using more cider instead of priming sugar?

Hi everyone!

This is our first time brewing cider (and second time brewing anything for that matter - the first brew is still in bottles) so we're still new at all this..

Everything is going well so far.. my first try with liquid yeast didn't work out AT ALL, who knows why, but I got a packet of dry yeast after the first one didn't start fermenting for 4 days and now it's bubbling along like crazy. If anyone knows why my first yeast didn't work out, please let me know. And why is liquid yeast supposedly better to use anyway? Just because the guy at the brew shop wanted 3 more bucks from me?

But here is my real question: I went down to the brew shop to buy priming sugar and the guy suggested that I just use more fresh cider instead of priming sugar. He wasn't sure exactly how much to use. I have four gallons of cider, he guessed probably around a 1/2 gallon more before I bottle.

Has anybody tried this before? I like sour ciders, so if this is going to make it really sweet or something I'd rather just use the sugar. I'd also like a better idea about how much to add to my 4 gallons so nothing goes haywire.


Thanks!
Marisa

Liquid yeast has a low cell count, cider has very few nutrients so you don't get much growth.

Sugar or cider, the final results will be much the same.

"He wasn't sure exactly how much to use" Unless you know the sugar content of the cider, you're guessing. The best guess is to add cider until the gravity has increased by 0.003.

I didn't take a reading... oops. Have you tried it before? Does a 1/2 gallon seem reasonable?

Thanks for your help!

You still can.

Take a reading now, add cider until the SG goes up by .003. Bottle.

If your cider comes in a pack with the nutritional information on it (the white rectangle) you're one lucky dude. If not, skip this post.

Here is an example that I will do for you (you guys are lucky I like doing math so late at night...).

Go here and figure out how many volumes of CO2 you want. As an example, I will choose 2.25 volumes. I have 4 gallons of cider. My cider was brewing at 19C (you can enter whatever temp it was in F btw, you should choose the temp it was at in the last couple of days). I press calculate: 2.8ounces of sucrose.

Wait, how many grams is that? 79.4g (type "2.8ounces in g" in google). So now I need to add enough unfermented cider to get 79.4g of sugar.

Now here is where the real magic happens. Check the Nutritional information, look under "Carbohydrates" and see how many grams/ounces of sugar there are in the amount of the serving (usually at the top). Now, you want to express that in a fixed quantity, like 1 liter. I remember for a fact that the apple juice I used had 25g of sugar / .25L = 100g / Liter. Now if you have ounces, transform those into g, and if you have quarts, transform those to liters, then divide them. Now I need 79.4grams of sugar by adding something that has 100g / 1L.
79.4 grams * 1L / 100grams = ??? 0.749 Liters, or 3/4 cups of unfermented cider.

Now, if you're using a different amount of volumes of CO2 or whatever, just follow what I did and replace the numbers.

HTH,

mrfocus

RIGHT ON. love it, thanks a bunch.

New brewer here myself, but from what I've read, the only real (or the main) advantage in liquid yeast is simply the fact that you can get a vastly larger variaty of yeast in the liquid form than you can get in the dry form. Otherwise dry yeast is easier to use, and easier to store, and more reliable.

__________________________
Primary: Apple Cider
Secondary: Empty (the cider is my first batch ever)
Bottled: Nothing (I told you I'm new)
Drinking: Budweiser (I told you I'm just getting started, why can't you just leave me alone)

Just an update...

With the cider I'm using (28.2g of sugar per 8oz, yum) I figured I need to add about 0.18 gallons (0.68L) of cider using mrfocus' method, so 1/2 gallon is much too much.. Going to bottle tonight, so I'll let you know how it tastes in a couple of weeks

Also, our first-ever brew I mentioned in the beginning of the thread was ready a few days ago, and it's freakin awesome. Yessss

Just tried the first one today after 8-9 days in bottles. When I tried a bit before bottling it was mostly dry and sour without much of an apple taste. It is still dry and sour (which I like) but it has more of a distinct apple taste, especially on the finish. So, I think that the addition of the extra cider as priming sugar was helpful. Plus, the carbonation is good and it's a much higher alcohol content than I was expecting...