Estimating ABV?

**Cape Brewing** · 09-23-2009, 10:26 PM

Last December I pressed a couple of bushels of Macs and a few other random varieties and made a cider that I am extremely happy with. I was able to get a 1061 out of the juice I pressed (it was literally the last batches of apples a near by orchard had).

What I am curious about is if anyone has any general guidance as to what different additives would have contributed in terms of additional gravity points.

I added:

1 lb light brown sugar
1 lb white raisins
1 lb zant currants
1 lb dried cherries

When I bottled it back in February the FG was 1000 on the button. I'm trying to figure out a ballpark for what my final ABV is.

It's a really nice cider though.... no hotness at all and it's still got a bit of apple taste to it while being pretty dry.

cvstrat · 09-24-2009, 02:55 AM

I believe the effect of the ingredients really depends on how much juice you used. It's a percentage type thing. 1lb sugar doesn't do a lot to 30 gallons of juice but it would to 5 gallons if you know what I mean.

**Cape Brewing** · 09-24-2009, 01:20 PM

It was a five gallon batch.

I thought there was some rought estimates somewhere... I thought it was in Palmer's How To Brew that basically said (completely making up numbers):

One pound of LME typically contributes 12 points to OG
One pound of light brown sugar contributes 14 points to OG
One pound of raisins contributes 7 points to OG

... and then I thought it had a long list of different sugar sources and even fruits.

But I can't find it anywhere.

Maybe I dreamed it.