Is stevia ok during fermentation?

[Bribie G]

New stevia thread as the others didn't seem to go anywhere (yes I searched).

Bought 20L of juice today and for a bit of an added flavour boost I also bought 2L of Apple Berry cordial. On getting it home I see it's sweetened with stevia. I know there have been some back sweetening experiments with it, but has anyone had experience of putting it into the fermenter? I was going to ferment with it to "blend" in the flavours a bit, but now thinking of probably leaving it till the end and just use in the keg.

 

[Airgead]

Don'[t use it myself cos I hate the aftertaste but should be fine in the fermenter.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Bribie G]

See what you mean, I tried some of the cordial in a jug off the tap which is now very dry. Harsh sort of bittery but not in a nice beer way. I'll look out for some nice apple cordial for backsweetening. I bet IGA will have something. Can't believe that anyone would give this cordial to their kids.

Off topic, I just pitched the yeast into juice and dex, I'm so used to beer brewing that when I took a refrac reading, 1046 seemed quite tame until I ran it through the calculator in Brewmate. 6% ABV. So that's why I've been getting hammered on the stuff.

 

[Airgead]

Yep... fermenting out dry makes quite a bit of difference.

 

[Hyper.Intelligent.Fish]

New stevia thread as the others didn't seem to go anywhere (yes I searched).

Bought 20L of juice today and for a bit of an added flavour boost I also bought 2L of Apple Berry cordial. On getting it home I see it's sweetened with stevia. I know there have been some back sweetening experiments with it, but has anyone had experience of putting it into the fermenter? I was going to ferment with it to "blend" in the flavours a bit, but now thinking of probably leaving it till the end and just use in the keg.

I've yet to try adding stevia to the fermenter myself, only when bottling, but the instructions in the ginger beer kit I picked up from the hbs includes stevia for backsweetening, and it's meant to be added at the same time as the yeast. That being said, it's pure stevia vs whatever mix or blend your cordial maker used.

I'm going to hazard a guess that it should be fine, but I'm not going to put the house on it.

Good luck.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

The stevia I have used is a blend made by equal that is a tiny bit of stevia in with mostly maltodextrin. I have just put a batch down and I boiled it with my yeast nutrient and chucked it in. Will see how it turns out. It says you can cook with it though so I hope it temperature stable.

 

[Cube]

Watch out for ricin in the odd packet.....

That sneaky Walter.

 

[Forever Wort]

Interesting that this topic is moving today as I had a stevia experience last night.

I experimented for the first time with 20g of stevia in a 26l dark ale (aiming for the slightest hint of sweetness) and pitched my yeast last night at 25 degrees. Woke up this morning and there was zero activity in the fermenter - very unusual as in all of my brews so far there has been visible or audible fermentation after eight hours. I pitched another yeast at 22 degrees and went to work, just got home and now have a rich, thick krausen, the thickest I have ever seen on any of my beers.

Wasn't sure if it was dud yeast, dead yeast, the stevia or what. Beer smells great that's the main thing.

 

[joshF]

Watch out for ricin in the odd packet.....

That sneaky Walter.

Hahahaha i seriously cracked up reading that. Sneaky sneaky sneaky.

Forever wort, if you feel sweaty and have flu-like symptoms when you drink your beer, i'm pretty sure it'll be too late...

I reckon maltodextrin would probably be better in a dark ale than experimenting with stevia. All that shit is incredibly bad for your kidneys (not that beer and everything else we eat isn't though :lol: ). You don't wanna be putting any aspartame in your beer either.
There's probably a safer route going with something like sucralose if you wanted to sweeten the brew a little bit but i'm only theorising. I wouldn't be putting any of that stuff in my brew

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

Josh there is no aspartamene in stevia it is the sweet leaf! (it does taste like poison in high doeses though)
I also dont think it is bad for yeast there is only a tiny bit of stevia in the powder it is 90% maltodextrin (well in the equal version I have). How many tea spoons was 20 grams? Remember that it is a sugar equivilent by volume not by weight.

I hope it turns out eager to hear how it goes!

 

[Forever Wort]

I also used 500g of maltodextrin. The stevia is equivalent to 20tsp of sugar, in 26l.

Krausen is now leaping and bounding to the top of the fermenter ... there is a four inch high mini-mountain in the centre surrounded by crevasses and valleys, and the wort can be viewed in one corner. Love it.

EDIT: Trying to get a pic up. These glad wrap shots don't really do krausen justice.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

What yeast did you use? It looks angry

 

[Forever Wort]

Just the kit yeast, I am all out of real yeast. Got heaps of kit yeasts in the fridge though from other brews I didn't need them for.