Sweetening guidelines

[zed255]

I have been poking about here and the web in general looking for some broad guidelines related to the sweetening of liqueurs. Hoping someone can share some of their experiences. Anything like:

Xg/L=Very Sweet
Xg/L=Moderately Sweet
Xg/L=Slightly Sweet

Would be helpful in gauging where to start when sweetening a product. Thanks for any input.

[Sporacle]

When I do a orange and mandarin infusion I found that 125gms per litre was as sweet as I like (not as sweet as a commercial Cointreau, i heard they are a bit higher than that) I originally went with 250gms per litre and that was way to sweet for me, I ended up mixing that 25/75 UJSSM to make a premixed side car bottle with that batch
The ratios for me went into a sugar solution to dilute 62abv infusion down to 40abv.
Good luck

[OtisT]

Recently I’ve been playing with honey for sweetening of spirits. My most recent batch was a neutral put through my gin still with ginger and lemon botanicals in the boiler.

Sweetening with honey I started with 2% honey by volume of 45% spirit, which I thought was a very light sweetness. I went up as high as 10% honey by volume which I found to be very sweet for my tastes.

Note on testing for sweetness level: I can’t say this is real or just perceived because I have not done tests to prove this out to myself, but I found that the level of sweetness changed for me after the mix (spirits w/honey) was left to sit for over a day. It seemed to be sweeter if I let it sit. I noticed this by chance, and it may just be my perception changed. Just thought I’d throw that out in case anyone has an opinion on the need to let this stuff mix before you can get a good idea as to how it will end up.

Otis

[Yonder]

Can’t say for liquor as I never thought of such a thing. Now for a moderately sweet mead, 1/2lb per gallon of wildflower honey will do the trick but that would be too sweet with clover. Now huajilla gives a nice earthy, lesser sweetness and youpon a deeper, richer flavour. Youpon would probably suit a whiskey. My thoughts.

[NZChris]

For me:

350g/L=Stupidly Sweet
200g/L=Moderately Sweet
100g/L=Slightly Sweet

150g/L is my usual choice if I'm not trying to replicate a particular liqueur, in which case I do the research to find out what I need.

[zed255]

Thanks for the input folks, much appreciated. Obviously sweetening is a personal thing but it is nice to have some guide to steer by. Looks like the range of 100g/L to 350g/L has the subjective qualities for sweetening. I'm currently shooting for a Goldschlager-esque thing but less sweet, references say there's 10.9g sugar in an ounce of that stuff which is almost 370g/L.

[howie]

i did a blueberry liquer and got most of my ideas on sweetening from jesses video.
ended up up sweetening on the low side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDUU7cPNUy4

[kimbodious]

I’ve been using stevia powder, one cup with two litres of boiling water. I use that to proof down liqueurs.

[NZChris]

370g/L is quite viscous and would help keep the flakes in suspension.