what do you think?

• 5 Gallons store bought apple cider (3.61/gal not bad)
• a blend of 3:1 light brown sugar to dextrose
• Safale 05

how much sugar, total, do you think I should use for 5gal? I was thinking 2 cups total.

If I wanted to pitch a baggie of spices in, should I do it in primary or would I get better results in secondary?

Thanks for any feedback guys!

I generally bring my OG up to 1.060. Not sure why I use that number, but it seems to work for me, and gives about an 8% abv cider. I usually have to add about 4 ozs per gallon to get to that. 2 cups of white table sugar is about 1 lb. I don't think brown packs down as well, so weighs a little less for the same dry volume.

2 cups is in the right ball-park to get the abv up and not have the alcohol bite that takes a long time to mellow out.

Ok, I went a bit different route. I was in the "**** it" mood when I was adding sugar.

5gal cider
1 cup dextrose
2lb light brown sugar (who knows why)
1 T cinnamon
4 cloves

SG is at 1.070

I pitched Safale us-05

let's see where this takes us.

On a side note, I put in too much liquid, Going to have to pull some off at some time. It's maybe an inch below the cap (oops!)

You may want to pull that liquid asap. If Safale 05 is anything like Nottingham (and I believe they are comparable ale yeasts) you are going to have a vigorous ferment!

I filled one batch up too much once in a one gallon jug and woke up the next morning to find about 1/8 of the contents on the floor of my closet next to the airlock and seal. Not super fun to clean up.

yep, I siphoned it off immediately. Good thing too! Just to be safe I actually put a blow off valve in place. Didn't need it though. Fermentation is running at 1-2 bubbles per second. It's pretty damn vigorous! I'd like to see what it might do if it hadn't cooled off here again. Come back 70 degree days!