help with approximate abv

[fendermallot]

ok folks, I need some help.

I made my first cyser and just bottled it after it sat in the bottle for roughly a month. During that month we were frequently over 85 degrees with some days narrowly missing 100. I totally forgot to take a FG before I bottled, cause I'm a moron!

Here's what I had,

5 gallons Safeway Apple Juice
3lbs meadowfoam honey
Safbrew wb-06

When I took an OG reading I got 1.070

Is there a program out there that would verify that this is what the OG would be and approximate the final abv?

Thanks,

fender

 

[fendermallot]

I mention the temperature because I know that the yeasties had eaten every possible bit of sugar in that batch, it was dry as a bone when I tasted it. I know there's not much "taste" difference between .995 and .999, but work with me please!

 

[Jacob_Marley]

If you were confident that you were careful on your opening gravity, you should trust your reading ... and you could still access your must for a FG.

That having been said ... I’ll give it a shot ...

Apple juice varies in sugar content ... I would say though a common SG is about SG 1.040 (in my experience this has been the case) note that this is for store-bought, controlled, (reconstituted) apple juice ... not for fresh cider, which varies more.

1.040 is about 14oz of sugar per gallon (viz: charts bottom of ... http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/hydrom.asp)
so about 4.375 lbs sugar in 5 gallons juice.

3lbs of honey provides about ¼ gallon of volume ... so your 5 gallons of juice plus the honey brings you up to about 5.25 gallons.

Using the calculator on the following link, and adding in all of these factors, we get an OG of 1.060
If you assume a final gravity of 0.998 ... the ABV is somewheres around 8.4% .
The calculator I used here is at ...
http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=745&Itemid=16

Note that both the fermentable sugar content of both the apple juice and the honey can vary ... and of course, guessing at the final gravity can push the reading up or down considerably as well.

 

[JRAvpro]

I was at my LHBS today and bought a gadget called a "Vin-O-Meter". It's a little glass pipette with a bulb on one end to pour your wine in. The instructions say to let 6 drops fall out the bottom, and read the ABV of your wine on the scale provided. Costs about $6.

Works according to the same principle that allows dry wines to "have legs", that is the alcohol separating from the water when allowed to run down the side of the clean glass after it has been swirled around.

I bought one last year also after realizing I'd made some really nice cider, but neglected to WRITE THE NUMBERS DOWN! I brought some of the final product in to the HBS, to let them taste it and get their opinion. So the nice gal there demo'd the vinometer to me, and it read 15.6%!! (BTW, I had added an extra 5# dextrose and a lb. of honey to the secondary.)

I can't say how accurate it is for sure, but I promise you it was some kick-ass cider! So I bought a new one today just to have it. And because I broke the old one being careless with it. Caution: they are very thin glass and very fragile.