# Best artificial sweetener for SP? How much?



## WineyDoc (Apr 20, 2011)

I'm thinking of backsweetening my SP with Stevia. Does anyone else have any experience using artificial sweeteners in SP? What tastes the best, and how much did you use (I ask this because with some artificial sweeteners, a little can go a LONG ways).

What if you threw in some of these guys!: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synsepalum_dulcificum


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## Julie (Apr 20, 2011)

i haven't used stevia for backsweetening but I do for baking and cooking I only use 1/4 the amount of what you would put in as sugar.


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## WinoOutWest (Apr 20, 2011)

WineyDoc said:


> I'm thinking of backsweetening my SP with Stevia.



I was thinking of doing the same and perhaps trying some stevia with some corn sugar to get a sparkling pee. (I don't think stevia is fermentable either - so you could skip the sorbate?)


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## Runningwolf (Apr 20, 2011)

WinoOutWest said:


> I was thinking of doing the same and perhaps trying some stevia with some corn sugar to get a sparkling pee. *(I don't think stevia is fermentable either - so you could skip the sorbate?*)



There has been several reports lately of bottles refermenting because people didn't sorbate and used wine conditioner and other substitues. Be smart and practice safe bottling there's no morning after remedy.


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## Julie (Apr 20, 2011)

I agree with Dan, sorbate it, bet safe than sorry. Also, stevia is a natural sweetener so it just might ferment.


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## Mike93YJ (Apr 22, 2011)

This comes from a Wikipedia article on stevia:

Only limited research was conducted on the topic until, in 1931, two French chemists isolated the glycosides that give stevia its sweet taste. These compounds were named stevioside and rebaudioside, and are 250–300 times as sweet as sucrose, heat stable, pH stable, and non-fermentable.


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## roblloyd (Apr 22, 2011)

This might be what I'm looking for in my ginger beer. Where do you get it? (brands?).
My LBHS suggested caramelizing sugar. Something happens to it where it won't ferment. Something like that. Haven't checked it out yet.


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## Griff (Apr 22, 2011)

I was in Food City (local big chain grocery store) today and they had Stevia in small bulk bags. The price was similar to Splenda, I think.


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## Wade E (Apr 22, 2011)

I would not use Stevia or artificial sweeteners in any wine you plan on aging very long at all. They are known to change flavor in wines after some time.


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## Dirtydog420 (May 16, 2011)

Wade E said:


> I would not use Stevia or artificial sweeteners in any wine you plan on aging very long at all. They are known to change flavor in wines after some time.



Whats not very long? Say a few months?

Im going to carbonate a batch using the champagne method but it will need to be back sweetened.. Was thinking about using splenda but its not going to last more than few months pretty much july and august..


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## WineyDoc (May 17, 2011)

I don't like my skeeter pee as sweet as the original recipe calls for.

I ended up adding 1 cup of real sugar and 1 cup of stevia to 6.5 gallons and it's tasted pretty dang good.


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## Wayne1 (May 18, 2011)

Hello everyone - newcomer here! I have not made SP before so maybe some of you more experienced will have an opinion about this idea - to ferment to dry, backsweeten with Stevia (assuming non-fermentable), then treat it like beer to be bottle conditioned and add priming sugar, then bottle and cap in beer bottles - my thinking is the end result would be both sweet and carbonated

Do you think this would work?
Thanks,
Wayne


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## savaytse66 (May 27, 2011)

Is there any reason you couldn't just bottle the pee dry and add a packet of stevia (or Splenda, Equal, sugar, etc.) when you have a glass? That's what I would do. I personally cannot tolerate artificial sweeteners, but I realize some people need them and like them for various reasons. If it's bottled dry, people could add their sweetener of choice.


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