Skittlebrau
Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2022 9:57 pm
I am sure everyone here has wondered one time or another why can’t you get beer with candy floating in it. I recently purchased a beer starter kit because I wanted the little big mouth bubbler it came with for my small batches. This kit came with fizzy drops for bottle conditioning which got me thinking about using candy for carbonation. The difficulty of using candy is finding one that has the right amount of fermentable sugar without cutting and weighing pieces. Looking at the nutrition label for skittles I learned the following:
• One serving is 28 g is about 27 pieces whitch means each
skittle is about 1.04g (confirmed with my blade scale)
• Total carbohydrates per serving are 26 g with 21 g of added
sugar
Assuming all carbohydrates are fermentable then skittles should be 93% fermentable, but if only the added sugar is fermentable then it would be 75%.
To test this, I decided to brew the kit (brown ale) and carbonate one of the bottles using skittles, and use the fizzy drops for the rest. Typically, when I bottle, I add ½ teaspoon (about 2.5 g) of table sugar per bottle to get to my desired level of carbonation (around 2.5 volumes of CO2) in order to achieve this with skittles I needed to add three to a 12oz bottle resulting between 2.34 g and 2.90 g of fermentable sugar. This should add between 1.65 and 2.04 volumes of CO2 with approximately 0.8 volumes left over from fermentation this gives a total carbonation level between 2.45 and 2.84 volumes. From tasting the sample, I would say it was on the lower end suggesting that Skittles are about 75% fermentable. Based on the amount of stuff floating in the beer would further support the idea that skittles are 75% fermentable.
From these results you can bottle condition beer with candy, but further research is needed. I intend to brew a cream ale to see if there is any perceptible flavor, or color impact when carbonating with skittles.
• One serving is 28 g is about 27 pieces whitch means each
skittle is about 1.04g (confirmed with my blade scale)
• Total carbohydrates per serving are 26 g with 21 g of added
sugar
Assuming all carbohydrates are fermentable then skittles should be 93% fermentable, but if only the added sugar is fermentable then it would be 75%.
To test this, I decided to brew the kit (brown ale) and carbonate one of the bottles using skittles, and use the fizzy drops for the rest. Typically, when I bottle, I add ½ teaspoon (about 2.5 g) of table sugar per bottle to get to my desired level of carbonation (around 2.5 volumes of CO2) in order to achieve this with skittles I needed to add three to a 12oz bottle resulting between 2.34 g and 2.90 g of fermentable sugar. This should add between 1.65 and 2.04 volumes of CO2 with approximately 0.8 volumes left over from fermentation this gives a total carbonation level between 2.45 and 2.84 volumes. From tasting the sample, I would say it was on the lower end suggesting that Skittles are about 75% fermentable. Based on the amount of stuff floating in the beer would further support the idea that skittles are 75% fermentable.
From these results you can bottle condition beer with candy, but further research is needed. I intend to brew a cream ale to see if there is any perceptible flavor, or color impact when carbonating with skittles.