Fermentable sweeteners

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Goyagon

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2012
Messages
89
Reaction score
5
Does anyone know if these are fermentable or anyway to make them fermentable or a way to make them settle/boil off? Dextrose monohydrate, sodium saccharin, sucralose and aspartame. These are artificial sweeteners except for dextrose monohydrate which might just be regular dextrose

Edit: after further research I've found that dextrose monohydrate is the same as dextrose with added h2o and that artificial sweeteners are impossible to ferment unless there is a way to break them down chemically. Aspartame seem to be able to be broken down by yeast but requires almost as much energy to metabolize as it gets from it sodium saccharin doesn't ferment and cannot be broken down and I can't find any info on sucralose making me believe it is unfermentable.

Edit 2: I've found that actually almost all artificial sweeteners can be metabolized by yeast but create unwanted byproducts that will probably effect taste.
 
The reason we have artificial sweeteners is because people want the sweet taste without calories (energy). Thus it should be pretty clear than artificial sweeteners to not metabolize the way sugars do.
 
I've figured out that aspartame is easily fermentable by yeast and this is my chemical equation I came up with

C14H18N2O5 + 7 O2 = 8 CO2 + 3 C2H6O + N2

I think that this formula makes sense unless ammonia is produced instead of nitrogen in which case I'm ****ed someone who actually knows something about yeast metabolism please tell me if this is accurate.

Edit: in humans aspartame is metabolized with methanol as one of the byproducts but in amounts so small it is metabolized into formaldehyde and further breaks down into Formic acid.
 
ajdelange said:
The reason we have artificial sweeteners is because people want the sweet taste without calories (energy). Thus it should be pretty clear than artificial sweeteners to not metabolize the way sugars do.

According to my research Yeast has the metabolic pathways to metabolize artificial sweeteners that we don't have.
 
afr0byte said:
Is this just for grins. What's the point?

I'm trying to add a spice to one of my beer but its only made with artificial sweeteners
 
afr0byte said:
Huh? What spice has a sweetener pre-added?

Li hing mui it's a Hawaiian spice that people put on candy and fruits. I used to put it into Budweiser and other beers like that and I came up with the idea to brew a beer with it
 
I can't say whether yeast has pathways to metabolize these things or not because I don't know but I do know that the fact that you can write a balanced chemical equation for something does not mean that the reaction can or even if it can will take place.
 
ajdelange said:
I can't say whether yeast has pathways to metabolize these things or not because I don't know but I do know that the fact that you can write a balanced chemical equation for something does not mean that the reaction can or even if it can will take place.

Googling this subjects show that yeast metabolizes some sweeteners with little energy benefit its not clear what type or how effecient or what the byproducts are. So I was hoping someone here had more knowledge about this.
 
afr0byte said:
Wouldn't it be much easier to do a simple experiment with a liter of wort?

Probably but I thought it would be safer and faster just to ask.
 
So I was hoping someone here had more knowledge about this.

While I still don't qualify a little reading shows that aspartame decomposes into aspartic acid and phenylalanine(the 2 amino acids from which it is made) and methanol and that the process is accelerated by heat and high pH. Thus, conceptually, you could add the spice you intend to use to water, add some pickling lime, boil it, cool it and neutralize with phosphoric or lactic acid. This should leave the spice and the amino acids which yeast certainly can deal with. Aspartic acid is in Group A (taken up initially, synthesized later) and phenylalanine in Group B (taken up initially). Wort contains all sorts of amino acids and the small amounts involved here shouldn't be a problem. A taste test would reveal whether my concept is valid or not. If the mix is no longer sweet you have broken down the aspartame. The boil would drive off the methanol or most of it and the amount produced would be small anyway. As to the effect of heat on the spice itself - you'll find that out and that's something you would want to know as I assume you'd be adding this stuff to the kettle.
 
ajdelange said:
While I still don't qualify a little reading shows that aspartame decomposes into aspartic acid and phenylalanine(the 2 amino acids from which it is made) and methanol and that the process is accelerated by heat and high pH. Thus, conceptually, you could add the spice you intend to use to water, add some pickling lime, boil it, cool it and neutralize with phosphoric or lactic acid. This should leave the spice and the amino acids which yeast certainly can deal with. Aspartic acid is in Group A (taken up initially, synthesized later) and phenylalanine in Group B (taken up initially). Wort contains all sorts of amino acids and the small amounts involved here shouldn't be a problem. A taste test would reveal whether my concept is valid or not. If the mix is no longer sweet you have broken down the aspartame. The boil would drive off the methanol or most of it and the amount produced would be small anyway. As to the effect of heat on the spice itself - you'll find that out and that's something you would want to know as I assume you'd be adding this stuff to the kettle.

Hmm I'll try boiling it and tasting it. But if that doesn't work I think I will just make a homemade version of the spice
 

Latest posts

Back
Top