Maltodextrin / Stevia Test as a subsitute for Lactose

I have five gallons of a porter sitting on four ounces of cacao nibs and a vanilla bean that were soaked in Jack Daniels for three weeks. I am thinking of mixing up my bottling sugar and bottling three gallons of beer then mixing up 1.5 ounces of Maltodextrin and 2 teaspoons on Kal Pure Stevia and 1 cup of water and making a simple syrup and adding two thirds to the bottling bucket and bottling another gallon. Then adding the remaining third of the simple syrup and bottling the last gallon.

Let the bottles age for 3 months and then taste. Anybody have suggestions or issues with this test? Different ratios, different quantities?

I hate the taste of Stevia and would never put it in my beer. Even though it's a "natural" sweetener, I think it has an unpleasant bitterness that I really don't like. I think that bitter aftertaste will taint the way a good beer lingers on the palate. But, to each his own, I suppose.

Slight change of plans, after testing the Stevia I cut the ratio to 4oz of Maltodextrin and 1/2 teaspoon of Stevia in 3 cups of water boiled for 15 minutes with the Maltodextrin and the Stevia added at flame out. I added 2 cups two the last two gallons as I was bottling. I was going to add one cup to the last gallon but based on a taste I decided against it. So it is bottled and I'll give it a try in 3 or 4 weeks and report back.

Tasting report, it tastes like crap. Very metallic and bitter after taste. The base Chocolate Porter tastes great and if I pour about 6 oz of the sweetened beer in a glass and top with 12 oz of the base beer it is much closer to what I was looking for in terms of sweetness. This weekend I will try 4 oz of sweet with a bomber poured on top and get a couple of tastes from friends to see what they think.

So if I used 1/2 tsp in then only used 2/3rds of that and it starts to taste good diluted to 25% that works out to about 1/12th a tsp to 2 gallons or 1/24 per gallon unless my math is bad. So about 1/5 a tsp for 5 gallons of beer. Based on my tests this weekend I will decided if I want to try this again with a little more maltodextrin and a whole lot less of the Stevia.

.50 tsp
x.66 2/3
.33

.33
x .25 Mix ratio
.0825

.0825
x.50 divide for 2 gallons
.04125

what i read in the first post is that you used 2 tsp stevia for 2 gallons? is that right? i'm having a really hard time understanding the first post

I made 5 gallons of Chocolate Porter and bottled 3 gallons as it came out of the secondary.

For the remaining 2 gallons I planned on making a concentrate of maltodextrin and Stevia, the more I read the more I lowered the amount of Stevia. The original plan was to use 2 tsp, but that was reduced to 1/2 tsp which turned out to be way to much. So the first post was while it was aging in the secondary, the 10/05 post was what I really did at bottling, and the 11/20 post is what I plan on going forward. I kind of like the Stevia, but it is way strong in the pure form.

very interesting. i am bottling 5 gallons of cider with stevia, i think i'll reduce to maybe 1/3 tsp for 5 gallons

A lot depends on the form the stevia is in. I'm using the pure and I would lean closer to 1/4 to 1/5 a teaspoon for 5 gallons. If you are using a stevia and maltodextrin mix all dosage bets are off.

It is definitely the pure stuff. It says on the bottle that a serving is 1/40th of a teaspoon! It's hard for me to imagine that 1/4 teaspoons to five gallons would have any effect

Put one or two of those little spoons in a beer and give that a taste.