Last week, I threw 300 grams of sugar and 17 litres of apple juice into my demijohn and forgot about it. That would have reached about 8% ABV if I'd just left it alone.
Yesterday, I was at the store and noticed that they are almost giving away apple juice and sugar (the same juice I've used for hundreds of batches is now permanently half it's normal price and sugar was on sale for half price). So, I bought a lot of both.
Got home and decided to use my 5 day old cider batch as a starter for two new batches. So 8.5 litres of starter, 2 kg of sugar and topped the fermenter up to 24 litres with AJ. Into the other fermenter, 8.5 litres of starter, 7 kg of sugar, and topped it up to 24 litres with AJ. Oh, ****, that's enough to reach about 20% ABV - wasn't really thinking, just wanted to make some wine...
Put them both into my 21 degrees sauna and they were both blowing hard this morning. Looks like I've got tomorrow evening cut out for me - need to split the sweet batch in half and use it as a starter for two more batches otherwise it will never ferment dry.
I never worry about these things, really just go with the flow and have fun with it. It always turns out good.
Yesterday, I was at the store and noticed that they are almost giving away apple juice and sugar (the same juice I've used for hundreds of batches is now permanently half it's normal price and sugar was on sale for half price). So, I bought a lot of both.
Got home and decided to use my 5 day old cider batch as a starter for two new batches. So 8.5 litres of starter, 2 kg of sugar and topped the fermenter up to 24 litres with AJ. Into the other fermenter, 8.5 litres of starter, 7 kg of sugar, and topped it up to 24 litres with AJ. Oh, ****, that's enough to reach about 20% ABV - wasn't really thinking, just wanted to make some wine...
Put them both into my 21 degrees sauna and they were both blowing hard this morning. Looks like I've got tomorrow evening cut out for me - need to split the sweet batch in half and use it as a starter for two more batches otherwise it will never ferment dry.
I never worry about these things, really just go with the flow and have fun with it. It always turns out good.
