is there a way to bottle sugary/fruity beer to stop fermentation?

If I want to bottle a beverage with very low alcohol content and I don't want it to increase in alcohol as it sits out, is there a way to do so? While keeping the 'probiotics' alive? I don't want to kill the bac and yeast.

I'd be trying to bottle a ginger beer style beverage where there will still be sugar and maybe even some added fruit juice flavoring.

Is it even possible to halt a fermentation when bottling with live yeasts and bacteria where sugar and fruit is present? Or am I trying something impossible.

Where there is Live Yeast and fermentable sugars, you will have fermentation.
However you can slow it down alot by chilling it so the yeast goes dormant.
Edit: Not sure how you could bottle carb/condition it though

Check out the cider forum posts for techniques like adding potassium sorbate and/or potassium metabisulfite to stun/ kill the yeast. However, as grem135 said, if you kill the yeast you won't get any carbonation. And if you want carbonation, then the yeast will ferment whatever they can as far as they can. Crash cooling can help, but the yeast can/will wake up and restart fermentation when you warm things back up, and that can be unpredictable- ie. bottle bombs.
So to get around this dilemma, use nonfermentable sugars - lactose, xylose, maybe stevia. Also a higher percentage of crystal malts because they have more nonfermentables.I've looked into this problem a bit in order to get a semi-sweet carbonated cider. My 1st effort last fall is beautifully clear, well carbonated but dry, dry, dry.

I was worried that's what I'd find out. Thanks for the replies.

How do I go about burning through all the sugar of the ferment and then adding something like stevia? Wouldn't that be an extremely long ferment with odd off flavors resulting? Or not? This probably sorely exposes how new I am to this! :/ Thanks for any thoughts/tips.

buble said:

I was worried that's what I'd find out. Thanks for the replies.

How do I go about burning through all the sugar of the ferment and then adding something like stevia? Wouldn't that be an extremely long ferment with odd off flavors resulting? Or not? This probably sorely exposes how new I am to this! :/ Thanks for any thoughts/tips.

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Nope, that's pretty much how all fermentations go! You would basically ferment out until the specific gravity is stable, then add your stevia to taste with a bit of priming sugar while bottling. (To me, stevia tastes like feet, so "to taste" means different things...) You could also try making a simple syrup, maybe boiling with crushed ginger, and sweetening while serving (I.e., bottle it dry, and add syrup to each glass.)

You might try bottling and then pasteurizing once you get the desired level of carbonation. If you can use at least one plastic bottle, it will help you gauge the carbonation. When the bottle is really hard to squeeze, like a soda bottle at the store, pasteurize it. That is also discussed in the cider forums.

problem is, I want to keep the drink 'raw' so pasteurizing is a no go.