Beta Fuel Reviews

I’m thinking about getting some Beta Fuel drink packets and was wondering what folks experiences were. I plan on using them on all my 2hr GB-HV1 & 2 TR sessions. Thanks in advance for any feedback/recommendations.

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I first bought Mauerten from hearing it on the podcast. I have found it to be the blood of life. After seeing Froomey’s Giro dash and learning about beta I just tried it for the first time.

It has flavors where Mauerten is one flavor. Thats the only pro I’d have thus far. Its 2-3 times the volume of powder but requires the same amount of water. Its a lot heavier to drink, sweeter, sticky, seems like every other drink out there.

One isn’t a great review but immediate comparisons of the two and knowing they are extremely similar I’d give the recommendation to Mauerten over beta fuel

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I have a friend who is an ambassador for SIS. He’s an ultra runner, with a tiny bit of cycling here and there, so he does not use the Beta Fuel. Anyway, he was telling me the SIS Beta Fuel was created for high intensity athletes, and Team Sky specifically due to very high blood sugar levels, and what’s great about it is that it won’t spike sugar levels like other carb drinks despite having adequate carbohydrates in the packet. It is a different consistency, but I’m a big fan.

Another bit of info he gave me (which may need to be cross-checked), the creator of Maurten worked at SIS previously; thus, the formula is very similar. But Maurten tends to be more expensive…

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I tried it one time and it works; but the flavor was like drinking a powdered version of WarHead candy. Disgusting, frankly.

I’ve got Maurten on deck for tomorrow so hope it tastes a bit better.

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My take was pretty much the opposite of @stevemz: I found the taste of Maurten was like bad city tap water, and I basically resisted drinking it during the multi-hour MTB event I used it. BetaFuel’s taste is less off-putting, and I didn’t find myself avoiding taking a swig during my events. Obviously highly subjective, though, so give both a try and see which one suits you.

That said, I wouldn’t go for something this heavy for regular workouts. Save it for really long events (3 hours or longer). On a trainer, you can set up several bottles with standard drink mix, have some gels/chews/whatever; you’re not limited by what you can carry. BetaFuel and Maurten give you 80-90grams of carbs in a 500 mL bottle, which means you’re probably going to be taking in more liquid just for hydration anyway, especially indoors. Just my two cents, though.

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I agree with @pkwell it taste heavier than “normal” drink mix from SIS, but I think it is more because it has a creamy taste. The heavy thought might just be mental. It was fine for me. I use it on special occasions, my long rides.

I think it tastes horrible. Other than that, pretty effective.

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I love it, especially for Middle and Full Distance Tri. Two sachets in SIS’ extra large bottles and that’s two hours of nutrition. Two bottles behibd the seat and one on the aerobars and you’re covered for a 6hr bike split. No GI issues for me and I personally like the flavour. The Rapha Cycling podcast has a 25% off code that works on it too - SISCP25

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Thanks for the feedback. I know that SiS and Maurten are designed for long/intense efforts. But someone who completes the HIgh Volume workouts and plans in TR w/ 99% success rate, my calorie expenditure is >2k calories for 75% of the workouts. With that, I also perform my workouts at 5am - so quick and fast acting fuel is a must since I’m working on a compromised fuel tank.
BTW, I have found thru personal experience that SiS sachets are the fastest acting gels compared to the competition (huma, GU, Stinger, Cliff), haven’t tried Maurten gels though.

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How does the Beta Fuel go in terms of hydration, electrolytes etc? I’m a big fan of Skratch Labs for hydration but was considering switching to Beta Fuel for a long (150km) MTB marathon to reduce the reliance on bars and gels. If the Beta Fuel has no real electrolyte content could a sachet of Skratch labs be mixed in without reducing the effectiveness of either product?

Good question, don’t know.

It’s pretty sweet. I think mixing anything else in would make it revolting. Maybe just keep one or two electrolyte gels handy or tape a couple salt tabs somewhere handy?

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Yeah that’s a good idea, the idea of mixing isn’t overly appealing, just don’t want to mess up my hydration, the Skratch Labs has worked so well for me.

It’s not completly lacking in electrolytes, like I was thinking but I’d have something else handy for long efforts.

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I got a sachet of Beta Fuel as part of a bundle, so thought I’d give it a try on a Reliability Ride (65miles/ roughly 3 1/2 hours) on Sunday just gone.

I ate a pot of overnight oats with strawberries/ raspberries/ banana at around 0615, and set off on the ride at 0745.

I’d planned to drink the BetaFuel (in a 750ml bottle) over the first 90mins of the ride (with a regular SiS Hydro tab in bottle 2 for the remainder) but as I got to around the first hour, I started to feel quite queezy, so switched to the SiS, and although I didn’t feel 100% for the rest of the ride, I did feel better.

What’re people’s thoughts?

I know SiS recommends taking a beta fuel for longer events but what about something like a Olympic Distance triathlon? I am thinking of putting one in my water bottle for the bike leg? Then just drinking water at aid stations on the run when I need it.

Take a peep at CarboRocket 333. A few different flavors and some have caffeine. I use the lemonade for my longer road and mtb races. Brad ships pretty damn quick and customer service is top notch.

Bought a few sachets of Maurten and SiS Beta as singles from the Feed to try. Readily admit I don’t like the flavor of either (SiS beta orange is marginally better than Maurten IMO) and frankly didn’t see much difference in performance between it and my regular Skratch bottle + gels on intense two-hour rides. I don’t have the time for much longer now.

I’m sure there’s a convenience factor. I would definitely need a seperate water or lightly flavored bottle as I couldn’t use the Maurten 320 or SiS Beta as my primary hydration source because… eeww…

I’m also not sure that I am mixing with the proper kind of water. Do you guys use bottled water to keep the Ca concentration low? Maurten says the efficacy of the product “depends” on water below a certain Ca concentration, and we have notoriously hard water here. I’ve used water from my refirgerator filter… no clue if that’s “good enough”.

Thanks for posting this, I could not find the detailed electrolytes amounts in there on the web.

I will keep on mixing my own powder at a fraction of the cost, nothing magical about beta fuel. Just the SIS marketing is always outstanding. I’ve been using this mix for years. Though I replace maltodextrin with Vitargo under certain circumstances.

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I have a very sensitive stomach and live where it’s extremely hot and humid. I wrote Maurten asking about using bigger bottles because I need a large bottle of water about every 45 minutes in the summer. They told me that they do not recommend using different quantities of water or even alternating between one bottle of Maurten and one of plain water as the whole process is dependent on an exact balance of water to product. This kept me from ever trying it.

I’ve also never tried the Beta Fuel since people say it’s sickly sweet. I find all the other mixes (Heed, Skratch, etc.) too sweet for my stomach, so this was a no go.

Instead, I drink Nuun for flavor, take salt tabs, and get my carbs from SIS gels, salted watermelon Cliff blocks, and solid foods. I really wish there was a bottled solution for stomachs that can’t handle sweet in the heat, but I haven’t found one yet.

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