There was no way in !@#$ I was going to pay $4/lb for sugar! Some research provided a good link on how to make your own...
http://www.franklinbrew.org/brewinfo/candi_sugar.html
Come to find out inverted sugar is just regular table sugar + water + a mild acid (lemon juice) + heat to cause a chemical reaction. Yeast love this type of sugar and it will increase your ABV without effecting color or flavor.
Used the above link for the recipe with a couple of modification.
1. Add 5 lb of regular table sugar with 3 Cups of water and 2 tsp of lemon juice to a large pan with a lid.
2. Heat to a boil while stirring.
3. Once you have a boil, turn down the heat to a simmer and cover for 20 min. Placing a cover on the pan will condense the water vapor allowing it to run down the side of the pan, dissolving any "rouge" sugar crystals on the side of the pan. As this solution is super concentrated, if one of these crystals were to fall in after the heat was lowered, the seed crystal would start a chain reaction and you would get a pan of rock candy. This is a trick candy makers use all the time.
4. Sanitize jars and lids.
5. Carefully pour hot sugar into HOT JARS (used hot water to mix the StarSan which heated up the jars prior to filling). If you pour hot sugar into cold jars, they can shatter. Be careful, this stuff is like liquid napalm and will stick to everything and is very hot
6. Lid jars and turn them upside down. This will prevent any crystals forming on the rim of the jar as the sugar cools, preventing crystallization of the solution.
7. When cool, label and store at room temperature. These should keep for about forever.
FYI, a 1 QT canning jar filled about 1 inch from the top will weight about 2lb 7oz.
Total Cost = 6lb of inverted sugar = $4 Way better than $4/lb plus shipping.
Inverted sugar cooling...
Jason
