Brewers caramel & Invert Syrup

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OCurrans
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Brewers caramel & Invert Syrup

Post by OCurrans » Tue Oct 27, 2015 9:27 pm

I have been looking into a lot of Mild recipes,recently, and many of them include Brewers Caramel (mostly for color?) and Invert Syrups #1,#2 and#3. What are these, and what are they used for.
I would like to add each as an ingredient to BeerSmith, but don't know where to look for the specifics (SRM, potential, yield, etc.). Should it be entered as a sugar or an extract?
Should they be added pre-boil or post-boil.
I am not looking to incur the wrath of anyone here, ;) but, if I am not too concerned about authenticity, can a grain be substituted to approximate each of these?
Does anyone know where to buy these ingredients in the USA?

Cheers & Sláinte,
Howard
Oviedo, FL

rpt
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Re: Brewers caramel & Invert Syrup

Post by rpt » Wed Oct 28, 2015 2:14 pm

The invert syrups are made by breaking sucrose into glucose and fructose. The numbers refer to the colour. They are difficult to buy, even in the UK, but you can make your own. You could even just use sugar.

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Kyle_T
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Location: Essex

Re: Brewers caramel & Invert Syrup

Post by Kyle_T » Wed Oct 28, 2015 7:53 pm

OCurrans wrote:I have been looking into a lot of Mild recipes,recently, and many of them include Brewers Caramel (mostly for color?) and Invert Syrups #1,#2 and#3. What are these, and what are they used for.
I would like to add each as an ingredient to BeerSmith, but don't know where to look for the specifics (SRM, potential, yield, etc.). Should it be entered as a sugar or an extract?
Should they be added pre-boil or post-boil.
I am not looking to incur the wrath of anyone here, ;) but, if I am not too concerned about authenticity, can a grain be substituted to approximate each of these?
Does anyone know where to buy these ingredients in the USA?

Cheers & Sláinte,
Howard
Oviedo, FL
Brewers Caramel is a thick black liquid used for colour adjustment.

Invert Syrup and Sugar both come in No. 1 - 3, No. 1 is approx 25 EBC, No. 2 60 and No. 3 120, they are used as brew length extenders? They will alter the gravity, body, dryness/sweetness and flavour of a beer.

Both carry (as far as I know) a yield of 46PPG.

Add them as sugars because that's what they are, the sugar is 95% fermentable.

I add mine during the last 15 minutes if the boil by dissolving in 2L of wort and adding it back.

The flavour they give you is unique, you can replicate to some extent the flavour and profile by using Golden Syrup and Blackstrap Molasses, but if you want the real flavour you will have to import the real thing.

Hope this helps.
My Ridleys' Brewery Blog:
http://www.theessexbrewer.wordpress.com

super_simian
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Re: Brewers caramel & Invert Syrup

Post by super_simian » Thu Oct 29, 2015 3:14 am

Invert sugars are integral to the flavour of a number of quintessentially British styles, most prominently Mild. Using grains will not get a similar result.

http://www.unholymess.com/blog/beer-bre ... ent-page-1 is my go-to for whipping up a batch of invert. My experience has shown properly made invert to be vastly different (and superior) to adding plain/brown sugar with or without molasses directly to the boil. YMMV, but the info is out there, it's pretty easy and offers a better result IMHO.

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