Backsweetening cider/ginger beer with Stevia

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Fyi when you do go to the health food shop, make sure you don't ask for sativa instead :/
 
Ok, just going to chime in here.

On saturday afternoon i cracked open two bottles from a new batch that's had 6 weeks conditioning,
Still my exact same simple recipe. fresh local juice and yeast
Only difference was one bottle was primed with normal CSR white sugar and the other with CSR brown sugar. Both at a rate of 8g/L.

the difference in the bottle was amazing.
the white sugar version was the usual, dry, quite clear and light in the mouth.
The brown sugar version was full of body, a littrle more cloudy and darker coloured but there was extra sweetness and a real gutsy apple flavour. It was also less fizzy,
No doubt less fermentables in the brown sugar accounted for most of the difference.

We taste tested both between a number of us, some who like the sweet cordial ciders and others like me who prefer the very dry cider.
Those with a sweet tooth were very happy with the brown sugar version.

So, If i were in the position of needing to sweeten up ciders then I'd be using the brown sugar approach before hitting the artificial sweetner shelves.
You could easily add 10g/L and not be over carbed.
 
Yep. Brown sugar has molasses added back in which contains a bunch of unfermentables.
 
Any idea what the fermentable % is?
to help with calculations
 
No. I suspect that different brands of brown sugar have different amounts of molasses added. There is also a difference between light and dark brown sugar. I'd guess maybe 80% fermentable but the only way to be sure would be to do a trial fermentation of a brown sugar solution and see what the FG was.

Cheers
Dave
 

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