Brewing With Stevia

[Bongchitis]

How redily available is Stevia?
Where do i get it from?

Get a plant from your local nursery or some extracts from your local health food store but both these options proved less than adequate for brewing due to the bitter aftertaste produced. The extract that I aquired from ebay is excellent in sweetness and flavour, details in the 1st couple of posts of this thread.

Have recently found that combining stevia extract and sucralose (splenda) works fantastically well at sweetening cider and will use this combo for ginger beer and lemonade etc.

 

[bum]

There are quite a few stevia extract options in supermarkets these days too. Dunno how suitable any of them are for brewing, however.

 

[graffix]

Type 2 diabetes is fat, lazy people with poor diet that bring it upon themselves and don't deserve their "illness" to be called diabetes. (aka: the American fast food, soda and candy diet). The only way natural sugar gets involved is that overconsumption of foods containing it is one of manner triggers for Type 2. Overconsumption of anything is generally never healthy.

Sorry to be off topic, but the amount of misinformation about diabetes out there is staggering. And the prejudice out there against type 1 diabetics (and their parents) really upsets me.

Who dares to propagate this prejudice and misinformation!?

 

[Bongchitis]

Yeah they are pretty much the same brands that the Health food stores stock... and then you have the spoon for spoon stuff that is blended with maltodextrin et al but they all have that aftertaste. 4-5 brands tried until I got tired of the shitty results and did some research into the super sweet and non bitter components of stevia and bought an extract high in this compound/s.

If artificial sweetening is your thing for whatever reason then this type of extract is the only one fit for the purpose of brewing IMHO.

There are quite a few stevia extract options in supermarkets these days too. Dunno how suitable any of them are for brewing, however.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Who dares to propagate this prejudice and misinformation!?

Answer: Tim

It is rumoured that artificial sweetners cause cancer. It is fact that natural sugar causes diabetes.

</endquote>

Absolute falsehood.

When I say that my 2 year old has diabetes and needs needles, I often get responses that indicate the respondee thinks:

1. It's my fault as her parent - as this is a lifestyle illness (when type 1 isn't, whereas type 2 is) - i.e. she has it because we eat garbage food and drink garbage drink (which we don't)
2. I'm cruel for giving her five needles a day, because surely a tablet will do the trick (whereas tablets are again type 2 medication to stimulate a still working pancreas), not insulin directly into the body to compensate for one that doesn't work.
3. It will go away, or can be cured with appropriate dietary measures (which it can't, though meticulous monitoring of diet is a daily requirement).

Sorry to the small number of type 2'ers who have it because there is a family history and try to do the right thing or are just plain old. My comments are directed to the under 40 year old type 2 diabetics who have this illness because they choose it as part of their lifestyle.

And yes, over consumption of beer may be a cause of type 2, so moderation!

 

[freezkat]

Answer: Tim

It is rumoured that artificial sweetners cause cancer. It is fact that natural sugar causes diabetes.

</endquote>

Absolute falsehood.

When I say that my 2 year old has diabetes and needs needles, I often get responses that indicate the respondee thinks:

1. It's my fault as her parent - as this is a lifestyle illness (when type 1 isn't, whereas type 2 is) - i.e. she has it because we eat garbage food and drink garbage drink (which we don't)
2. I'm cruel for giving her five needles a day, because surely a tablet will do the trick (whereas tablets are again type 2 medication to stimulate a still working pancreas), not insulin directly into the body to compensate for one that doesn't work.
3. It will go away, or can be cured with appropriate dietary measures (which it can't, though meticulous monitoring of diet is a daily requirement).

Sorry to the small number of type 2'ers who have it because there is a family history and try to do the right thing or are just plain old. My comments are directed to the under 40 year old type 2 diabetics who have this illness because they choose it as part of their lifestyle.

And yes, over consumption of beer may be a cause of type 2, so moderation!

Sugar causes an insulin reaction. The more you work out your pancreas... the worse.

From what I have seen on TV and read in leaflets from my doctor and webmd (not community answer forums) there is an increased risk of pancreatic cancer.

 

[Brynz54]

How redily available is Stevia?
Where do i get it from?

Coles, Woolworths right next to the sugar. Brand name Natvia. It comes in granulated form. If you want to use a large quantity you can get 20 Kg in liquid form. (Google is your friend)

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

Greased Lightning reply sir. You the man.

 

[Rocker1986]

Natural sugar is a bit of a stupid term as well. All sugar is natural; regardless of the level of processing it might end up going through, it all comes from a natural source in the beginning and doesn't get turned into "synthetic" sugar at any point.

 

[good4whatAlesU]

I work in sugar cane a bit and can certify it's pretty evil stuff. Leaves are amazingly sharp like razor blades and lined with little spurs that dig into your skin.

When we go in there to work we wear face-shields, full overalls and gloves. It's frickin horrible.