Backsweetening cider/ginger beer with Stevia

[Hyper.Intelligent.Fish]

Hi guys.

I'm looking to backsweeting a batch of cider and ginger beer, avoiding lactose. Word on the street is that Stevia is a reasonable alternative if I'm looking for a sweeter, bottle carbed brew.

The supermarket has a number of brands I'm looking at, so any advice or guidence would be appreaciated.

SteviaSweet:

Comes in granulated form, volumetrically equal to sugar (1 cup stevia = 1 cup sugar)
Contains Stevia and Maltodextrose which many people add to their brews anyway.
Contains "Fructofibres"... anyone know what that is?

Natvia:

Volumetrically equal to sugar in granulated form.
No Maltodextrose added as a filler, but it does contain "Erythritol" which according to the pack is a nectar found in melons and grapes.

The other alternative is pure stevia from a health food shop.

Is anyone able to point me in a good direction? At the moment I'm thinking SteviaSweet due to the Maltodextrose, but I have no idea what Fructofibres are, and it they're fermentable it'll mess up my brown sugar priming calculations.

Thanks,

Fish.

 

[Bizier]

If they are of unknown fermentability, add to fermenter and wait a few days before bottling, also allows you to evaluate sweetness.

 

[technobabble66]

+1 to Bizier's suggestion.

Though i personally would go for pure stevia if it's available.
I've used it once (ginger beer). I'd agree Stevia seems the best of the sweetener options. Can potentially be tricky to get it to dissolve fully. The time i used it i dissolved it in hot, pre-boiled water [though the stevia was already v finely powdered]. That worked perfectly (maybe the finely powdered bit was more important, though) & put measured doses of the liquid into bottles instead of the regular priming sugar/drops.
The Stevia was good as a sweetener. I generally don't like the taste of sweeteners, so i found it best used at a low dose - about 1/2 to 3/5ths the recommended amount in the ginger beer i made.
Unfortunately i don't remember the amount in the kit: 15-20g pure stevia, i guess, for a 23L batch.
So i'd guess ~10g per 23L batch suited my tastes?

 

[431neb]

I used a granular stevia in a turbo cider made with Aldi juice. Before I used the sweetener I made a cuppa with my usual 1 tsp of "sugar" - it was a 1:1 product - and I found it to be bloody awful. Blatantly obvious and overly sweet in a different way to sugar. I still used it but I only used 11 grams in 20 litres.

Don't be fooled. That shit is as light as air so 11 grams is a fair bit. Just nowhere near what I would use if there was real sugar that was unfermentable.

Use some, for sure but back-sweetening is gonna do the heavy lifting if you want sweet cider.

 

[Hyper.Intelligent.Fish]

The bloke at the local hbs cracked open a ginger beer kit. It had a sachet of 4g of Stevia for sweetening, and I'm assuming a 23L batch.

From research, people are suggesting 1/2 cup for 5 Gallons.

5 Gallons being just under 20L, and an metric cup being 50 teaspoons. That equates to about 1.3 teaspoons per litre.

Research also brought up that Stevia is 10 times more sweet or lighter than sugar, meaning that 1 teaspoon of Stevia is the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar.

431neb: What do you mean by real sugar that was unfermentable?

 

[technobabble66]

The bloke at the local hbs cracked open a ginger beer kit. It had a sachet of 4g of Stevia for sweetening, and I'm assuming a 23L batch.

Was it "Old Fashioned Ginger Beer" by Beer Essentials, in a smallish plastic tub?

That's the one i used & i'm v v keen to find out what weight of Stevia was in it (the only thing i forgot to record <_< )

 

[431neb]

431neb: What do you mean by real sugar that was unfermentable?

Yeah sorry, bit confusing. Simply that it would be bloody nice to have something that was unfermentable but tasted like real sugar. All the substitutes are flawed IMO, hence the low dose I used. Stevia is useful but not a silver bullet.

I would be wary of the additives supplied with some cider kits. Little plastic packets with misleading labels like "Real cider flavour" written on them, containing chemicals with names I can't pronounce.

Edit.

Just be careful not to compare the 1:1 stevia products (ie one teaspoon is supposed to substitute one tsp of sugar) with more concentrated products. A mistake there could cost you the brew.

