Dumb question: Can you brew a sweet beverage?

[woozy]

I mean like fruit juice or almost soda sweet. Can I just mix up a really really high gravity liquid (say 1.1), toss is a yeast with low attenuation (say 63%) and/or low alcohol tolerence and rest easy that when the yeast is done there'll be a lot of residual sugar left (say a final gravity of 1.037 and ABV of 8.25%)?

It's obviously not that easy, is it? (Especially if I want a relatively low ABV...)

 

[TheZymurgist]

It might be a good idea to find some sweeter commercial beers you want to replicate, and ask about mimicking those. There are some fairly sweet beers out there, like Southern Tier's Creme Brule Stout, as well as some english-style barleywines. It's definitely possible to start with a higher gravity and find an under-attenuating yeast strain, but it would be difficult to get it balanced and keep it from being cloyingly sweet.

 

[unkyjack]

Sounds like you want to make Inmate Brew.

 

[woozy]

I'm not thinking about beer at all. (I hate sweet beer.) I'm thinking about Ginger Beer.

The last time I tried it was with the natural yeast/lacto hybred and it was sour beyond drinkabilty (O.G. 1.040 F.G. 1.010). That might have been the natural yeast and maybe if I tried an actual ale yeast it'll be better. Or maybe not. Actually it's almost certain to be. But still would like to make it a little (lot) sweeter. Beer, alcoholic grains and hops taste good bitter with an FG below 1.01. Formented ginger root does *not*.

 

[TheZymurgist]

So, you're thinking alcoholic soda?

 

[woozy]

More or less. Hard ginger beer is the term I'd prefer but ... more or less.

And I'm wondering about abstract theory and practice: If yeast eats sugar then is it hypothetically possible to have a fermented product that is sugar sweetened and within what factors? It's a question that begs to be asked.

 

[b-boy]

I think you'd want to create something that would ferment out, add unfermentable sugars to get the sweetness back, then bottle and add corn sugar to carbonate.

I think I'd just drop a shot of vodka into some Ginger beer (Though bourbon would be a better choice IMHO). Sounds a lot easier.

 

[woozy]

I think you'd want to create something that would ferment out, add unfermentable sugars

Oh. Simply never thought of that. But wouldn't that just start up the fermentation again. Oh... you said unfermentable sugars. Um, how do you make sugars unfermentable?

I think I'd just drop a shot of vodka into some Ginger beer (Though bourbon would be a better choice IMHO). Sounds a lot easier.

Adding soda water and vodka to wort might be easier (and faster) than making beer too.

I'm making the ginger beer anyway. To make soft ginger beer you brew it in the bottle with a miniscule amount of yeast and simply fridge it after two days (forcing the yeast to go dormant). To make it harder you just let it ferment longer so I want to try that. I did try that with the natural yeast (probably too much yeast but I don't see that that'd make much of a difference as yeast will reproduce to its natural population). Ate too *much* sugar. Some recipes say you simply to do half the fermentation, bottle for two days, and refridge to make yeast dormant. But that seems wrong.

So I want to try it again. This time with ale or champagne yeast (champagne yeast tastes the best) but i figure if there's anything I can do to keep the sweetness up...

 

[woozy]

Then again maybe I simply needed more sugar to begin with. 1.040 isn't much. I basically made the amount of sugar for a non-alcoholic drink (2 cups of table sugar to a gallon) which came to only 1.040. Wort is probably sweeter than most soft drinks, isn't it? Hmm, never tested my hydrometer in lemonade or apple juice...

The recipes for hard lemonade certainly seem to use a lot more sugar than straight lemonade....

Just thinking aloud in public...

 

[WDT]

You could put your recipe together and then back sweeten it with Splenda. Or Lactose as mentioned earlier. That's what a sweet or milk stout is basically. Adding unfermentables in to achieve a higher finishing gravity.

 

[woozy]

If they are unfermentable I guess there is no reason to not add them at the start?

The issue does become how sweet I *do* want it. After all, hard lemonade, ciders and fruit beers aren't sweet at all but they psych you out because you associate the flavors with sweetness. There isn't any commercial alcoholic ginger beer for me to try and replicate.

I think I'll try it with just fermentables first but more of them and a less acerbic yeast. I liked the idea of making a *real* ginger beer with a real ginger beer plant but truth be told, ale and champagne yeast were much better tasting. At least for non-alcoholic versions.

 

[cullen]

You can combine root beer extract, sugar, water, and yeast to make a naturally fermented sweet beverage. You can do the same with ginger beer too. If you bottle immediately there will not be a lot of fermentation. If you want it hard, you can use lactose in primary or add a substantial amount of sugar before you bottle. Use REALLY strong bottles, though.