Dear Kraus,
Has anyone used STEVIA to sweeten the wine before bottling? It might take more than expected but I would like to try it.
I am Diabetic and adding sugar to sweeten the wine just adds problems, so I don’t drink my wine, which my wife is okay with… because she can drink it without problem.
Could there be problem using this sweetener after fermentation?
Thanks in advance.
Bob W.
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Hello Bob,
There is nothing wrong with using stevia to sweeten a wine at bottling time. I have not used it myself, but I know that there are individuals out there who have been using it for this purpose.
I would go at it cautiously to see if you like how it tastes in the wine before committing an entire batch to the stevia. Maybe take some of the wine off into a gallon glass carboy. Then add measured amounts of stevia to it until it becomes the sweetness you like.
This will save you from accidentally ruining the whole batch of wine with the stevia. It will also help you to establish a dosage of stevia for the rest of the wine. That way there’s no risk of adding too much. There are no wine making books or solid information on the internet that really covers this subject, so you have to take it a step at a time.
Stevia is supposed to be non-fermentable. I would be cautious of this fact as well. I would not be surprised if stevia does not start to ferment slightly over time. For this reason I would also recommend using Potassium Sorbate along with the stevia to make completely sure the wine does not ferment somewhere down the road. And as always, also use sodium metabisulfite before bottling the wine.
Happy Wine Making
Customer Service
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.
I have used stevia for years to sweeten my wine. I have never had any problems and wine wine is fantastic.
we’ve been very happy with sweetening with stevia, so far.
this is our first year to try it – and yes go very, very slowly. it is very sweet and can become overpowering very quickly.
we’ve had some difficulty stopping fermenation with Potassium Sorbate – i’ve used 1 tsp/gal and still not stopping fermentation.
why would that be? the PS is brand new, but i wouldn’t think it would become less potent even it if is old.
Two border line diabetics in our house and I’ve been using Splenda to sweeten my wines back before bottling for 5 years. No adverse problems so far.
I use Splenda to my bottle wine before drinking it.
I have used Agave to sweeten mine. No problems so far but I haven’t aged any wine with it so I can’t comment on how it would do over time.
Has anyone ever used fresh stevia leaves from the plant?
I used Stevia to sweeten a blueberry wine. After searching online for equivalent amounts of Stevia to sugar, I used 15 level TBLS in 6 gallons of wine. At first I thought it was ok,and had a “vanilla taste to it, but after a week or so I tried it and felt there was an “aftertaste” to it. Some folks liked it, others didn’t. I was just an experiment so I don’t know if I would use it again.
you must have been using like stevia in the raw? Thats got loads of fillters. Mostly erythritol. erythritol is common in like triva etc..
For stevia concentrate power you could probably use 1 tsp for 6 gallons of wine, perhaps less. 15 Tablespoons would make something undrinkable. Im just saying this in case someone else comes along and goes and buys 2 or 3 containers of real plain processed stevia, they would be rudely surprised.
buying the dried loose leaf stevia leafs from amazon or a whole foods store and brewing them tasts much better as well, you don’t the after taste of the processed stuff. Plus your probably getting the after taste of the processed filler whatever was used.
has anyone used stevia in the beginning stages of making wine instead of regular white sugar
Its not going to work. For example, I sweeten my morning tea with stevia. I take the real dried leaves, just a pinch and put it in with the loose leaf brew. Making stevia is like making tea, its a leaf and its ultra strong compared to standard tea leaf. Like I said sweeting my 16 oz cup of tea takes a pinch of dried leaves. Its 40 times sweeter then sugar when used with dried leaves and like 80 times when used with processed powered or liquid.
But its a zero calori sweetner. With real sugar there are calories for the yeast to digest. As far as your tongue goes the sugar attaches to sweetness receptors. Only certain things will attach to certain receptors and thats what makes your tongue taste sweet or bitter or sour etc…
Stevia is a plant that has chemicals that are also able to attach to the sweetness receptors in your tongue. So thats why it tastes sweet, but its just a “chemical” attachment if you will, it doesn’t actually have any calories. While I have not tried to back sweeten with it yet, I seriously doubt it would ferment as its a zero on the glycemic index when consumed by a person, there are no calories or nothing to ferment in other words.
So if you put it in at the beginning of fermentation in place of sugar, all you would have is some extra sweet liquid with dead yeast floating in it and fermentation would never start (unless there was existing sugar, like if you had a juice etc… ) but stevia adds no calories and thus nothing to ferment.
Now if you added it to grape juice at the start of fermentation for example and the grape juice fermented out the natural sugar, I do not know if the sweetness taste of the stevia would be changed during fermentation or if it would survive etc.. You could try and see.
I would recommend using natural stevia dried leaves and brew them like tea. I wouldnt use the power or liquid. The powder and liquid has a bitter, poor after taste, in my opinion and studies show that when companies process it, they add bad “stuff” and cause it to be less healthy.
The brewed loose leaf dried stevia leaves don’t have this bad after taste and they don’t have the processed side effects. You can get it on amazon for dirt cheap and like $10 worth of stevia lasts me for 2 years making tea daily and other things thru the year, so Id imagine a $10 bag would back sweeten in excess of 100 gallons of wine.
My 2 cents anyway.
Can we start home made wine making process with Stevia dried leaves or powder instead of white sugar pls suggest me the measurements of Stevia to be added to make grape wine
Joseph, unfortunately Stevia will not ferment so that you can use it to make the alcohol for the wine.
I make an extremely dry version of blackberry wine, which my husband loves. But too dry for me. However, it does erase the sugar, so better for the health. ??? Haha.
What I do is sweeten it per serving with pure white stevia powder, which one serving is about what would fit on a woman’s pinky fingernail. I also do this for visitors who do not like dry wine. I serve them whatever we have and if it’s dry, I add stevia to theirs. 😀 Not sure I remember if I tell them this beforehand. 😀
Thanks for the idea of stevia as a non fermenting wine sweetener. That has been my major challenge. God bless.