Hitting the Sweet Spot

Your drink is meant to be consumed while ‘live’, meaning that it is still under fermentation, with the yeast chucking out CO₂ as it converts the sugars, thereby providing the sparkle. The skill is finding the ‘sweet spot’ – the point at which there is enough sugar still remaining in the drink to make it pleasantly sweet. And here, of course, lies the trade-off. The more sugar that remains means the less that has been converted to CO₂ and, more crucially, alcohol.