Hard Root Beer sweetener?

[olie]

I have a (hard) root beer recipe that I like except for one thing: seems every recipe I see seems to end with adding a bunch of sugar (to sweeten), checking carbonation frequently, then super-chilling when carbonation is right, then (here's the part I don't like) consuming it all before the bottles explode inside your refrigerator.

So I made one batch, but didn't sweeten it, instead only adding enough sugar to carbonate to the desired level. Then I (this is the particularly brilliant part, if I say so myself ) added simple syrup* just before consuming. No bottle explosion, everything worked great. I also got to experiment with less sweetener for an ...uh... "interesting" taste experience.

Ok, my questions...

1) Do y'all ever use any kind of sweetener that yeast won't consume to make exploding bottles? How does that turn out?

2) I had a new idea: just keep adding sugar to the fermentation until the alcohol killed all the yeast, then sweeten to taste and force-carbonate. Anyone tried that? How'd that work?!

3) Any other bright ideas?

Thanks!

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* Simple syrup: equal parts sugar & water (ex: 1C each), dissolve in microwave, let cool.

 

[famouslastworts]

3)
I don’t know about your ingredients, but how about overpriming the bottles and pasteurizing till the inside of the bottle reaches 160f in a water bath (10 minutes) when they have reached sufficient carbonation.

 

[North_of_60]

I make hard ginger ale and have the same issue of sweetening it. When I bottled I used wine yeast and then refrigerated the entire batch once it reached desired carbonation. I never had any bottle bombs. I don’t know if the wine yeast had anything to do with that or not.

Now I keg so after fermentation is complete I add sugar to taste and force carb it. I still use wine yeast though, because that was what the first ginger ale I made called for.

I made one root beer and suffered through about half of it then dumped the rest. If your willing to share your recipe I’d like to try it.

 

[brewfrog]

hope your chilling before adding wort or yeast.
common ballistsics.way too much sugar is not recommended.i think its brown liquid corn syrup your looking for?

exept it can be hard to find.beer brewing caramel is easy to find and sweeter at any homebrew homepage.