Processing sugar beets

Does anyone here have a good home process for making sugar from beets? I grew sugar beets this year and have just been processing them into a sugar-rich beet syrup. It's a fine sugar substitute but it would be nice to get some of it to crystalize.

I've tried this method.
http://www.grandpappy.info/rsugar.htm
All I get is syrup.

I am currently educating myself about sugar beets after having seen some bulk seeds in a local farm supply store. The link in this 2011 post has gone dead so I dug up the referenced recipe from the Internet Archive and am posting it here for posterity:

Grandpappy's Homemade Sugar Recipe

Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.

Sugar (or Sucrose):
Sugar cane and sugar beets both produce the same type of sugar which is called sucrose. Approximately 70% of the sugar (sucrose) consumed worldwide is produced from sugar cane and the remaining 30% is produced from sugar beets.

Historical Note:
In the late 1800's many American homesteads made their own sugar using sugar beets they grew on their own land. However, this practice was gradually abandoned when commercially produced cane sugar become widely available and affordable. Today only large commercial processing plants still make sugar from beets and that sugar is used in a variety of products, such as breakfast cereals. The commercial processing of sugar beets is more sophisticated than the simple home processing techniques that were used in the late 1800's. However, that traditional home processing procedure is the method that is described below.

Growing:
Sugar beet seeds should be planted in the early spring. The beets grow below ground like carrots. The sugar beet roots are harvested in the fall after the first hard frost. They contain between 14% to 21% sucrose sugar by weight. When harvested the beets should be knocked together to shake off most of the dirt that is still clinging to the beet roots. (Note: Regular beets only contain about 5% to 6% sucrose by weight so be sure to use the special sugar beets.)

Preparation:
Cut off the top of the beet with its leaves. (Note: The leaves contain protein, carbohydrates, and Vitamin A and they may be eaten like normal beet greens, or they may be used as a livestock feed when combined with other types of feed.)
Carefully wash and scrub the beet to remove any remaining dirt particles.
Then cut the beet into pieces using any one of the following three methods:
1. Slice the beet into extremely thin slices, or
2. Slice and dice the beet into very small tiny cubes, or
3. Shred the beet using a vegetable shredder.

Cooking:
1. Transfer the cut beets to a large pot and add just barely enough water to completely cover the beets.
2. Cook the beets over medium heat, stirring frequently, until they are soft and tender. This usually takes about one-hour.
3. Use a thin clean towel and strain the water off the beets and save the beet sugar water. You may eat the cooked beets immediately or you may preserve the cooked beets for later consumption by canning or freezing. (Note: Commercial beet processors press or squeeze the beets at this point to extract as much of the sugar as possible from the beets. You may add this step if you wish or you may simply eat the beets.)
4. Simmer the beet sugar water over low to medium heat, stirring frequently, until it becomes a sweet thick dark beet sugar syrup similar to honey or molasses. Then turn off the heat.

Crystallization:
1. Wait for the sweet dark beet sugar syrup to cool a little bit and then transfer the beet sugar syrup to a storage container. The beet sugar syrup will slowly and gradually crystallize the same way that honey crystallizes.
2. As the sugar gradually crystallizes you should periodically remove it from the container and then break, crush, or pound it into small beet sugar crystals.

Beet Sugar Crystals:
Homemade beet sugar is chemically the same type of sugar as regular cane sugar and therefore it may be stored and used in the same manner as cane sugar. However, since homemade beet sugar is produced using a different extraction process it will have slightly different baking characteristics. The most noticeable baking difference is that it does not have the caramelization characteristic of commercially processed cane sugar.

Sugar Crystallization Footnote 1: The normal crystallization process can take a long time and it is not unusual for a family to consume all their sweet dark beet sugar syrup before it has time to crystallize.
Sugar Crystallization Footnote 2: The normal crystallization process can be accelerated by cooking the beet sugar syrup down into sugar crystals.

Other Uses for the Beet Sugar Water and the Beet Sugar Syrup:
Alcoholic Beverage: The beet sugar water may be fermented to make a type of "rum" or a type of "vodka." These alcoholic drinks are very popular in Czechoslovakia and Germany.
Sweet Thick Beet Sugar Syrup: The sweet thick "honey like" beet sugar syrup may be spread on bread or pancakes and eaten. It may also be used as a substitute for honey in dessert recipes.

This is what I'm kinda thinking of for my sorghum and corn that I am planning this year.
any sorghum mills in east Texas area.

