Right lads. Like any self-respecting homebrewer I cleared my diary and spent my Saturday evening trying to make a Belgian Candi using instructions from this blogpost http://joshthebrewmaster.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/how-to-make-belgian-candi-sugar/
This is what I ended up with: https://www.dropbox.com/sc/636dr9lwrx9bp6e/AADJmw8IhcRg_Iz1Vzw_6Qj_a
After raising the temp to 132C the whole mixture suddenly crystallised on me and I had to dump it into a receptacle asap to prevent it sticking to the pot. It has a grainy texture somewhat like fudge but is not like the hard Belgian Candi packs I have.
Is there anyway to figure out if it has fully inverted into glucose/fructose?
By the looks of it it hasn't converted at all, how long was it cooking for?
It was cooking for an hour in total, 20mins of which was at 126C or soft crack temperature.
Allegedly real Belgian candi syrup is a by-product of the production of beet sugar. It definitely has a very distinctive taste (think speculoos biscuits).
(http://uk.belgianshop.com/acatalog/Candico-Sirop-de-Candi-S.jpg)
I just found these, they might be of interest...
http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2013/09/making-belgian-candi-sugar.html?m=1
http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2013/10/belgian-candi-sugar-ii.html?m=1
This was my effort in'13. Turned out pretty decent.
(http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/02/19/fdf2bac48c98753bbf315a465dc3d54d.jpg)
And this is the guide I followed;
https://joshthebrewmaster.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/how-to-make-belgian-candi-sugar/
Ferg
That looks good.
I have 500g of calcium hydroxide. I need to get the finger out and do my own experiments.