Preventing fermentaion

[Doug97]

The ginger beer threads have made me think about commercial alcoholic ginger beer. There are loads on the supermarket shelves these days, and not one is much less sweet that something like Coke or lemonade. The manufacturers must add loads of sugar after fermentation to get them this sweet, so how do they stop it fermenting out in the bottle?

The only ways I know of to sterilise a liquid are chemical (e.g. nuke it with campden tablets), heating (but sterilisation needs to be above boiling point so can ruin the flavour) and ultrafilitration (which removes all microbes but is only recently catching on as it was too expensive for a long time).

Which do you think a company like Crabbies uses? One of these or something else?

 

[graysalchemy]

Artificial Sweetners :thumb: :thumb:

Something like splenda is good as it is non fermentable.

 

[Doug97]

I'm asking how the professionals do it. Yes some add artificial sweetener but they all add sugar. Crabbies for example adds 8.5 teaspoons of sugar per 500mL bottle - that's on top of artificial sweetener. Why doesn't it ferment in the bottle?

 

[Gayle]

Not sure about Crabbies, but I very often see potassium sorbate listed as a preservative on many commercial drinks - squashes and fizzy drinks etc, probably alcoholic drinks too. It can be sweetened with sugar then, and force carbonated.

I've heard of people pasteurizing their ciders etc, by putting the bottles in water and bringing it to 70 degrees or maybe a bit more, doesn't have to be boiling, and this should kill off the yeast without chemicals or ruining the flavour. I've never tried it so can't say if it works!

 

[ScottM]

Potassium sorbate (and others), sugar added and then force carbonated :)

Sweeteners are often used as well, for maximum sweetness claiming lower quantities of sugar :)

 

[oldbloke]

When I looked up pasteurising a while back, I found it can be done at quite low temperatures if you extend the time you hold it there. So 70 may not be required - just go high enough to kill the yeast.

 

[Doug97]

The label on the back of Crabbies says it contains sulphites so presumably they use metabisulfite but I doubt that's emough on its own. That, plus potassium sorbate, plus pasteurisation might give them reliable consistency and shelf life.

 

[graysalchemy]

The majority of bottled beverages are pasatuerised, chilled and filtered and then force carbonated, so they can add as much fermentsbles as they like there are no active yeasts in it.