Is honey a good invert sugar for British style beers?

[kmarkstevens]

I've been getting into Shut Up About Barclay Perkins and trying many of the mild, bitter, PA and porter recipes. These almost all specify invert sugar #1 or #3.

In the US, I can get Lyle's Golden Syrup, which is ~50% invert #1 and 50% sucrose. Also, off of Amazon I ordered 100% invert to test. These are kinda pricey.

Understand that one can also convert raw cane sugar, but this seems like a pain. Do I understand correctly the difference between invert #1, #2 and #3 is how dark it is. I believe the longer the cane sugar is boiled, then it evolves into #2 then #3 then #4.

Lyle's Black Treacle I believe is 50% black strap molasses and 50% golden syrup, so really only 25% invert. Kristen of Barclay Perkins fame: "I'd say try maybe 3:1 Golden:treacle as a start (to make invert#3). the No2 sugars don't have that 'treacley' molasses character. <http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2010/03/lets-brew-wednesday-1955-whitbread-xxx.html>

I am experimenting now with the 3:1 mix.

Then I came across the fact that honey is an invert sugar. Pure honey is somewhere around 80% invert sugar (can be as high as 90% and need to be careful that it is pure honey). Does anyone know if honey is roughly equivalent to invert sugar #1? I am guessing one could boil the honey and drive off any of the aromatics or other honey flavors, then use this as invert #1. Thoughts?

I'm also thinking that I could put a honey solution in a slow cooker and gradually get to a #3 SRM. Thoughts on that as well please?

I'm assuming that traditional brewers didn't use honey as invert sugar was more cost effective, had better quality control, etc...

Finally, if you've got better suggestions on how to get invert sugars in the US for homebrewing, I'm all ears.

 

[BigEd]

From what I remember honey is mostly fructose and glucose but honey isn't exactly cheap and also has a distinct flavor. If you don't mind the flavor in a particular recipe it's fine to use. However, it's not that difficult to make invert sugar from table sugar and it's an economical alternative. Frankly you can add plain table sugar/sucrose to the kettle and some of that will be inverted by the boil.

Recipes for invert sugar:

http://www.chefeddy.com/2009/11/invert-sugar/

http://wineandbeermaking.com/frequently-asked-questions/how-to-home-brew/make-invert-sugar/

 

[Derp]

This is what I've used for making invert sugar. It's great in my bitters.

http://www.unholymess.com/blog/beer-brewing-info/making-brewers-invert

If you like brewing British beers, try making some caramel coloring. It's better (in my opinion) than using chocolate malt for coloring. A few MLs of it will darken a beer without any flavor impact.

https://web.archive.org/web/2012030...blog/beer-brewing-info/making-brewers-caramel

 

[kmarkstevens]

Cool. thanks BigEd and Derp.

 

[kevin58]

Invert sugar is not hard to make but it takes time when going to #3 or #4. Look for "Sugar in the Raw" at your grocery store. You will also need citric acid. I found it in the canning section of the store. A candy thermometer also comes in handy.

I found there is very little loss when making invert so 1 lb of sugar in the raw yields 1 lb of invert. For a pound of sugar in the raw I add a quarter teaspoon of citric acid in a cup and a half of water. Dissolve the sugar in a sauce pan. You'll want to bring the temperature up to 230 to 240 degrees and keep stirring. You can reach invert #1 in about 20 minutes. Invert #3 will take about an hour and a half... #4 about 2+ hours. Keep stirring the whole time to keep it from scorching.... and monitor the temperature continuously.

PS. because it's so time consuming I usually make two or three pounds at a time and store it in mason jars for future use.

 

[kmarkstevens]

Thanks again for the replies. I used the oven method today and got something close to #1, #2 and #3.

 

[kmarkstevens]

Ha, finally found this little tidbit from Barclay Perkins Kirsten: Oh, have we not talked about honey being an invert sugar? It is. You haven’t been paying attention. Give it a go sometime.
From <http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2017/03/lets-brew-wednesday-1958-whitbread-ipa.html>

I haven't found more than that snippet above from Kirsten, so if anyone has a link do please share.