Erythritol

Erythritol is a non-fermentable sugar ideal for adding sweetness to bottle-carbonated beverages, like hard ciders. Because yeast can't break down or ferment this sugar it won’t trigger re-fermentation, which makes it safe to add directly to bottles on bottling day.

Backsweetening typically requires the use of a stabilizer, like Potassium Sorbate, which stops yeast from fermenting new sugars. While this works for still beverages like mead or wine, stabilizers will prevent yeast from being able to convert priming sugar into CO2 in bottle carbonated beers or hard ciders.

Erythritol allows you to sweeten a hard cider and still use priming sugar to carbonate in bottles! Yeast will only ‘eat’ the priming sugar or carbonation drops and leave the erythritol sweetness in the beverage. 

Package contains 8 oz Erythritol. 

How to backsweeten a Hard Cider with Erythritol: Add directly to each bottle before adding primed hard cider or beer on bottling day. Try 1 Tablespoon per 12 oz bottle for semi-sweet flavor, or 2 Tablespoons per 12 oz bottle for sweet flavor.  

Erythritol is found naturally in fruits like pears, grapes or watermelons. It is considered zero calorie and has a clean taste that is similar to regular sugar (sucrose) than other artificial sweeteners. Erythritol has about 70% of the sweetness of real sugar. For the same sweetness as sugar, use 1 ⅓ parts Erythritol instead of 1 part sugar

Lactose is another non-fermentable sugar that can be used to sweeten your homebrewed beers, hard ciders. Lactose is much less sweet than Erythritol and is not vegan.