Belgian Candi Sugar

Anyone made this stuff? I'm gonna try making some this weekend and then brewing a tripel next weekend. Wondering if anyone has any words of wisdom they might be able to share.

Also......assuming I am successful at making the BCS, I'm wondering how much should go into a five-gallon batch. I've seen different numbers but it seems about 2lbs is the general consensus.

For candy sugar it's about 20% or so max...it depends on how dry you want your beer. If it was me, I wouldn't buy nor make the stuff. Even the Belgians use regular table sugar. If you go that route it's about 10-12%...otherwise the beer will develop cider-like qualities.

IMO,

Mark

  Yes make some yourself and see what aromas , flavours and appreciation for the store bought candi sugars come from it! I don't go over 2 pounds for a 6 gallon batch. I love the BCS in my Belgian quad trappist, the flavours are awesome especially after ageing the brew  6 months or more. The candi sugar is what defines the flavour of a true belgian dark - along with a great trappist belgian yeast. I made my own bcs from a recipe online, it takes quite a while to cook it. The same as making hard candy . You will need a candy makers thermometer, a pot, about an hour of cook time.  I used demorera sugar and some natural unbleached sugar we had. It came out great, turned into a granular rock candy which you can measure by weight and then dissolve in some boiling water before adding to the brew half way through the boil or later. check out my recipe on the cloud http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/734524/mr-fermenter-head-trappist-ale2.  For home made bcs just go with the one colour you end up with instead of trying to make 2 different colours as in the recipe. If you document the bcs cook time and recipe then you can duplicate it or adjust accordingly for  future batches . I believe I also added the homemade bcs to my barrel aged chocolate-coffee porter in the secondary. Excellent flavours resulted.

So I ended up doing a test batch using 8oz of sugar, 4tbsp water, and some cream of tartar. Wasn't hard at all. It just needed constant attention to maintain the 20-minute rest at 260-275F, but I just added more water as the temp rose to 274F. It worked out and tasted ok, so then I made another using 1kg sugar, a little over a cup of water, and about 1/3 tsp of the tartar. That too worked out and I'll put in next weekend's brew.

Here's what I followed.
https://joshthebrewmaster.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/how-to-make-belgian-candi-sugar/

So for next weekend's tripel I'm going as follows:

11lbs Pilsner
2.2lbs Carapils
2.2lbs Belgian Candi Sugar

1oz Styrian Golding
1oz Saaz

Safbrew Abbaye

I actually have 2oz of both hops. Anyone think I need more of either?

It sounds like you had yourself some fun there. Hop opinion- this style is not traditionally hoppy, one ounce of each would be quite nice. They are not that high on the bitter scale though and are quite pleasingly aromatic, so it may be worthwhile to add the exrta  if you are into hop prominent beer. Maybe add the extra as a  15 minutes steep time. P.S. I also find a little candi sugar melted with butter goes great on popcorn  /  hot nuts, especially with a homebrew. CHEERS!