EdWort's Apfelwein and Original Gravity Q's

I started my second batch of Apfelwein today, and again, only got a starting gravity of 1.061. I had originally thought it was because I didn't give the carboy a good shake before taking the sample but not this time.

Mind you, I'm using Walmart's "Great Value" 100% juice (from concentrate) and the Walmart brand brown sugar. I'm starting to suspect that it's the juice that's the issue, not my hydrometer.

Has anyone else noticed a difference in OG using various juices? Reading through the original monster thread seems to indicate that people are using TreeTop juice and getting OG's in the 1.090 range. While the product that I'm creating will have a 6.5% ABV result rather than the 8.5% ABV that people are reporting, I'm also able to do a 5 gallon batch for $25 or less.

Other than sheer numbers, has anyone else tried utilizing the cheaper stuff and determined that it might be worth it to step up in quality of ingredients?

I'm all for cheap hootch, but if there's really a significant taste and quality difference in using a different brand, maybe it's worth the extra few bucks to do so. My other alternative would be to boost the amount of brown sugar that I'm using (currently 2#). Would doubling it help here, or is this a juice-quality issue alone? Would adding the canned concentrate to the mix help at all?

Here's what I'm doing:

5 gallons Great Value WalMart brand 100% Apple Juice (from concentrate, only with Vitamin C in it, but artfully stenciled with "apples may come from china")

2 pounds Great Value brown sugar

1 packet Montrachet yeast

Thanks in advance for any insight.

I just did a three Gallon Batch and only had an OG of 1.070 at 70 degrees

I used Treetop to make a 5 gallon batch with corn sugar. OG was 1.071 temp adjusted. The gravity of the juice by itself was 1.049.

I can believe different juices would result in different SGs, volume for volume.
And prolly different sugar feedstock too.
Made mine up close as I could get to Edwort's recipe, came in at OG 1060.

Was planned as a Christmas drink but after reading others' opinions on having patience and letting it age have gone the bulk aging way; so have until mid 2009 before get around to carb and bottle.

I started another batch today with TreeTop juice & "Imperial Brown Sugar" from CostCo and got an OG of 1.078 @ 72 oF, so I guess it's the juice/sugar. The solution is definitely *darker* than the stuff using WalMart supplies. Not quite the 1.090 that people have reported, but certainly happily closer.