Tom Allyn wrote:Does anyone here have a good home process for making sugar from beets? I grew sugar beets this year and have just been processing them into a sugar-rich beet syrup. It's a fine sugar substitute but it would be nice to get some of it to crystalize.

I've tried this method.
http://www.grandpappy.info/rsugar.htm
All I get is syrup.

Dan Boone wrote:The link in this 2011 post has gone dead so I dug up the referenced recipe from the Internet Archive

I updated the link as a staff note in Tom's first post.

I tried his method too, from his book. I got to the syrup phase (liquidy syrup at that) and said good enough, because it took a lot of time.

My yield was 3 cups of thin syrup from 4 pounds of sugar beets

I think to get to sugar, it would have to be cooked down for a long time to a thick syrup first. Then i'd spread it on fruit leather trays for my food dehydrator and pulverize it after it got crispy dry.

That said, i'll likely ever try it because it's a lot of work for only a small amount of sugar. But I hope someone else does give it a try and let us know how it went.

I hope adding a YouTube link along these same lines is acceptable....good demonstration starting at around 6 minutes into the video on home sugar production from sugar beet and good discussion and notes by the narrator.  Comments below the video have some good tips as well.



Note that both the larger beet sugar industry and this person on the video "seed" their cooked thick juice with a small amount of table sugar in order to aid in crystallization.  Even if you have a rather dark syrup (which is not the best for crystal formation), *if* you are able to get some crystallization started, then try to let the water evaporate away in a shallow dish or pan which will drive a bit more crystallization.  While the crystals are still 'wet', wrap in a towel and try to 'centrifuge' out some of the brown liquid (impurities including beet molasses......most people feel beet molasses to taste pretty foul relative to cane sugar molasses) by swinging the toweled crystals in a circle with your arm.  This is what the industry does, but on a large scale with many mechanical centrifuges, to aid in removing impurities and molasses from the final white sugar product.  If you have even more patience and want to make this a learning experience, in order to really move your crystals towards a more 'clean' sugar, you could try to remove the sugar from the towel, place it into a shallow bowl, and add just enough distilled water to re-dissolve the crystals into a thick liquid.  Allow evaporation to occur and allow crystals to re-form.  Let evaporation continue until you have 'wet' crystals again and 're-centrifuge' the crystals in a towel by swinging with your arm again.  You should notice whiter crystals now when the liquid is removed in this way.  In large beet sugar factories, this process of re-dissolving, recrystallizing, and re-centrifuging is done several times until the product meets the quality standards of the end-users.  The advantage the industry has in the removal of a lot of the impurities in the cooked beets by some fancy, but still very old (hundreds of years), chemistry technology that allows them to start with a cleaner product when crystallization begins.  Good luck experimenters!

Industry will be evaporating under a vacuum, to reduce the amount of heat needed. Connecting a vacuum pump to a pressure cooker might work, but the gasket's probably designed for pressure within.
If you get it working, will be useful for jam making too.
If you've got a plentiful supply of water, a water jet vacuum pump may do the job.

Anyone have experience in growing sugar beets into the Nothern  Texas Dallas/Forth Worth area? And, other things, like turnips and parnsnips?

Kim Huse wrote:Anyone have experience in growing sugar beets into the Nothern  Texas Dallas/Forth Worth area? And, other things, like turnips and parnsnips?

Perhaps this link would be of help?>>>>  https://lettucegrowsomething.com/post/how-to-grow-beets-in-central-texas/

The Texas panhandle had a sugar beet industry for many decades (Hereford was the site of the processing factory).  But it looks like beets in general can be grown in most parts of the state.  Good luck!

John, thank you!  I am going to be looking over this site a LOT...I was not born or raised in Texas, so what I know, except for basics, is different, so I am grateful  for this link, it will help me out a lot!

To answer the original question:
"'it would be nice to get some of it to crystalize."

Mr. Google said at thoughtco, "How do you crystalize syrup?

Heat a cup of syrup in a pan over medium heat. Stir and heat the syrup until it starts to thicken or you start to see crystals forming on the bottom or side of the pan. Pour the syrup onto a chilled plate and allow the syrup to crystallize.

Has anyone tried this method?  This sounds easy enough.

Never grown or processed sugar beets, but I have made maple syrup and sugar.  To get sugar it isn't too dissimilar from making fudge actually.  You cook it to the soft ball candy stage, 235-240 deg F, take it off the heat and beat it.  For fudge you stop beating it when it is smooth and not too crystalized, for sugar you keep beating it until it looks like brown sugar clumps.  

Once more this is the process for maple sugar, but I don't see why it wouldn't work for beet sugar.