Experimenting with Splenda

It's a non-breakable?sp sugar. It has chlorines substituted and, as such probably doesn't have the same specific gravity as measured by your hydrometer.

A hydrometer just measures the relative 'strength' of displacement of a solution. Just because a material is sweet doesn't mean it displaces the same :)

Using your tastebuds sounds like a smart idea in this case.

According to

Stephen claims that splenda won't ferment. I hope nobody will try this- it it were to be broken down by yeast or anything else, it would give you small organic molecules with chlorines in them. Organochlorines, with notable exceptions (including, presumably, sucralose), are nearly universally bad- you don't want them in your wines.

I've used Splenda to sweeten wine when all of the following apply: 1) Giving a bottle as a gift 2) Haven't stabilized it w/ sorbate while in bulk. and 3) I know the bottle will not be under constant refrigeration. Yeah, I guess I could add sorbate & sugar directly to the bottle, but that's more trouble than it's worth.

It does seem to work well. The Splenda instructions say to use it volume for volume as you'd use sugar. Most of the people I've given wine to like it sweeter than I like it. My dose is ~1.25 tablespoons per bottle.

Robert in the hills of TN

Help a poor, uneducated Brit. Is Splenda a sugar-substitute and if so, what does it contain?

Their website can explain what it is much better than I can.

Robert

Oh, and if it matters, Splenda disolves in the bottle much faster than either sugar or honey.

Robert

Bad stuff?

Rock on

Steve - crush, destem, ferment, press, store, rack, rack again, age in oak, bottle, wait a year, drink!

Found some on a local supermarket shelf, so it is here in the UK. Funny I've never come across it before.