Why is my ginger beer not sweet yet?

Question

So I didn't follow a recipe as such for my Ginger beer but here is what I did:

• Champagne Yeast, grated ginger, honey and water fed every day for about 1 week (created GBP)
• Topped up to 2L with water and added lemon juice
• Fed for another week or so

Everywhere I have seen says that you should strain and bottle it when it's just a little sweeter than you would like it but the problem is that it's not any sweeter after each 24H period.

I have tried feeding with more honey every day - I'm doing a tablespoon instead of a teaspoon.

It's fizzy despite being in a loose lid kilner jar and smells amazing - doesn't taste particularly alcoholic but I don't really mind that.

Any advice?

I fed it for another week but it didn't get sweeter and stopped fizzing so have strained - added loads of sugar and bottled. Would still love any insight on what I did wrong!

Answer 1

The yeast will be using the sugar to make alcohol and carbon dioxide. I'm not sure where you read that it will get sweeter, but as far as I know the more sugar you add the more the yeast will consume. The best way to sweeten it is to add a sweetener such as Stevia. You can only use sugar/honey/maple syrup if your yeast has died.

Be careful adding sugar before bottling! It can make your bottles explode. You should only add one tsp of sugar (roughly) to a bottle (assuming fermentation has already stopped.)