Making Belgian Candi

[cruiscinlan]

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?

[Bogwoppit]

By the looks of it it hasn't converted at all, how long was it cooking for?

[cruiscinlan]

It was cooking for an hour in total, 20mins of which was at 126C or soft crack temperature.

[mr hoppy]

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).

[johnrm]

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

[fergus]

This was my effort in'13. Turned out pretty decent.



And this is the guide I followed;

https://joshthebrewmaster.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/how-to-make-belgian-candi-sugar/

Ferg

[johnrm]

That looks good.
I have 500g of calcium hydroxide. I need to get the finger out and do my own experiments.