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Completed one of my best bredays yet yesterday I reckon the key was starting early, and not cracking open a beer until everything was in the boiler



I've never made toffee before but there's a first time for everything... all I'd say is it's a good job I'd be disolving it in the wort.... if I'd been eating it could result in a few trips to the Dentist


Started off with 500g of Sugar, although I reckon I put too much water in as it took ages to get over 100c - so bunged an extra couple of hundred grams with a pinch of Citric acid

It hit hard crack temperature then the temperature shot up, so decided to call it a day

Only problem was it set rock hard to the greaseproof paper, so had to wash it off

Do you know what it is yet?

Mashed in slightly high, but close enough I reckon

Mashed out after 90 mins - temerature had hardly moved

Checked pH with temperature compensating meter - almost bang on! I only checked the calibration a few week ago so should be reasonably accurate

If I get this sort of head on the finished pint, I'll be well pleased - Glad I boiled up the last couple of litres of spargings with the Toffee in a pan first - took ages to dissolve - I reckon if I'd thown it directly into the boiler, would have wrecked it

Transferred to fermenter and sprinkled on to 6g packets of Muntons Premium Gold - the yeast got to work almost instantly

Good colour, goot cold break, and starting gravity bang on


A good day all in all

Looks good to me

That looks great. You will certainly taste the toffee in there.

You have probably worked it out already, but pour the hot candy onto foil and it peels off easily when cool.

Looks great and very exciting! You'll have to keep us updated on the flavour profile. I used 500g of homemade candi sugar in a Belgian brew a while back but found it hard to distinguish its taste because the WLP500 yeast profile was so prominent. Interested in having a go at something like this though in the future... you've gotten me all inspired!

I think it was good to mash a little higher. I would have went for the 70c mark on this brew - yummy toffee maltiness...

Great when someone tries something a bit different and interesting.

Thanks Guys!

After what I thought was a disaster of the Toffee being stuck to the greaseproof paper I moved it to foil, and it stuck to that as well I think if I did it again, would avoid the "hard crack" and try yo make it a bit softer... still cane sugar is cheap enough so might experiment a a bit... Also might pick up a baking tray and keep it just for brewing stuff!

I'm hoping a Muntons Premium Gold will be able to handle it.... I sprinkled two 6g sachets on top of the foam at around 30C and it seemed to "want to" find the wort let's see how it feels after it's eaten through 50 degrees of gravity! I'm trying to keep it around 20 degrees through fermentatation.... don't want to go too high, or two low, as these beasties have a lot of work to do Although I guess a higher temperature may add some of those butterscotch flavours.

I seem to be really hit and miss with temperatures.... I typically dough in around 72-74 and it drops to about 65-70 before covering up the mashtun and leaving it (picnic box style) was pretty happpy with this one though! I recokon there should definately be stron maltiness comeing through, but I reckon it will finish a lot lower than 1016...

I've never had a brew yet that's finished higher than 1013... most have been 1010-1012, typically with S04

If this turns out to be a gud'un will share a few bottles

Well, I'm slightly perplexed! I pitched the Muntons Premium Gold at 15:00 last Saturday.... checked about 10 mins ago, and the head has dropped out almost completely.... Sterilised the hydrometer and dropped it in.... It's gone from 1066 to 1020 in 52 hours!!!! Is this normal? Temperature was fairly consistent to what I normally to, around 20C...

Is 1066 too high a gravity for the Munton's Premium to toleerate? I've not got too much experience with this yeast.

Or is it that I've head a few slow starting packets of S-04 lately, and have got used to a longer ferment.

Comments appreciated!

OK! Panick over, it's dropped to 1013.... just me being over protective of this brew! Think I'll transfer to secondary on Saturday

That looks lovely.

Thanks Capper I'm pretty excited by this one and cherishing the fermenter lovingly! Nobody is allowed anywhere near until I get it into the secondary.... Admittedtly, it's more than 10 points over gravity than what I originally planned, so the bitterness should maybe have been higher.... I think it might turn into an "oh, this is really nice, I'll have another" more-ish beer, but at 7% I think the label will carry a cautionary note!

Never underestimate the joy of 7%ABV beers! Looks great, would it be worth pouring the hot sugar mix onto steel coated baking trays? Chill them down and bash them and it should crack right off?

How is this going?

I'd be intrested in how this one turned out!

Hi there 196! Going well m8! I transferred from the primary to the secondary on March 28th....

Trub settled out really solid on the bottom of the fermenter :

And the Final Gravity was about 1014 :


I can't tell what the flavor/aroma is like yet as all I could get was yeast! but we'll see in a couple of weeks when I come to bottle it... Will keep you posted!

Here's an update on this one!
Bottled today.... the secondary had a real toffee aroma, slightly butterscotch, but don't think that was coming from diacetyl... Final gravity (bearing in mind it was in the Primary for 8 days, followed by 3 weeks in the Secondary was 1016 - the highest final gravity I've had, so either the yeast couldn't cope, or there was a lot of unfermentables.... also, I mashed in a bit high, so the latter is possible.

Initial taste.... well, the Jury is still out, but my taste buds could well be knackered after the Newcastle beer festival... If it's anything like Brewlabs Recoat Killer I'll be well chuffed! Time will tell... after a weeks warm conditioning, then 3 weeks cold colditioning, I'll crack open a bottle and see what I have.

A few pics from today :

A bit blurry as was using the phone camera... proper one is stuck in the office

Started doing proper labels... well, 90gsm paper with my colour laser... ran out of pritt stick so finished off with wallpaper paste.. dunno how successful that's going to be

Good stuff, Great label too

Sounds nice now we can see the label, very informative with your label info