Diet root beer in the Australian market?

miz said :

I wouldn’t touch any artificial sweetener

http://www.sportstek.net/saccharin-diet.htm

So true, I never use the stuff. But it would suck to be diabetic or such and must be hard for them to not use some kind of alternative to normality. But user beware I say.

Ginger beer is completely different to root beer.

Bundaberg Brewed drinks also do a diet ginger beer. It’s a skinnier bottle but I’ve seen it round the trap in various locals and Woolies or the like. Plus their site suggests it’s out there.

I wouldn’t touch any artificial sweetener

http://www.sportstek.net/saccharin-diet.htm

I also recommend the cordial option. $3 for a bottle of Bundaburg (diet) or other brand cordial and 89c for a 1.5L bottle of Soda water. It lasts for ages, its cheap and tastes just as good as normal expensive ginger beer.

kick arse – thanks WMC

Keep the suggestions coming peeps 🙂

Even better!!

Danman – buy root beer concentrate on line (we like McCormick – tastes just like A&W or our favourite, Dominion) and mix it with cheap diet lemonade. 60ml of concentrate is about US$6 and makes 12 liters of root beer. This gal will ship 6 bottles for US$12.95 (so total is US$50 for 72 liters, or the equivalent of 9 cartons). Sure you can find better with some googling.

Ooooh Danman; just found some diet sarsperella cordial on the sugarfreezone website; you could mix with soda water and make a version of your own (not as nice, but much, much cheaper)!

They probably make the root beer with essence flavour and water then carbonate it soda stream style

But A+W manage to do it?

This site explains why you cannot make root beer with sugar substitutes;

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/ROOTBEER_Jn0.htm

I homebrew full blood sarsparilla, but never really knew if ther was an option to brew it as a low/zero sugar bevvy as you need sugar for carbonation and generating alcoholic content.

I *know* sugar in alcoholic beverages can have no effect in medicated T2 diabetics, because of the alcohols effect on the liver (Google it) , but would prefer a prefabbed zero sugar version.

Deeza, ill give that a shot, maybe they currently have a low/zero sugar version.

With the obesity and diabetic plague in the US, they seem to cater for zero sugar alternatives quite comprehensively compared to here, to th epoint of several restaurants having an array of sugar free options for desserts. My quest continues.

PB – it isn’t alcoholic, so extremely expensive for softies. I have also tried to find inexpensive diet root beer here, but to no avail. Danman – Bundaburg Brewed Drinks makes a fantastic non-diet version – maybe you could write to them with your suggestion of a diet version? They make a bunch of other diet drinks.

Is root beer alcoholic? If not, then $50 for 24 cans,would be no exaggeration to declare it “exorbitant to say the least.”

Is there any way you could make your own? It’s easy to carbonate drinks with a soda stream or the like.

$50 for a case of imported beer isn’t that bad, unless it’s in $US ($AU75).

Don’t know enough about availability of local commercial diabetic beer (that conforms to strict regulation to ensure that it is sugar free) but you might like to try the big bottle shops such as the one near Belconnen markets (on Market St) or near Fyshwick markets (midway on Mildura St).

If you’re out of luck then I suggest you get stuck into homebrewing. Achieving an almost totally sugar-free brew is as simple as adding in a “finishing” agent (gelatin) and leaving it to mature for extra months (e.g. 3~6 months after bottling).

The new IGA in the city has A+W root beer, not sure about the diet version though. Try giving them a call.

They also have all manner of American chocolate, candies and pop tarts at a reasonable price.