Making Belgian Candy Syrup

Hi

I am wondering if anyone had success in making belgian candy syrup for brewing Belgian dark ales?

There are many recipes around, this is one from Randy Mosher:

"Just take a pound of plain corn syrup (make sure it’s the kind without vanilla added) and heat it over medium heat in a heavy saucepan with 9 grams of ammonium carbonate (sold as leavening in Middle Eastern markets). I have also gotten good results with diammonium phosphate yeast nutrient. It will boil, and eventually start to darken. Every now and then remove a drop or two and drip it onto aluminum foil to cool, then taste. Stop as soon as the desired color is reached, and carefully add water to mix it back to the original consistency.

You can also caramelize honey using this same method."

I have found many variations around that tell you how to make it, but anyone who has actually made it and used it, said that the yeast just can't break it down (maybe overcaramelization) so they end up with a very sweet beer. I haven't yet found a post of someone who has made amber/dark candy syrup and had a good results.
So I am wondering if anyone had success, because I would like to do it, but I don;t want to ruin my whole batch if its likely not going to work.

Thanks in advance for your answers

Here is a good example of someone who has tried and failed to get the sugar to ferment:

http://trilliumbrewing.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/brewing-sugar-experiments-part-2.htmla

The tutorials make it look very easy, but it doesn't really look that way.

There is a line between caramelizing sugar and breaking it down into carbon. The latter is harsh and burnt flavor, while the former is more like cherries and roast almond.

IMO, it's important to add citric acid or cream of tartar when the boil first starts, and not sooner. That would go for beer yeast nutrient, as well. I think the reactions with sugar at lower temperatures changes the final product too much. That may just be my subjective experience, though. No more than a gram of each per kilo of sugar is needed, though.

It's really important to use a candy thermometer to keep the boil between 260F (126C) & 275F (135C). A lot of recipes just say to boil, without giving you a temperature range. Anyone who's made candy knows that temperature is vital for controlling the product.

Once you have the color you want, you can then raise the temperature to the hard crack stage of 305F (150C) and immediately remove the sugar from the heat, then pour into a large sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

Make sure you have a candy thermometer, ...you will need to CONSTANTLY stir table sugar (hydrated and with a touch of citric acid) to the temp known as "hard crack"

We've just started using "Invert Syrup" in our SmaSh brews to increase the AVB without "sweetening" the beer. We haven't gone the full "candy" stage, but make the syrup while we are mashing and boiling the wort. Since the syrup will be sterilized by boiling when it is made, and since the syrup will be 100% fermented and not require bittering, we add the syrup to our boil in the last 10 minutes to ensure it is completely dissolved and diluted into the wort.

We find we can control the SRM or color of the beer very easily with the color of the syrup. This is done by controlling the time that the syrup is held at the 250*F to 275*F temp. Our ABV calculations seem to work OK by using the "dry sugar' poundage in our formulas using gravities. Example. We make a syrup using 5 lbs of sugar in 2.5 qts of water and 2.5 tsp citric acid. We add the entire 5 lbs to our wort. We can vary the weight of the syrup using 1/2 qt water and 1/2 tsp citric acid per pound of sugar. For og calcs we just use the dry weight of the sugar used to make the syrup. We hold it at a boil until the desired color is achieved. This too is just an estimate but can range from light straw to almost ink black. We cut back the syrup temp to just about 125*F to 150*f to keep it fluid and minimize further darkening until the last 10 min of the wort's boil.

Our bittering calcs and expectations haven't been quite what we thought. We've added hops based on the total og of the wort meaning the mash products and the syrup. We don't have a lab, but by taste, it seems to be a bit over hopped. On our next brew, we are going to calc hops using only the sg of the mash products. So for us, we will use 1.025 rather than 1.050 to achieve bittering.

Relative to this post, we suggesting that with just a bit of practice, you don't have to go the extra work of making the hard candy to a color. Cooling it to a solid and then breaking it up, weighing it and redissolving it into your brew. You can make a fairly precise invert syrup to an exact dry weight and any color you require as part of the brew process. Since you can make while mashing and boiling, it doesn't add time to your brew day.

The syrup can be used to amp up the ABV of any brew. The add plusses, a pound of cane sugar is cheaper than a pound of 2-row even at bulk grain prices. The citric acid can be purchased as a canning supply. For $2.00 you get enough to brew for the next several years.