Homemade Candy Sugar

[Jam095]

Making my own candy sugar for the first time! Going to use some in my Trappist single this weekend. Thanks to Jeremy D. for the suggestion.

[Jeremy Dunn]

I've had success making light candy sugar using sugar + water + heat + acid, but when I tried to make it darker it had a burnt/metallic flavor.

Here's some info on making dark candy syrup. Looks promising. I'm going to give these methods a try and see if I can get anything similar to the commercial syrups.

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/ ... pic=6702.0
http://ryanbrews.blogspot.com/2012/02/c ... -been.html

[Jeremy Dunn]

Moving the candi syrup/sugar discussion to this thread...

I've made several batch of this so far using a slightly modified version of the process Cesar linked to in the OVHA Bourbon Barrel Quad thread.

http://www.ovha.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.ph ... 9&start=15
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=114837

I used slightly different temperatures each time, but I think my favorite is:

2 lbs sugar
1 cup water
3/4 tsp pickling lime
2 tsp wyeast beer yeast nutrient (I don't have plain DAP)

1. Dissolve lime and yeast nutrient in water
2. Combine with sugar and heat over medium heat to 295 F (watch it carefully!)
3. Add 1 cup water
4. Bring back to 280 F
5. Add 1.5 cups water
6. Bring to 240 F (soft ball)
7. Immediately pour into a preheated quart mason jar. (preheat by boiling the jar as you would for canning)

I'll bring some samples to the meeting.

[ThreeBeers]

Excellent!! Does it have to go in mason jar? Can you just pour on parchment paper on a cookie sheet, let cool and crack?

[Jeremy Dunn]

This method makes a thick syrup, but I if you heat it up to the hard crack temp at the end (295 - 309 F) you could make hard candy.