(Root) Beer Sugar Question

I bought some root beer extract for my kids and I to make. The problem is, I am having a hard time adding all that sugar. It comes to almost a pound per gallon ! I was hoping someone could tell me if Splenda would work and what the substitute ratio to sugar or hiney would be. I am thinking 2 sugar = 1 splenda. Like the boys aren't bouncing off the walls enough............

I've thought about this myself also. It will only work when force carbing unless you want to add just a bit of sugar to naturally carbonate. I use splenda alot and I normally go for a 1 to 1 ratio, and sometimes even more splenda. The good thing is that you can just add it to your taste.

I just bought some ginger ale extract and the carbonator cap. Now I'm just trying to use up some 2L bottles to use it.

Good luck to ya!

Just use the real sugar, man. Is it worth ingesting that much fake stuff?

5gB

I make my sodas with about 1/3 the normal amount of sugar. Too much sugar up front really kills the other flavors.

Reduce the sugar, reduce the water, let the other flavors take center stage. I would never give a kid "fake" sugar, but then I'm paranoid about those kinds of things. I just believe kids (and adults) are best off consuming foods that at least have a couple thousand years of history behind them... The way I see it, if something is very slightly toxic, we've had hundreds of years to figure it out (or thousands of years for the cultures that consumed it to die off)... With splenda though? All I'm sure of is that it won't kill you in the first 30 years of consumption.. but we know that excess sugar can help cause diabetes. Do you know what effect Splenda has on the longterm development of diabetes? Neither do I... and so I don't touch it.


Sorry for the rant, just my $0.02. Add less sugar and a little more extract and other flavors. It'll be good.

The reason I pick Splenda is that it is half sugar.....

Kayos said:

The reason I pick Splenda is that it is half sugar.....

Click to expand...

Yeah it's half sugar. And it's also half.... who the hell knows what?



Like I said, I'm crazy and paranoid about that stuff so there's no need to get defensive,, you can just laugh at me.

Anyway, I'm very confident it won't negatively affect your health for at least 50 years and it will never be as toxic as things such as lead paint and asbestos. That should be good enough for just about anybody. I mean, it's not like you're going to live forever anyway, right?

OK, I'm new here. I've brewed beer before and root beer before with decent success. This time though, I messed up and accidentally only added half the sugar recommended on the recipe. I did however add 6 oz of Malto Dextrin. (Suggested by the retailer where I bought my supplies).

I know I can just wait and see, but I'd like an opinion or two on how it will turn out both carbonation wise and sweetness wise. I'll come back and give a critique onn the root beer later.

Thanks in advance,
Bill

It seems to have gone well good carbonation and taste - not really sweet, but we're finding it OK to drink so far and its not even a week old.....