Sugar Substitutes - What ferments, what don't?

I would assume that most sugar subs will not ferment and may acutally harm the process in fact. But the one I am wondering about mainly is Splenda since they advertise that it is made from real sugar. Wondering what sub would be best to sweeten up a batch of cider or mead?

There are two main sugars in brewing that don't ferment or at least 90% non-fermentable. Malto-dextrine and lactose.

Splenda is fluffed dextrose and malto-dextrine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucralose

Malto-dextrine is probably the better choice. I believe oz for oz it has more sweetening power than lactose. It would be cheaper with MD and I think it will mix better than lactose.

Splenda would work too but its pricey.

If you haven't started the batch you could throw in a can of frozen apple juice concentrate. Some brands have sorbates and other sugars that won't ferment.

One can per 5 gal of juice. The use of the contrate supposedly takes the dryness away.

Many people (myself included) don't detect any (or very little) sweetness in maltodextrin. It has a rating of 5, which makes it 1/10th as sweet as sucrose. Sucralose is a sucrose molecule in which three of the -OH groups have been replaced by chlorine atoms.

Ugly little thing ain't it?

If you want a natural sugar, lactose is your only real option. But, sucralose has been in use for 30 years and no hard data ties it to any problems.

I didn't think lactose was sweeter than maltodextrine. I have never used lactose before. My advice came from Charlie Papazians CJOHB book.

The ingredients of sucrolose is supposedly dextrose & maltodextrine. Dextrose (cornsugar) would ferment out so you'd be left with maltodextrine. Right?

I guess lactose might be the better choice. Chuck says it doesn't mix well and that you need quite a bit to sweeten.

I don't know where you get the dextrose & maltodextrine for sucrolose. It's wrong. Because sucrolose is 600 times as sweet as sucrose, commercial products like Splenda are bulked up with other materials, but even if those are fermentable, the sucrolose remains behind with undiminished sweetening ability.

Lactose is about 1/2 as sweet as sucrose.

[Cultural aside: " ... co-founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales has acknowledged there are real quality problems with the online work". The Register (U.K.)]

Dave,

I don't know that much about it other than what I read. Assuming it to be true.

Two things;

I was trying to pass on what I understood about sugars to BrewFrick.

The concentrate for cider seems to work people have done it with Edworts Apfelwine and I saw this as a suggestion in my Brewing for Dummies in the "In-Cider" section. The thought being to remove the dry pucker one gets from dry cider.

From wikipedia... I'm not vouching on its accuracy.... This is where I got the idea...

I miss-read the wikipedia site. Sucrose is not made from dextrose & MD. Splenda is though... All three

Has anyone tried sweetening with stevia?

NurseNan said:

Has anyone tried sweetening with stevia?

Click to expand...

I've tried stevia but never in my cider or anything else after the first time I tried it . . . that stuff is horrid