Sugar with added sweetener

[Lawrie]

Hello all, Not sure if this has been discussed before but I was thinking to myself the other day that when it comes to making drinks like Turbo Cider and Fiery Ginger Beer a common problem that brewers encounter is how dry the finished product seems to be. So it got me wondering if when it comes to priming the bottles would it work by using sugar with added sweetener? Things like Half Spoon and Light At Heart? Looking at the ingredients it appears to be normal granulated sugar with added sweetener to make it twice as sweet so under normal usage ( in tea or coffee or on cereals ) you effectively only need half the amount. I can't see any reason why it wouldn't ferment like standard sugar but leaving a sweetness from the sweetener thus doing 2 jobs from one spoonful.
So that's my theory of how it should work but I was wondering if anybody has actually tried this and if so does it work or is it an idea that will be doomed from the start by something that I hav'nt thought of?

Happy Brewing

Lawrie

 

[RobWalker]

yes, aspartame based sweeteners are a pretty normal way to sweeten wines and ciders, particularly if you still want them fizzy. i've used sweetener in a milk stout to good effect too. the tabletop ones also add maltodextrin which adds a little mouthfeel, but the problem I encountered was weighing it up - it's lighter than sugar, so you can't weigh it accurately.

as they're meant to be measured with teaspoons for stuff like coffee sweetening etc, I suggest measuring out how sweet you want it in sugar first, and then recreating the size of the sugar pile using half spoon, just use your eyes. if anyone's got a better way i'd love to hear it!

 

[PD]

your guessing at the ratio's of sugar and sweetners in the mix

 

[Lawrie]

I must admit I never gave a thought to the weight of it so thanks for pointing it out, I've got a 5 litre Turbo Cider to bottle soon so I'll experiment by the spoonful rather than weighing it out for batch priming.

 

[graysalchemy]

You are better back sweetening with an artificial sweetner till you get the correct taste then bottling as normal, that way you know it is how you want it before going through the process of bottling only to find it too sweet. I am all for experimentation but sometimes there are easier methods which don't require reinventing the wheel :whistle:

 

[Lawrie]

You are better back sweetening with an artificial sweetner till you get the correct taste then bottling as normal, that way you know it is how you want it before going through the process of bottling only to find it too sweet. I am all for experimentation but sometimes there are easier methods which don't require reinventing the wheel :whistle:

That's what I like about these forums you can ask questions like this and get logical answers prior to doing something, Rather than jumping in and doing it just to find you've got it wrong and wasted a brew.

 

[RobWalker]

we've all been there in one way or the other, Lawrie. :lol: