BeerBorg

saw an old recipe for an English stout that listed invert sugar no.3 as an ingredient. is this the same as using Belgian candi syrup (dark)?

thanks

according to this, yes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candi_sugar

Here's an article about making invert sugar.

Is the recipe from the Barclay Perkins site?

Yes as others have said it's the same thing as candi syrup.

But I would argue that the "Why should you take the time to do this the Right Way ™?" comment on the linked reference above on how to make it, although it will make candi syrup, is according to old world Belgians is not the right way. So if you REALLY want to do it the right way...

The old world methods do not use acid. They use nothing but temperature control to make invert sugar. You basically have to heat the sugar solution to the lowest candi making temperature, then add some cold water (in a homebrew sized batch say 1TBSP) to knock the temp down which causes some sugar to crystalize and then re-dissolve more or less (without getting into techno babble) - then heat it a little bit more, then do the same, rinse/repeat over and over again increasing the max temperature each step, each step being maybe 5 degrees... until you finally achieve the color you desire. If making dark candi syrup this takes a LONG TIME. But it's the real old world way. Something like this is what the folks who make D-90/D-180L do. Once you factor in how long this takes to do the right way, those bags of D-180L aren't too expensive .