Sugar-free Root Beer Process?

[DianneB]

I have never brewed anything before but I am seriously considering having a go at sugar-free Root Beer.

I am planning to start with raw ingredients to make the "wort" or flavouring. Rather than use yeast and sugar, I plan to sweeten with an artificial sweetener and carbonate in 2L PET bottles with compressed CO2. From all the research I have done (a lot!) it sounds like a workable plan.

Once bottled, would the bottles need to be refrigerated or can they just stored in a cool dark place to last a couple of months?

Does anybody know of an inexpensive test to determine sugar content? I'd like to ensure the final product is "Diabetic friendly".

(I am retired so I have to be very careful with my meagre pension money!)

 

[TheBluePhantom]

Just curious, where would you get any significant amounts of sugar from? Would you get much from the sap of the roots? You can use specific gravity to measure sugar content when there is a lot, but it is used mostly for a change. The other ingredients may contribute to the gravity and give you a false reading for small amounts.

Diabetics are sensitive to both sugars and starches, so any carbs would be an issue. But if you are actively controlling it with medication trace amounts should be tolerable.

 

[DianneB]

I don't know what sugars may leach out of the dry ingredients when they are seeped - that's what I am trying to figure out.

As to starches and carbs, I will have to be the Guinea Pig to determine the overall effects. If the results look good, I may send samples of the first few batches to a food lab and pay $$ to get a complete analysis but that will be after I get a recipe and process I am happy with.

 

[Remos112]

Rather than use yeast and sugar, I plan to sweeten with an artificial sweetener and carbonate in 2L PET bottles with compressed CO2

Not sure why you would want to make anything that has no sugar and yeast, let alone call the end product beer! Seems like you want some kind of soda with a load of artificial crap in it. Good luck with that, but to call it beer seems farfetched!

 

[TheBluePhantom]

Not sure why you would want to make anything that has no sugar and yeast, let alone call the end product beer! Seems like you want some kind of soda with a load of artificial crap in it.

Yes, that would be a description of the intended product. Assuming you are not from the USA. In the US a soft drink appeared during prohibition called root beer. It used roots for flavoring, people drank it in place of beer sometimes, it had no alcohol (prohibition, remember) and was often made at home. Which gave many people an excuse to have a bunch of bottles, a big crock, bottle caps and a bottle capper at home. It is still a popular soft drink, and like all soft drinks has a ton of sugar, which is bad if you are diabetic.... Similar drinks that appeared are birch beer and ginger beer, both soft drinks.

So much for the history lesson, back to the original concept. I think you are in the right frame of mind, get the process and recipe down, don't worry about the trace sugar content yet. It is meaningless to know the sugar if the product tastes bad. Frankly I think the key work would be "trace". As with all things regulated, sugar free probably means to a certain percentage. If your ingredient weight is below this percentage you are good. You would probably only need to have an analysis if you went to market as sugar free, so pay for it only when needed.

 

[Remos112]

Yes, that would be a description of the intended product. Assuming you are not from the USA. In the US a soft drink appeared during prohibition called root beer. It used roots for flavoring, people drank it in place of beer sometimes, it had no alcohol (prohibition, remember) and was often made at home. Which gave many people an excuse to have a bunch of bottles, a big crock, bottle caps and a bottle capper at home. It is still a popular soft drink, and like all soft drinks has a ton of sugar, which is bad if you are diabetic.... Similar drinks that appeared are birch beer and ginger beer, both soft drinks.

So much for the history lesson, back to the original concept. I think you are in the right frame of mind, get the process and recipe down, don't worry about the trace sugar content yet. It is meaningless to know the sugar if the product tastes bad. Frankly I think the key work would be "trace". As with all things regulated, sugar free probably means to a certain percentage. If your ingredient weight is below this percentage you are good. You would probably only need to have an analysis if you went to market as sugar free, so pay for it only when needed.

Ok thanks for clearing that up. That explains a lot. I figured why would there be sugar left in a beer after fermentation.

Good luck! I hope you'll get what you are after!

 

[DianneB]

Thanks for the replies guys!

"Not sure why you would want to make anything that has no sugar and yeast, let alone call the end product beer! Seems like you want some kind of soda with a load of artificial crap in it. Good luck with that, but to call it beer seems farfetched!"

Okay, call it soda pop but I am not aware of any other term for the flavour of root beer. There is NOTHING artificial in my recipe and it should be Diabetic friendly - otherwise I wouldn't be able to drink it.

 

[Remos112]

I plan to sweeten with an artificial sweetener and carbonate in 2L PET bottles with compressed CO2

There is NOTHING artificial in my recipe and it should be Diabetic friendly

These posts seems kinda contrary though.

 

[DianneB]

Sorry, I should have said "natural, non-sugar sweetener".

 

[Piotrsko]

Well if you do stevia it wouldn't be artificial. Natural occuring sweet tasting protein.

Either diabetic blood test strips In a tester or ketone test strips.

 

[DianneB]

Well if you do stevia it wouldn't be artificial. Natural occuring sweet tasting protein.

That's exactly what I am thinking - just need to work up a recipe that I like.