Homemade Energy Gels

My various recipes and attempts at creating home made energy gels.
1st May 2009.
Jim Ley, Jibbering.com
part of Sports.

Energy Gels

Energy Gels are available from many suppliers, such as SiS, Gu, Powerbar, or my favourite Hammer. However they don't come in the combination of flavours and ingredients that I like. My favourite flavour is the Hammer Apple Cinnamon flavour, however I also like Caffeine in my gels, which Hammer only includes in the Tropical and Espresso flavours which I'm not such a fan of.

Gels are also expensive, one pound each, or 18 for 26 serving jug, so taking four an hour as I do when running, soon adds up.

If you're in a hurry and just want to know about the final apple cinnamon gel recipe or successful berry gel recipe, you can skip all the experiments, and go straight to them.. There's also another simple recipe as noted in my second blog post on it.

Google turned up few recipes about making your own gels, much discussion on forums and the occasional page, but nothing that had real recipes with ingredients, amounts and methods. Other than a few such as this one which didn't end up as a gel but just a sugary sweet syrup, made of ingredients that weren't very easy to source or cheap. So I started experimenting.

The Ingredients

I looked at what was listed in the ingredients list of various gels that I liked, Gu and Hammer being the two I like most, but I also looked at SiS, Powerbar, Carboom and Clif Shot Gels too, below are the various ingredients I found listed.
Maltodextrin
The main source of carbohydrate in the gels I like most, it's big advantage to me is that it's not too sweet. The reason Hammer and Gu use it is that it's an easy to digest complex carbohydrate very easy to digest.
Fructose
A low glycemic index sugar, digested more slowly, this is available from most supermarkets as it's used by many diabetics, or can also be bought online cheaply. It's also the main form of sugar in fruit and fruit juice (as the name suggests).
Flavouring
A variety of flavourings are used, normally they are either fruit, or listed simply as "natural flavors", but various other things such as Kola nut were often listed.
Pectin
The commonest gelling agent used in the majority of gels, commonly known and easily available in the supermarket in a variety of forms.
Citric Acid
This is both an agent to make the pectin work to create a gel, but it's also cited as an important part of the energy cycle.
Caffeine
Common additive with well known performance benefits, either supplied to the gel by Kola nut, or as straight caffeine depending on how "organic" the product is.
Salts
Some of the gel providers added salts to the gel to aid as part of electrolyte replacement. Neither Hammer or Gu did this though, and I'm dubious as mixing my food with my electrolytes, with the requirements of the second depending heavily on the sweating rate.
Preservatives
Various things were added as preservatives, given that I'm making it up myself and eating soon after, I'm not going to worry about these.
Amino Acids
Hammer and Gu both added Amino Acids, the BCAAs - leucine, valine and isoleucine found in both. Hammer also adding alanine and Gu adding histidine.
Antioxidants
A number of gels added vitamin C and vitamin E as antioxidants, however Gu was interesting in that despite having them in they provided an FAQ saying it was easy to get the required amount.
Xanthan gum and Gellan gum
SiS gel alone used Xanthan gum and Gellan gum as the gelling agent instead of pectin used by the others.

The First Experiment

The fewest ingredients for a plain unflavoured gel I came up from the above was, Maltodextrin, Water, Pectin, Citric Acid. But I didn't know the ratios, some reading up on many food related sites, particularly Khymos, I started to experiment.

Experiment 1

The ingredients

The method

Heat the water gently and stir in the maltodextrin until it's all well dissolved. To the warm water and malto mix add the pectin and citric acid and stir well until the citric acid is dissolved. Leave to cool in the fridge stirring occasionally.

The result

Surprisingly this first attempt worked really well, a good gel like consistency was formed pretty much identical to a hammer gel. It tasted very bland and neutral though, so I tried adding a few drops of peppermint flavouring. Whilst that changed the taste somewhat it didn't actually improve it very much, which may be why so few mint flavoured gels are available.

Energy Provided

1/2 a cup of maltodextrin weighs 75grams, with 4 calories per gram, that's 300 calories in a volume of liquid that is very similar to 4 servings of hammer - I put the result in a hammer flask. This works out at 75 calories per serving, less than a single serving of unflavoured hammer gel which has 93.

