Candi Syrup Substitute

Ingredients
1

I am formulating a Belgian Golden Strong recipe and I want to use Simplicity Candi Syrup. After scaling up to 18 gallons, that puts me at 10lbs for the recipe. Not cost effective. Simplicity is made from beet sugar and I am fairly certain their process is probably more involved than just adding beet sugar to water and boiling. With that said, if I add 10 lbs of beet sugar (cane) to water ( unknown amount at this time) heat to dissolve, boil for X, will that get me close to what simplicity is? It should definitely dry the beer out and hit the ABV I am looking for.

I could also do a 50/50 between simplicity and my own sugar concoction.

2

I really like Candi Syrup’s products, and I’m not saying cane sugar and Simplicity are the same, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use a good quality cane sugar in a Belgian Strong Golden if you don’t want to splurge for the Simplicity.  I brew a lot of light colored Belgian style beer, and you can get great results with cane sugar (which I would just add directly to the boil).

3

I like them also. I use 90&180 in a number of beers and want to use simplicity in this one because I haven’t used it yet.
Thanks for the input!

4

You shouldn’t need as much crystalized (dry) sugar as syrup.  But you probably know that.

I’ve had good luck with unrefined sugar like jaggery, but it does have a flavor (that is good).

5

I’ve used Simplicity enough to know you can sub table sugar just fine

6

im so tempted to use jaggery/piloncillo/panela etc some day. ive got panela at my house to try it and it has a strong and pleasant, but highly distinctive flavour. it would definitely bring something into a beer. also incredibly cheap, i think it was like $1.99 for a lb of a very dark and flavourful sugar rock

7

Let me ask you, would beet sugar be a better choice over cane sugar?

8

Honestly, I don’t know. Other than Belgian Candi syrup I haven’t used cane/beet sugar in brewing. So I would be interested in how to convert/substitute sugar for syrup.

9

No difference whatsoever.

10

Syrup is 36 ppg. Sugar is 45 ppg. So you’d use 20% less sugar.

11

Thanks Denny, that definitely helps.

12

Difference is due to the water in the syrup.

13

Probably too late for the current batch, but I found this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25ohU8GfAJk&t=444s) to be a pretty useful source of information when making my own “Belgian Candi Sugar”. It does seem kind of confusing at times - be sure to read all of the follow-on posts and comments.

14

this video despite being fairly old seems p good in content, but i get insanely nervous just watching sugar boil. sounds unnecessary but for anyone who stumbles across this:

WARNING: SUGAR GETS MUCH MUCH HOTTER THAN WATER AND CAN BE UNPREDICTABLE.

i feel safer looking at a steel forge bring poured than this molten sugar.

15

fyi

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=36570.0

Sugar Beets are GMO
Sugar Cane is Non-GMO

16

I have gotten some of my worse burns in professional kitchens making carmel. Not only is it hotter than boiling water but it sticks to the skin.

17

Tastewise in beer, I doubt anyone could tell the difference between the 2.

18

I used to use candy syrup in my Tripel, but Denny told me that there was no real difference between it and ordinary table sugar.  Using table sugar saved me a lot of money and there was no difference in the taste of the beer.

19

Agreed, especially me !

20

Good to know.
When do you add the sugar in your Tripel ?
,and how much ?

Thanks