Sugar inversion

Sugar wash info and questions

Sugar inversion

Postby Reedy » Sun Dec 13, 2020 12:10 pm

You tuber bearded and bored as been spruking the benefits of inverting sucrose(table sugar) before use.
Sucrose is a combined molecule of glucose and fructose. Inversion breaks them apart. B and b suggested it produces a mellower product with less "sugar bite".
So I've been experimenting with tffv and invert sugar.
Attached is graph of fermentation of different sugars from some uni study. Maltose wins with glucose a close second. Sucrose performs miserably.
First thing i noticed that even though ttfv is always fast with invert sugar the fermenter was bubbling consistantly within 15 minutes. I kid you not. I did whirlpool alot to oxygenate. With sucrose it was more like an hour. With invert fermentation was done in 72 hours dry .990. With sucrose closer to 90 hours.
Ok then I conducted triangle tests with six people. 5 picked the difference. 4 out 6 said was said invert tffv was easier to drink with less throat burn.
Small sample size but I'm sold besides you have to glutanise (wrong word) the wheat bran for 20mins anyway so I make a sugar syrup add wheat bran bring to 112deg which takes about 20 minutes. So why not?
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Re: Sugar inversion

Postby Reedy » Sun Dec 13, 2020 12:25 pm

For those who might try this. I should mention you need add a little acid to sugar syrup. I use 3ml lactose or less then half teaspoon citric.
This acid seems to neutralise in inversion so still use the usual acid to the wash. I will take ph reading properly next time and confirm the starting ph with and without inversion.
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Re: Sugar inversion

Postby chipboy » Sun Dec 13, 2020 1:26 pm

Thank you for this, just curious, 1/2 a teaspoon of citric to how much sucrose? in Kg?

I know its all around molar weights (that's all I remember form chemistry for now)

Very interested, quality is remembered long after.
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Re: Sugar inversion

Postby Reedy » Sun Dec 13, 2020 2:40 pm

I am using the teddy's original recipe converted for 50 l batch. So I have 9kg sugar and I add just enough boiling water to dissolve sugar. Then add 500g bag of wheat bran.
If you add too much water you might not achieve 112deg although I suspect 20min boil would still the job.
I haven't able to find exact ph for inversion but I think just needs to be comfortably below neutral.
So half teaspoon in any amount will work.
As said this had no effect on wash ph in the end. Will do more r r n d on this. Carefull sugar syrup at 112 degrees burns like a mother #%#^#%%.
Keep spray bottle of water at hand if it boils up on you a quick spray calms it down real quick. It will do a hot break at some point then your safe.

Gelatinisation was the word I was looking for.
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Re: Sugar inversion

Postby chipboy » Sun Dec 13, 2020 2:51 pm

pH of 5 i read. I will go back to his original recipe too
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Re: Sugar inversion

Postby OzDistilling » Sun Dec 27, 2020 11:20 pm

Let me bore you with some basic Sugar Science.

Most of the yeasts that a distillery would use for a cane or beet sugar based wash is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or SaccC. SaccC 'feeds' (more accurately metabolises) only monosaccharides, like glucose, fructose, and Galactose. Sucrose (cane or beet sugar) is a disaccharide, or dual sugar, combining one molecule of glucose and one of fructose. For SaccC yeasts to metabolise sucrose, it first must be split into its simple monosaccharide components. This splitting is called hydrolysis or inversion. Inversion is caused by subjecting sucrose solutions to heat, or adding a catalyst (an acid like sulphuric or citric) or an enzyme (invertase).

During natural SaccC fermentations, the yeast produces the enzyme invertase, that splits the sucrose first making it available for fermentation. But obviously the invertase must do its job first before the yeast can ferment the glucose and fructose.

Yeasts produce invertase in far larger quantities and much faster than needed, so the onset of inversion phase is usually very fast, and rarely does the lack of invertase, hence inversion, impact fermentation. During the inversion phase, the yeast is also doing other very important things, like reproduction. Forcing yeast into a premature stationary (fermentation) phase and depriving it off a adequate lag and growth phases, may lead to stuck ferments.

There is little empirical scientific evidence that supports the notion that 'pre-inverting' a sucrose wash via hydrolysis (addition of acid), or heat (boiling) promotes, better, faster or more compete fermentation.

Of all the articles that I have read that suggest this, none consider the factor that hydrolysis view the addition of an acid also lowers the pH. Often this hidden side effect of a lower pH is the real reason for a more robust fermentation. You should aim for a pitch pH level of around 7.0. Hard water sources of 8.5+ benefit from the inverted sugar, reducing its effective pH to around 7. The data is skewed.

So, my point is this. Why bother with inversion for your wash sugars, ket mother nature do it for you, and more cheaply.

However, I have not discussed the other aspects of inverted sugar (syrups). It is very beneficial to invert any sugar syrup you use for product sweetening etc. Inverted syrups do not crystallize easily and are more stable in ethanol. Sweetening a 25% ABV liqueur with just sucrose could lead to heat haze, or wall scale due to crystallization. Sweetening with an inverted syrup will prevent this. Inverted 'sucrose' syrups are 10-20% sweeter than inverted sucrose.

Best inversion recipe. For every kg of Sucrose, add 1 litre of water and 1 gm of citric acid. Heat to 70C or until mixture clears, do not heat about 75C or your making caramel. This recipe calls for slightly more C.Acid than required, but results in a syrup with a pH of aroun 4.5 whci has a much improved shelf life and resistance to microbial spoiling.
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