Haven’t seen this discussed here.
“CSI provides bulk FTL only products to large confectionary distributors. As of October 1, 2025 we no longer service the brewing industry.”
This really sucks. I love their products.
I agree, I am very disappointed. I got great scores on a belgian quad using d-45 syrup, but this years batch used the current substitute - and it’s just not the same. Whatever the Abby yeast strain does with the beet sugars is where the magic happens. If you’re looking to make a traditional belgian beer with the “candi syrup” you’re better off making your own inverted sugar.
This appears to be an opportunity for a major homebrew supplier to step up and buy through a confectioner and repackage and sell. But I’m guessing that the market is pretty small which is the likely reason that the supplier stopped selling in the first place.
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Interesting. I thought that was the same product, just under new packaging, since it’s called by the same name (D-45, D-90, D-180, etc.).
If it’s not being made by CSI, I wonder who is making them?
I took a second look at the CSI website and saw this:
“November 20, 2025 - Please note that CSI has deprecated the following products, all denominations: Candi syrups, Cassonades. Due to the decline in the brewing adjunct market this decision was made in September this year and notified on our news page below on October 1, 2025. No further production of Candi syrups or cassonade will be made or shipped after November 1, 2025. CSI has completed its transition into an FTL only industry.”
So they are not making candi syrup at all, so Martin’s idea of a homebrew supplier purchasing them from a confectioner is not feasible. Seems like someone is making Candi Syrup, though.
It’s not clear what products they’re selling by the full truck load to the confectionary industry, but it would likely be difficult to find anyone willing to resell it.
This exists, and it’s from Belgium. Haven’t used it, and I’m not sure if it’s the same beet sugar syrup from Belgium that Brian Mercer was importing and selling through homebrew channels years ago.
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Seems like someone is making Candi Syrup, though.
If it’s the product being distributed by LD Carlson, my understanding is that it’s a corn syrup product.
Before discontinuing candi syrup, CSI had this message on their site:
“As most of you know CSI has made the decision to no longer use LD Carlson as a point of distribution for our home brew small denomination syrups and adjuncts. The products being sold by them are not associated with CSI nor are they our packaging or contents. Although these products attempt to mimic our colors and numbers, they are not ‘repackaged’ forms of our products.“
Interesting. I am hoping Denny will weigh in here, as he has worked with CSI in the past.
Yeah its a shame. I snagged some of the last D180 I could find in Canada, have a total of 3.5lbs remainign, having just used 1.5lbs in a brew.
from an answer to the industrial side of it, which is pure speculation on my part, they may have simply been looking at business opportunities beyond what CSI was doing if it was simply doing brewing sugars. meaning, they may have a passion for brewing related sugar ingredients which was a huge boon to us, but now that they have a facility for processing sugar, they may have simply seen that supplying some form of sugar-related ingredient to the food processing industry would make them all very rich, and very few people when presented with the opportunity for something very lucrative and within your reach will turn a thing like that down.
sad for us, but understandable, and perhaps some day when they have plateaued somewhat in terms of this new plan, they may have the luxury of reintroducing their favourite brewing sugars in a limited manner.
i know a lot of people like a variety of their products, but imho they never needed to produce anything under D90, might as well use sucrose
I love the idea of making my own, but I feel like this is one of those products that is best left to the pros. CSI was making their syrups for so long and I’m sure we all agree, their products were phenomenal. The LD Carson stuff is totally lacking in complexity and intensity of aroma and flavor. You can tell CSI had their process and chemistry totally dialed. I’m not sure where we go from here other than to look into buying candi sugars from other confectionaries or just hoping LD Carson’s supplier learns how to make better syrups.
I did recently try blending Domino’s dark brown sugar with some of the CSI syrup to see how close it would be, hopeful I wouldn’t notice a difference like these folks. Nope, I basically ended up with a Belgian Dubbel with half the caramel flavor and a vague hint of molasses. I used WLP540 so it’s still a fantastic beer fortunately.
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THis is part of whats interesting about this hobby, and I’ve been there before and arguably still am regarding perceived flavours.
All the people who say “x ingredient makes no difference if you actually do or use y method or ingredient”
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do homebrewers who came into ths hobby within the past say 5 years even want to make belgians though? Belgians get no fanfare at all here now afaik. Honestly everything is a hazy, or “““craft””” lager or some variant of pale, light and bland (but its Craft!!!)
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18 months on without a commercial replacement from now, I’m guessing we will start to see some more intensive efforts to DIY this though. it could end up being a good thing in that regard, because the sort of true method CSI used is still an unknown to the public.
edit: oh and lol, i just realized now it was based on an exbeeriment. lmao yeah “couldnt tell the difference - both were great (generic style description) examples of a (style)”
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Oh yeah, I always saw this available but have never tried it.
22 SRM and it looks like brown sugar.. ??
I’ve tried the Belgian candi sugar, as well as older Belgian rock candy, and just never got the level of flavors that the CSI Belgian candi syrup got me.
I’ve been brewing Belgian ales for over 30 years, and until D90 and D180 came out, I could never get close to the great Belgian dark ale. Now I can brew dubbels, quads, winter saisons, etc. that are comparable to the commercial products from Belgium. Needless to say I am very disappointed in the loss of these products.
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Ditto. Their syrups were a cheat code to great dark Belgian’s (Dubbels and Quads). The hard sugars are just meh and the ingredient list on that LD Carlson product is a joke…”High Fructose Corn Syrup, Caramelized Sugar Syrup, Caramel”. I was able to get a few lbs of D-90 and D-180, but I don’t know what I will do when I use them up.
It appears that we’ll have to make our own brewing syrup starting with beet sugar and then inverting and caramelizing it to your own specification. Beet sugar is more expensive than cane sugar, but I see that experts do say there is a taste difference.
I just ordered 50# of CSI CandiSyrup. I have too many established recipes to go messing around with trying to make my own syrups or waiting for a vendor to put out a quality replacement. Heck! I don’t even use the 5 and the 240, but I bought some thinking a blend of the 2 can get me to 180, 90, and 45 with results that would be better than what I can make.
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Looks like at the RahrBSG website they sell Candido Candy Sugar only in 25 kg amounts, that is a lot of sugar, probably even for most homebrew stores. Anyone know if there are smaller 1 to 5 pound portions sold anywhere? I checked the other 2 big online suppliers and nothing came up when I did a search.
Not sure how long it keeps but I have two pouches of the Candi syrup in my fridge (D-45 and D-90). I plan on using some of it in an upcoming Saison. Not sure about the other yet.
hey, i bought two 2.5 containers of D180 before they were all gone.
I looked it up quickly and I believe CSI said it should last about 18 months.
But honestly - it’s a sugar syrup, i would bet it would be in good condition 2 to 2.5 years on easily. it might crystallize after a few years>?
I have a pouch of D180 that I bought maybe 8 years ago and just found. Opened it, it’s still syrup and still tastes like candi.