Golden syrup

[Mike123]

I've made a 4% ordinary bitter around 28 IBU and I wanted to try putting some Lyles golden syrup in the brew. It's a 23l brew length and I put 250g of syrup in it. The beer is now ready for conditioning, so not mature, but I can taste the syrup which I didn't really want. Have I been too heavy handed or might this improve with age?

[Eric]

I've made a 4% ordinary bitter around 28 IBU and I wanted to try putting some Lyles golden syrup in the brew. It's a 23l brew length and I put 250g of syrup in it. The beer is now ready for conditioning, so not mature, but I can taste the syrup which I didn't really want. Have I been too heavy handed or might this improve with age?

Yes, it will improve with age, but Golden Syrup has the flavours you've found, as it is made for baking and not brewing.

Golden syrup performs the same function as other invert syrups but with added flavour and colour, giving products a caramelised taste and distinctive amber appearance. It can also withstand higher baking temperatures and has humectant properties, with these preventing crystallisation and extending a product’s shelf life.

Black treacle does work well in many dark beers, but the likes of Bitters fair best with just invert sugar. 250g of Invert brewing sugars would certainly no be too much.

[PeeBee]

The manufacture of Golden Syrup did result in it getting slightly caramelised. It's no longer made in the original fashion (it recovered sugar from what was waste created by old fashioned sugar refining ... and they don't create that waste any longer!) but the newer process of making Golden Syrup will intentionally caramelise the syrup to preserve the flavour of the original. They also fabricate the syrup from Invert sugar syrup and plain sucrose to copy the original "partially inverted" material.

So, it does taste caramelised, and some people don't like it in beer! I don't mind it, but you find only 250g in 23L too much.

Get used to it and drink the beer, and don't use it again!

Last year I did a lot of work on "emulating" invert sugars. They are molasses flavoured and coloured, not caramelised. You might prefer the flavour of "No.1" or "No.2" Invert (some people used Golden Syrup in place of "No.1" Invert). My Invert Sugar "emulations" are summarised >here<; there is no boiling sugar solutions or problematic ingredients to trouble yourself with!

The rest of the thread will include links about Golden Syrup and Invert Syrups. Notice it began with Golden Syrup, but dropped it fairly quickly!

[EDIT: Ooo, Eric's nipped in before me! I know he doesn't care for Golden Syrup, so you're in good company! And I don't like treacle!]

[Mike123]

Thank you both for the replies and the information. It looks like I have a lot of reading to do on this. I will look more closely at the invert one and two, maybe giving golden syrup a miss.