I don't know what it is, but I'm not sure it's fair to call it cider

[Ash Morgan]

So my boyfriend and I decided to take up cider brewing during quarantine. We followed a YouTube recipe. It was all going swimmingly. It was bubbling a lot but so what?

We just tasted it yesterday ready for bottling and it tastes waaay too strong. Like, spirit strong. We added almost a kilo of sugar to about 4.5 litres of supermarket cloudy apple juice with 1 gram of specific cider yeast we got on Amazon. In hindsight, checking other recipes now, we realise we added too much sugar.

We didn't have a hydrometer at the start of the experiment so couldn't take an initial reading. Can anyone give us an approximate ABV now? It has been fermenting for 15 days now and the hydrometer reading yesterday was 0.996. Any help working out the ABV would be appreciated, or tips on how to weaken it down a bit now.

 

[doublejef]

You should probably let it rest for 6 month. If there is a chance for this thing to turn good, time is probably the best option.
You can also add concentrate apple juice to make it smoother, bottle and then pasteurize or drink it fast (watch out for bottle bomb).
Maybe you can also do both.

 

[S-Met]

Not knowing how much sugar was originally in the juice, I'm going to assume 1.045 for the juice (usually 1.035-1.055). Add an approximate .080 points for 1kg sugar into 4.5l puts you in the 1.125 range.

If you are at 0.096, your around 14%abv.

The strong brandy-like boozy taste this early is likely suspended yeasts. Time is the only cure, hopefully it mellows. Maybe a good 6 months as mentioned.

Alternatively, you can get another batch going, Don't add sugar. Then blend the two.

 

[teddyearp]

Heck, if you've made it this strong already, you're well on your way to making Apple Jack. May as well finish it off like that and do something else for your next batch and make it weaker and for cider.

 

[madscientist451]

As S-met said, you can make a regular strength batch and blend it, but you could also add more apple juice to the first batch and dilute down the sugar addition.
My 2 cents: Split your first batch, bottle half of it as-is and lay it back for a few months, (maybe 6-months or a year) but use the rest as a "starter" and add more apple juice and see what happens. I'd recommend adding some more yeast as well, if you have any.
If you have an extra fermenter, perhaps try fermenting just apple juice with no sugar added. I never add sugar to my cider, I don't like the "rocket fuel" taste that fermented sugar provides.

 

[Seamonkey84]

You made apple wine (higher abv). That takes a while to age and mellow. The strong ordors will subside and you’ll have a nice product after some aging.