Adding some flavour

Whilst the first recipe was still cooling, and not knowing of the success or otherwise of it, I started on the second. Attempting the apple cinnamon flavour.

Apple Cinnamon Gel

The ingredients

The method

Reduce the apple juice down to a third of its original voume, a 1/4 of a cup of liquid, if you over reduce, top it up with water to be back to the right amount. Dissolve the maltodextrin into the still hot, but no longer boiling liquid. When the malto is fully dissolved add the pectin, citric acid and cinnamon and mix well. Allow to cool in the fridge.

The result

The taste was surprisingly good for a first attempt, not as apple-y as the Hammer product, but very palatable, however it was a much stiffer gel than I would've liked, but it still just about poured. I mixed it with half as much water as gel in a gel flask and used it very successfuly along with the peppermint flavoured gel from recipe 1 on a 50mile cycle.

Energy Provided

The maltodextrin again provided 75calories per serving, however this time the fruit juice also provided some fructose based calories. 190ml of apple juice provides 80 calories, so the resulting 4 servings of gel from the recipe end up with 95 calories, almost identical to the hammer calories.

Mixed Berry flavour

The ingredients

The method

In a small non-stick frying pan or milk pan heat the mixed berries so they thaw and start to soften, mush them up whilst still heating and add a little water. Once thoroughly mushed sieve the resulting gloop so you seperate out the berry juice from the solid material. Make this juice up to 1/2 a cup of fluid and then thoroughly dissolve in the maltodextrin. Whilst still warm add in the citric acid and pectin. Leave to cool in a fridge.

The result

This failed, the result was a very sharp berry flavour, and it didn't gel enough to get a good gel-like consistency. I had already increased the pectin to make up for the berries but obviously didn't do it enough to still get a good gel. More research is needed on this one.

Adding in amino acids and caffeine

The ingredients

The method

Reduce the apple juice down to a quarter of its original voume, to 1 of a cup of liquid, if you over reduce, top it up with water to be back to the right amount. Dissolve the maltodextrin into the still hot, but no longer boiling liquid. When the malto is fully dissolved add caffeine and amino acids and mix well. I found the amino acids didn't dissolve all that well. Then add the pectin, citric acid and cinnamon and mix well. Allow to cool in the fridge.

The result

This worked really well, the slightly more apple juice increased the apple flavour, and the pectin/combo from the first experiment led to a very good consistency. The biggest problem was accurate measuring of the caffeine and amino acids, and I think it would be a good idea to mix a larger amount with a lot of malto to make dosing easier.

Energy Provided

The maltodextrin again provided 75 calories per serving, however this time the fruit juice provides about 25 calories per serving, so you end up with a nice round 100 calories per serving (2 table spoons). Each serving also contains 50mg caffeine and 300mg of the amino acid mix.

Trying again with Berries

The ingredients

The method

In a small non-stick frying pan or milk pan heat the mixed berries so they thaw and start to soften, mush them up whilst still heating and add a little water. Once thoroughly mushed sieve the resulting gloop so you seperate out the berry juice from the solid material. Make this juice up to 1 cup of fluid and then thoroughly dissolve in the maltodextrin. Boil the mixture rapidly, and when it's boiling add the pectin and citric acid, and continue boiling for a few minutes. Leave to set at room temperature, adding the caffeine and BCAA mix to the cooling mixture.

The result

Success, although a very sharp, tart gel was created, maybe some fructose next time to sweeten up?. Also, I tried a 2nd batch, using the remaindered gloop from the first pressing of berry juice and boiling that with some water before sieving again, this was more successful, although the berry flavour wasn't quite so pronounced it was a lot less tart, and still acceptable, maybe a mixture of juice and 2nd pressing next time.

Blackcurrant Squash

The ingredients

The method

Heat the blackcurrant squash, and dissolve the maltodextrin in it, when it's hot - over 80C add the pectin and citric acid, mix thoroughly, poor into suitable container and allow to cool and gel.

The result

A successful Gel was created, but the taste was odd, strongly tasting, slightly tart, and rather "fake" tasting, so whilst a successful gel, it fails on taste test. I think the artificial sweeteners in the gel didn't help. To improve I'm thinking less squash, maybe a 50/50 mix with water, and a totally non-sweetened squash such as Robinsons have recently brought out.

