Before attacking these periods, I needed a reliable source of INVERT SUGAR 'cos it was used a lot and contributed greatly to the flavour (and colour) of beers in those periods. (The coloured capitals are just an attention grabber).
I knew using white granulated sugar was wrong, I knew keen souls made their own, I knew some cheated and forked out for monstruous blocks of "Ragus" Invert (because UK brewers would use it these days) and I knew you could hand over a King's ransom and purchase some from the US.
I dismissed Ragus because not only was it impossible to purchase in small amounts, but it also became apparent (to me) that the stuff wasn't as "authentic" as people made out (20% of it is tasteless glucose powder added to make it into "solid" blocks). I wanted to make my own. But was terrified of slaving over seething cauldrons of intensely hot sugar syrup. Making the syrup "inverting" looked like the worse jobs, before the hours of simmering to get the colour right.
I homed in on using Lyle's Golden Syrup as a base; inverting is half done anyway, and will be fully done during processing, and it contains the necessary protien matter ("supermarket" pseudo-Golden Syrup does not). I bought an "Instantpot" (Airfrier) to make the job easier and should have some beer to show for it in a few weeks. A "1896 Rose AK" (No.1 & 2 Invert Sugar) and "1924 Barclay Perkins KK" (Burton Ale) (No. 3 Invert Sugar - making that should be fun). I'm not writing up my today's efforts making No. 2, you'll have to read it >here< for now.
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