I’m going to be brewing a Belgian-style Dubbel this weekend, and the recipe calls for Belgian candi sugar. (I don’t know why they insist on the i) A pound of the rock candy costs around $8, which is rather expensive. I’ve spent most of the last few years trying to figure out how to reduce the cost of brewing( free hops, dry yeast, all grain, etc), so I’m just not willing to spend the additional $8 per batch for glorified sugar.
Luckily, the internet wants me to save money, so I was able to find what other cheap bastards brewers are doing in place of candied sugar or syrup. Discussion over what type of sugar to use varied, and some folks felt that plain white cane or beet sugar gave the beer a cidery finish, which is something I try to avoid. Candied sugar, or inverted sugar has been partially transformed from just sucrose to a mix of glucose and fructose, and if you cook it long enough, you get some carmalization, which adds color and flavor. Several different forums pointed to this collection of instructions on inverting my own sugar. And another. For $8, I’ll give it a shot.
It’s the easiest thing ever. I made a pound a couple batches ago for a belgian strong golden and was really happy with the results. The hardest part was finding citric acid, which I eventually did in the Market of Choice bulk spices section.