Back sweetening

[jonpolley]

I have just finished a batch of Turbo Cider... and it was pretty dry so I back sweetened with splenda.

I probably didn't add enough, but never mind.

however, it got me thinking. What else could I use to back sweeten different drinks.

For many reasons I prefer to bottle prime so killing off the yeast and then whacking in sugar just isn't an option.

Is glycerol/glycerine an option? Its fairly cheap and easy enough to get hold of food grade stuff.

Its non -fermentable.

Yet I never see anyone mentioning this as an option for sweetening.
Would it work? or are there too many issues?

Thanks

 

[Ken L]

Glyserine will make your drink taste smoother and may improve "mouth feel" but it's not really sweet.
Glyserol is sweet but it's poisonous and will destroy your kidneys. Don't even consider adding glycerol to home brew.
You can back sweeten safely with any of the artificial sweeteners that are approved or food use or you can use non fermentable sugars such as the sucralose found in Splenda.

 

[jonpolley]

Are you sure?

"Glycerol has very low toxicity when ingested; its LD50 oral dose for rats is 12600 mg/kg and 8700 mg/kg for mice" (LD50 means the amount in the blood that causes death in 50% of cases, by comparison ethanol has an LD50 of 7,060 mg/kg and vitamin C 11,900 mg/kg)

It is food grade stuff.

I know that Diethylene glycol is poisonous, but its not quite the same stuff and is not sold as food grade.

However, I will have to look into this in more detail as its certainly not a risk worth taking.

 

[Ken L]

Looks like you may be right and I had a brain fart when I searched for Glycerol and Kidney damage.

You're still probably better off using a simple sweetener though.

 

[jonpolley]

Well... its always better to be safe when it comes to things like this. Providing I can ascertain that its safe, it might be worth trying on a small scale.

Simply because glycerol is so much cheaper in bulk than other sweeteners. Of course you raised a very good point earlier about how it feels in the mouth. Which I hadn't even thought about.

Lots to think about.

 

[Joyceybabe]

WARNING: DO NOT USE GLYSEROL !!!!!!!!!!
Glyserine will make your drink taste smoother and may improve "mouth feel" but it's not really sweet.

I use Glycerine to sweeten wine and it is extremely sweet. I buy it at Boots in 200ml bottles. The bottle is labelled Glycerin with Glycerol in brackets. £1.29 for 200ml

 

[Joyceybabe]

I have just finished a batch of Turbo Cider... and it was pretty dry so I back sweetened with splenda.

I probably didn't add enough, but never mind.

however, it got me thinking. What else could I use to back sweeten different drinks.

I sweeten my cider in the glass before drinking. I use my home-made elderflower cordial. Ribena is good too. Or you could sweeten in the bottle with a no-sugar cordial. Robinsons do a double strength apple cordial. I would think that this would give an extra hit of apple. I am going to try this with the TC I am doing at the moment.

 

[Ken L]

Looks like I was thinking of glycol so I've edited my main post to make it a bit less shouty.
Sorry about that.
Can't say I've found glycerine to be massively sweet though.

 

[Monkeybrew]

I use 1 big tub of Stevia/25L, they use maltodextrin as a bulking agent so you get a nice little edge of mouth feel too

 

[mitch]

how much sweetener should you use per gallon? as an idea?