Is Splenda (aka sucralose) fermentable?

[trans]

Hey,

I was wondering if anybody knew if yeast could produce alcohol and CO2 from Splenda. My dad is diabetic and wants to make wine, and as such, was curious about this. I realize it could be used for flavoring after the fact, but I figured I'd ask if it was a fermentable or not.

Any input on this would be appreciated.


- joe

[Dogger Dan]

Artificial Sweetners can be fermentable but the leave some nasty after tastes.

Specifically Splenda, I don't know

Dogger

[Ozbrewer]

the easy way to find out is to make a kinda of starter with jsut splenda and yeast and take some gravity readings



but the big question is why????

[trans]

Thanks for the input. At least it's more than I know.

Just now I started fooling around with chemical equations to figure out what could be produced, assuming that the fermentation is possible, and CO2 and ethanol are also produced in the process.

With maltose, you get 4 molecules of CO2 and 4 molecules of ethanol for every maltose molecule. So far for sucralose, I'm having trouble figuring out what could be produced. The three chlorine ions in sucralose mess up things a bit. I'm going to fool around a bit more and see if I come up with anything, but so far I can't balance the equation. In any case, it seems a bi-product of some kind would be produced in the process.

[trans]

the easy way to find out is to make a kinda of starter with jsut splenda and yeast and take some gravity readings

Yes, that would tell you right there. Too bad I don't have any yeast around. I'll experiment on my next brew though. In the meantime, I hope to balance this equation to see what theoretically could happen though.

but the big question is why????

I am on a quest for knowledge. Don't stop me!!!! Um, seriously though, it'd be nice to be able to ferment with Splenda and have the fermentation go pretty much like with glucose or maltose or the like, but with the residual sweetness that has zero calories. My dad tends to use Splenda a lot for sweetening, so I figured if he could have it in his wine, that'd help out a bit. Granted, there would still be normal sugar, but I was wondering if he could just substitute some Splenda for some table sugar.

But yes, as I'm finding out, the chlorine atoms in sucralose are probably going to screw things up a bit with regards to the end product, assuming it can be fermented.


- joe


- joe

[Lufah]

I've always been under the impression that it won't ferment. The alcohol itself will have calories in it anyway. My father in law is diabetic and I just bottle beer for him in 8oz coke bottles.



Travis

[trans]

Well, I finally got a balanced equation, where I simplified formulas to names in most case...

In the end, assuming there was fermentation, here is a possible outcome.


Splenda + yeast -> 2 Carbon dioxide + ethanol + Pyruvic acid + C5H9Cl3

Apparently C3H9Cl3 is a hydrocarbon of some kind. In any case, if Splenda happened to ferment and made this mess, I sure wouldn't want to be drinking it.

I may try to ferment it for the heck of it though, just making sure not to drink it if it does ferment.


(By the way, I have no idea if the above equation is what would actually happen, but by coming up with that result, I balanced the equation and produced stable compounds from what I can tell.)

[codewritinfool]

I was wondering if anybody knew if yeast could produce alcohol and CO2 from Splenda.

Hi Joe,

Interesting idea. My father is also diabetic. Most resources on the web seem to say that it is not fermentable, but:

According to http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/docket ... 002-02.pdf

"SPLENDA® Granular product does contain fermentable carbohydrate (maltodextrin) per 0.5 g serving."

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