace of sugar left in the primary after racking.

Warren -

Warren,

I am pretty new at using my home-made candi sugar & add it to the kettle. I just chuck in the broken bits to be dissolved by the hot wort.
What is the advantage of adding them on the 4th day of primary?
Can't really see any advantage of using candi syrup over candi sugar. Can someone enlighten me?

TP

PS --- How are your yeasties getting on? ----- Private joke

 

[Renegade]

I believe that when you add the sugar later you maintain more of the flavour than if you go for it when the yeasts are at their most agressive.

 

[chadjaja]

And by feeding them gradually you are less likely to have your yeast konk out on you with such a large SG.

Pouring in the syrup is an easy process.

 

[TidalPete]

I believe that when you add the sugar later you maintain more of the flavour than if you go for it when the yeasts are at their most agressive.

Not to many yeasties chomping anything up in the kettle Renegade but I get your drift.

TP

 

[Josh]

I made my own candi sugar a while back. I made rock candy and set it in a bowl in the freezer. When it came time to brewing I just added some boiling water to dissolve it, but it looks like I could have just thrown the rocks straight in.

The reason you add it later in the fermentation is so that the yeast eat the more complex malt sugars before feasting on the simple sugars. If you add the sugar at the start there is a risk your beer won't dry out as much. Very important in the Saison I used my rock candi in.

 

[manticle]

I make mine. It's essentially just toffee with some orange juice squeezed in. I usually reduce it till it's thick and Amber. Easy peasy. I also add during primary - I've been led to believe that while the yeast are at their hardest working (basically most hungry) they'll eat whatever so best to get them into the more complex sugars. As they tire a little you can rouse them up with something simpler. I have no idea if it's scientifically valid or not but it makes sense, is easy to do and corresponds to suggestions on incrementally feeding certain yeasts like 3787 (wyeast website)