Cider Alcohol content

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deepinvader

Cider Alcohol content

Post by deepinvader » Mon Aug 18, 2008 2:09 pm

I'm really new to this, got in by accident really as I was given tons of fruit concentrate including apple and blackcurrant. Made up a 6 gallon batch with cider yeast and kept adding sugar until it stopped doing anything. Tried it a month later and kept falling over. I bought a refractometer to test it and get a result of 22% ABV. Is this really possible?

Curious Brew

Post by Curious Brew » Mon Aug 18, 2008 2:18 pm

Theoretically 20-ish% is the maximum limit you'll get from a yeast, so it is quite possible.

I assume concentrate is, by its very nature, high in sugar to start with and any additional fermentables would have just given the greedy little blighters something else to chomp through!

:D

maxashton

Post by maxashton » Mon Aug 18, 2008 2:42 pm

Falldownjuice!

Curious Brew

Post by Curious Brew » Mon Aug 18, 2008 2:47 pm

Most importantly - how does it taste? :lol:

steve_flack

Re: Cider Alcohol content

Post by steve_flack » Mon Aug 18, 2008 2:51 pm

deepinvader wrote:I bought a refractometer to test it and get a result of 22% ABV. Is this really possible?
Did you correct the final refractometer reading for the alcohol present? Once the yeast starts fermenting the direct correlation between a brix reading and gravity no longer exists.

deepinvader

Post by deepinvader » Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:09 pm

I followed the instructions for the refractometer which is calibrated for alcohol content. tested with distlled water at 0 and vodka from the bottle at 34% when the label said 37%. The manufacturers do state that a variation can happen with wine but should not be far out.

The concentrate is pure juice with a dilution rate of 1 Litre makes 8 Litres. The next lot I've on the go I set to SG 1.100 by adding sugar and it is looking about the same finished product, not quite cleared yet though.

Tastes a bit sharp but chilled with ice and topped with lemonade makes a fantastic substitute for Pimms ( which is how we found out what a few pints will do :lol: )

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