another sugar question

[ColinKeb]

im thinking of doing dave lines wadworths old timer and the recipe calls for 500gm invert sugar, im not that keen on faffing around adjusting PH levels if i make it myself so what do others recommend that i use instead ? plain white sugar?

[maxashton]

golden syrup! that's invert sugar

[ColinKeb]

hmm what about the stories of monster hangovers though

i could use glucose instead, i can get that from the shop down the road

[maxashton]

I'm not an AG expert, but i hear everyonen basically saying, "Trust Dave's Recipes."

[ColinKeb]

oh yes i do totaly, the man was always spot on as far as im concerned . i could make the invert sugar but then i'd have to add chalk and test the PH adn im not too confident about that. I mean where do you buy chalk from?

[maxashton]

i think you can get precipitated calcium from brew shops. Failing that, raid your local junior school?? (the juniors are easier to fight off.)

[ColinKeb]

i just found it at H&G

[maxashton]

Now there remains the question: Can We Be Arsed?

[ColinKeb]

ah what the hell ! I'll give it a go in the name of learning the craft . cant be that difficult and i spose i can make up a batch and keep it eh? i'll be treating the water next

[eskimobob]

oh yes i do totaly, the man was always spot on as far as im concerned . i could make the invert sugar but then i'd have to add chalk and test the PH adn im not too confident about that. I mean where do you buy chalk from?

Depends how close you want to be but personally if you can glucose just down the road then I'd use that (not sure if weight for weight it is the same though) and forget the chalk (it's not soluble in water - only partly in the mash) and I don't actually bother with testing pH (although I might just be lucky with my water composition).

Go for it

[maxashton]

Worse comes to worst, you can always put it on pancakes.

Er, the invert that is, not the treated water.


I don't treat my water yet, i just whack a half a campden tablet in there to kill off the chlorines.

[ColinKeb]

so if i boil the sugar iwth citric acid and just use it that would be okay you reckon eskimobob?

[eskimobob]

so if i boil the sugar iwth citric acid and just use it that would be okay you reckon eskimobob?

I'm no expert but I thought invert sugar was a combination of glucose and fructose. You can create invert sugar by treating sucrose (sugar) with acid (like when making jam - the acid comes from the fruit) but you can buy the glucose just down the road so I'd say forget the hassle and go with that - don't bother with any conversion attempts - no point making life hard

[ColinKeb]

cool ! cheers for that

[shiny beast]

The thinking behind using invert sugar, was to speed up fermentation. This is because yeast tend to work on the less complex sugars first.
The enzyme Invertase breaks down sucrose into glucose and fructose.
Just use ordinary granulated sugar. You won't notice the difference.