Putting it all together

The recipes require a few things which are not available in your average supermarket.

Things you need to buy

Prices accurate at 10th March 2009 for me. If you're using myprotein.co.uk to buy, you can use my referal code MP107371 to get 5% off - you also earn me some points.

Jibbering Apple-Cinnamon Energy Gel Recipe

The Recipe

The Method

  1. In a suitable pan, boil the 1l of apple juice so that it reduces to 1/3l, if you over reduce, don't worry simply add more water to return it to 1/3l.
  2. Mix the maltodextrin, caffeine, BCAA and Beta Alanine together as a powder, if you're planning on making more than one batch, this is well worth doing with larger amounts since accurate measuring of the caffeine is required.
  3. Stir in the mixed powder to the still warm, but no longer boiling apple juice until it all dissolves.
  4. Add the cinnamon and stir well.
  5. Add the citric acid and pectin and stir well.
  6. Pour the warm liquid into a jar or other container with lid. I use used, sterilised Hammer Gel 26 serving bottles.
  7. Place into fridge to thoroughly cool.
  8. Enjoy!

The result

24 Servings of gel.

So at a cost of around a 1/6th of the price of buying hammer gels, an Apple Cinnamon Caffeine based gel is made. The exact amounts of Amino acids is not known in the real Hammer Gel, the amounts I aimed for was similar to the hourly dosage of their endurance amino capsules.

Jibbering Berry Gel Recipe

The ingredients

The method

In a small non-stick frying pan or milk pan heat the mixed berries so they thaw and start to soften, mush them up whilst still heating and add a little water. Once thoroughly mushed sieve the resulting gloop so you seperate out the berry juice from the solid material. You should have around 150ml of juice, if you have more seperate this out. To the 150ml of juice make it up to 1/3 litre of fluid and then thoroughly dissolve in the maltodextrin, caffeine, BCAA's. Heat the mixture to boiling, then add the pectin and citric acid.

The result

24 Servings of gel.

Smoothie based recipe

After continuing to experiment with making my own energy gels, I've now finally settled on what the quickest and easiest recipe and settled on the steps.

Ingredients

The method

Add 250ml of just boiled water to a measuring jug, and then mix in the Amino acids and caffeine etc. first, stirring well as these are the least soluble. Then mix in the 500g of malto. Do it cautiously with about 50-100g at a time to avoid clumps, but it should dissolve pretty easily in the hot water.

Transfer to a pan, and add the pectin and citric acid, the citric acid may not be needed if you're using a more acidic smoothie (such as a berry based one) and heat it up to ensure it's above 80C, either using a sugar thermometer, or just guess if it's bubbling up, it's more than hot enough

Allow to cool briefly, and then pour into suitable container whilst still nicely liquid. Allow to cool, and then refigerate. Cooling time does seem to impact the texture, if you cool it rapidly (e.g. cold water bath in fridge) it's more liquid, no idea on why that might be, but it appears to be the case.

Common Questions

Since writing up the recipes, there's been a couple of questions I've been asked a lot

How do you carry them?

There are lots of Gel Flasks available, I use the ones from Hammer and just carry the gels in a triathlon top pocket when running, or in the jersey pocket when cycling. There are also bike mounts available for gel flasks, from Hammer, or Gu. Another alternative is a simple runners fuel belt, which comes with a number of small flasks which are also very suitable for gels. These flasks all work best if you add a little water to the gel to make it flow easier. There are also soft gel flasks available, carrying less and I have no personl experience of them.

How long do they keep?

I don't know the answer to this, I've had a batch for a month, with a week of that kept out of the fridge whilst I was on vacation. It was exactly the same as the fresh stuff so I assume it was safe. The gel is essentially a preserve, and it's extremely similar to the Hammer Gel Flasks which have a shelf life of over a year. So keep it in an airtight container, in the fridge, and it should last a reasonable time, just make up small batches regularly.

More questions, feedback?

If you have any questions, feedback, or more info of any sort, or just want to let me know about your own successes or failures, please get in touch, you can email me at the address below, or add a comment to my blog.

Jim Ley - jim@jibbering.com, jim.ley@gmail.com Jibbering.com