 

[Hyper.Intelligent.Fish]

Well I bit the bullet and bought a 40g jar of Stevia Equal, ingredients also contain maltodextrin and "flavourings".

I have a couple of bottles left of my first dry batch that have conditioned, so I'll use them to experiment on getting the right balance, then use that to bulk sweeten my latest 18L batch when I prime and bottle on Wednesday.

I'll post results then.

 

[Hyper.Intelligent.Fish]

First test wasn't too bad. I had a half bottle of still apple cider sitting in the fridge, the bottle hadn't sealed property. I measured 500mL into a jug and added the Stevia sweetener by the 1/2 tsp, sipping from a straw. Bearing in mind that the brew was fairly nasty to begin with, it started to lose it's edge at around 1 1/2 tsp, and was overly sweet at 3 tsp. Based on that I'll add 3 tsp/L to my larger batch at the same time that I bottle and prime on Wednesday.

 

[Glengine]

My first and only cider brew I tried using a couple of different sweeteners. I tried using stevia and splenda and left some dry to compare the differences. I bought the little tablets which you are supposed to put in your coffee. Put one tablet in each bottle along with a carb drop on bottling day. I preferred the stevia over the splenda ones but from memory my wife preferred the splenda. The bottles without the sweetener were drinkable but I preferred the sweetened ones.

 

[Hyper.Intelligent.Fish]

Well, I screwed up.

Rather than bookmarking a priming sugar calculator, I relied on my brewing notebook. Big mistake, 'cause my handwriting is terrible. Long story short, I over primed the entire 18L batch of cider and had to toss the whole thing rather than risk bottle bombs.

On the positive side I drank some of the over-primed, back sweetened cider, and I believe that the stevia/maltodextrin blend available from the supermarket is pretty good at about 2-3 teaspoons p/Litre. It was sweeter than I like due to the unfermented brown priming sugar, but there was no chemical back taste or odd flavours.

Also thinking that people recommend 1/2 cup splenda to 5 gallons cider, and both splenda and this Stevia blend are 1=1 with sugar tsp wise, it's pretty close.

I'm thinking of trying some smaller scale experiments using those 3L bottles of juice from the supermarket. That way if I mess up again I minimise the damage.

Was it "Old Fashioned Ginger Beer" by Beer Essentials, in a smallish plastic tub?

That's the one i used & i'm v v keen to find out what weight of Stevia was in it (the only thing i forgot to record <_< )

That's the stuff. The stevia (I'm assuming pure and powdered) was in a small foil packet, with "Stevia 4g" printed on it.

 

[Airgead]

Why toss it? Uncap, release the pressure and recap. Or if its really bad, uncap, (quickly... as soon as you realise), dump into a fermenter, let it ferment back out then re-prime (correctly) and re-bottle.

Its a lot of work but better than tipping a batch.

Assuming the batch was drinkable anyway...

Cheers
Dave

 

[Glot]

Does inverted sugar ferment?

 

[Airgead]

Yes.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

BUMP

Guys anyone used this succesfully ? I want to try but I would like to hear from someone first?

Thanks

JJJ

 

[GalBrew]

It is gross, do NOT use stevia to backsweeten cider. I have done it and it results in quite an off putting back taste.

I wouldn't even put it in my coffee.

 

[Airgead]

I think there are 2 kinds of person in the world... those that find stevia inoffensive and those that really can't stand it.

If you are type 1, then go for it. If you are type 2, best not.

Cheers
Dave

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

That sounds like excellent advise.... Except that I dont make cider for me... I keep it available more for its ability to.....Well lets just say it isn't for me. I dont need it super sweet but I would like to avoid having to use lactose (that could end badly who knows?) Should I mix a 1/3 stevia with a 1/3 splenda with a 1/3 Aspartame ?? What about maltodextrine? What is the mystery chemical people are saying comes with the kits?

Any help is appreciated. Come on guys I need all the help I can get !!!

JJJ

 

[GalBrew]

Go all aspartame. I have used that method with much better results. Only issue can be that it can turn bitter over several (6+) months in the keg.

 

[nathan_madness]

I did a 23L batch and added 50g of the Natvia to it and it tasted great for the first couple of bottles then it really wears on you (where did the puke emoticon go?). Not only that most of these products have a laxative effect too.