Low Carb? "Splenda"?

Keny,

Welcome to the group! Lots of great info and even better people then any other NG I've been a part of.

Do a Google search of the archives of the group, theres been a number of posts on these sweetners in the last year. The jist of it is its too early to tell. As far as immediate impact the difference in the wines seem to be negligible. But the bigger question is long term stability. Wines are meant to age so the real truth will come out over time. I believe Jack Keller is testing a number of these new sweetners as I type. Results will surely come out over time. BTW his website devoted to this hobby is

its a great resource.

In the mean time I am not "dumping" this into my wines at bottling time but rather sweeting at serving time if needed. I would hate to loose 40-50 bottles of something down the road. So I await Jacks test results!

Regards,

Tom

Sweetening wine with Splenda instead of sugar to cut down on carbs and calories is just plain silly -- the vast majority of the carbs and calories in wine come from the alcohol.

No carbs come from alcohol. Cal's, yes, but no carbs. It depends on what you are counting.

I contacted the Splenda people and they would not recommend using splenda in wine. It seemed like such a good idea,too. It seems that splenda is basically sugar bound to a substance that prevents the sugar molecule from being broken down so it passes through the body before it is used. Given time, however, it will break down in liquid form and the sugar part will become just that -- sugar. If you add it to unstabalized wine, it may break down and start fermenting. Given time it will break down and then it will become fattening.

If you want sweet, low carb wine, use splenda to sweeten it when you open the bottle.

Ray

Not according to an article that was in my newspaper a few days ago.

Counting carbs and not calories is plain silly too, by the way.

Not to this boy, it doesn't. Yes, it's sweet, and yes, it tastes better than aspartame and waaaay better than saccharin, but it doesn't taste like sugar, and doesn't have the same mouth feel either. It's a poor substitute, tastewise.

If your wines are improved by adding Splenda... I'd say you need to start making better wine. :-)

Yuck.

And if you want low-calorie wine -- forget it. There's no such thing.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Get a copy of my NEW AND IMPROVED TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter by sending email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com You must use your REAL email address to get a response.

Splenda is made with Sucralose, which is a sucrose molecule that has one of the hydroxyl (OH) groups replaced by a chlorine atom. This causes it to not be metabolized. I'm pretty sure the yeast enzymes also cannot ferment it. However, Splenda is not pure sucralose. It has some other starches added in order to make the product free flowing, etc. It is these added substances that will hydrolyze (break apart) into smaller sugars over time. So you may risk some fermentation AND metabolizable carbs.

Stevia is similar in that sugar molecules are attached to a bigger molecule and will break apart in wine over time. Saccharin tastes bad. Nutrasweet degrades.

There is no good artificial sweetener for wine, although pure sucralose may be an option if it could be obtained.

Doug, There are people out there who want a low carb life style. If it makes them happy, why throw a wet blanket over their happiness. Live and let live. It works for a lot of people even if it does not work for you. I don't particularly care for diet soft drinks but I am not going to tell them they are silly for drinking them. Yes there are different dietetic sweeteners out there but I am not going to tell people they are making bad wine if they use a particular one. Have a glass of what ever makes you feel better and relax.

Ray

Stevia or splenda added at _serving_ rather than bottling may be your best option, as the long term stability of the sweetners is questionable, and you can gradually reduce the amount of sweetner you add if you'd like to move toward drinking drier wines.

I should add that I have successfully used aspartame to sweeten at serving time.

Did they say how long this would take to occur? I have added Splenda to wine and haven't seen renewed fermentation. Maybe the yeast are dead, maybe it takes longer than two years for the chlorine to come off the sugar molecule and be replaced by a OH group. The research I've seen on sucralose in food industry applications suggests it is very stable over a wide range of pH and temperature. Warren Place

They told me "longer than it takes to pass through your system and be expelled." That is a satisfactory answer for them considering what they are trying to accomplish. Maybe not for you considering what you may be trying to accomplish.

Ray

You were treated like an idiot or talked to an idiot. If this sucralose broke down quickly, they wouldn't be able to use it in the thousands of foods and beverages that contain it. Check the Atkins/diabetic section of your local market and you'll see it in fruit juices, which isn't much different than wine. I'm going to keep using it, but don't blindly follow my example. You should know that I often drive

5-10 miles/hour over the speed limit. I'm reckless like that. A maniac! ;-) Warren Place

Hi Warren,

I don't think it is the sucralose that is the problem. I would expect sucralose to be stable in wine for a long period of time (years even). The potential problem is with the other starch additives they formulate "Splenda" with. These will break down much sooner into simple sugars. I suspect this is only a small amount in Splenda, so the most you might expect would be a little spritz, but I don't know. Anyone know the weight percent of the other ingredients in "Splenda" ? ?

Thanks.

Good point Warren. If it is used in other items with a long shelf life it should work. The one difference is that if there are active yeast in the system and they get hold of it they may speed the break down. This may not be a substitute for stabilizing your wine before sweetening.

Ray

All true. I have pure sucralose for fermentations so I often forget about the potential starch problems. Many yeasts and bacterial can metabolize starch though wine yeast typically cannot. Most of my sweetened wines are consumed within a year and hydrolysis of starch during that time in a healthy wine isn't a concern. The great majority of Splenda is starch since sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sugar. So, in 6 oz of Splenda (by volume) there is .01 oz of sucralose. Most people would have trouble seeing that amount without their glasses. Warren Place

True. If your wine is contaminated with Brettanomyces or other contaminating yeast, you might expect the starch to be metabolized. I haven't had a brett problem so Splenda that I have added to cider seemed quite stable for about 3 years now. Warren Place

Warren

Where did you get the "pure" sucralose ??

Frederick

I used to know somebody who did research in the food industry. Outside of that, it is not available. I wish I could obtain more.

Warren Place

Warren

Yup - that's why I asked. Wish I could get hold of some myself !!

Frederick