Cola bottle cordial brew

[Glen Gilchrist]

Hi

Grabbed a bottle of this from T@@co last night. I love cola bottle sweets, so I though for 99p i'd give it a go.

Nasty stuff, full of sorbates, metabisulphides and artificial sweetners.

I boiled the cordial for 15 minutes in the belief that it would "do something" to the sorbates....

I made it up to a demijon full, added yeast, nutrient and 1kg of sugar. No activity for 12 hours, now it's bubbling away, with the air lock popping evey 4 seconds.....

Other that sweetness will the artificial sweeteners taint the tase after it's fermented?

Cheers
Glen

[MKG]

That depends a lot on you, Glen. I can always perceive a nasty, bitter aftertaste to most artificial sweeteners. Others can't.

I'd suggest that if you don't mind the taste of Diet Coke (or its ilk) then you probably won't dislike your new brew.

Mike

[frozenthunderbolt]

Hi

Grabbed a bottle of this from T@@co last night. I love cola bottle sweets, so I though for 99p i'd give it a go.

Nasty stuff, full of sorbates, metabisulphides and artificial sweetners.

I boiled the cordial for 15 minutes in the belief that it would "do something" to the sorbates....

I made it up to a demijon full, added yeast, nutrient and 1kg of sugar. No activity for 12 hours, now it's bubbling away, with the air lock popping evey 4 seconds.....

Other that sweetness will the artificial sweeteners taint the tase after it's fermented?

Cheers
Glen

Boiling will drive off the metabisulphate, but not the sorbate. without MBS sorbate will even act as a nutrient. Be aware if you decide to rack it and drop in a campden tablet (MBS) in combination with the sorbate it MAY (cant guarrentee) stop the ferment completely. Thusly I would wait till it is about the right sweetness before you do so.

[Glen Gilchrist]

Hi all

Just bottled off the brew. It tastes like PIMMS - in a blind test the OH could not tell the difference.

Not bad for a bottle of cola bottle cordial, some sugar and yeast.

Yumm

Glen