Odd carbination question

[evlgenius74]

I have an idea for carbonating...using jolly ranchers or other hard candies. The idea is to melt said candies in say 1-2 cups of water and adding to the 5 gallons of cider. my problem lies in how many to use so I dont get bottle bombs. For full information the cider is sitting at 1.01 and started at 1.075. I need to know either how many candies to use or the approximate weight in candies to get a decent carb without blowing bottles. normally I would just use a can of concentrate and be good but want to try something different. Any help yall can give would be appreciated. Thanks guys

 

[TipsyDragon]

well break out your hydrometer. find out the SG of a normal priming solution. then slowly add the candies to a fresh pot of water and measure the SG ever so many candies. when you are close enough to the normal priming number stop and use that to prime your cider.

 

[evlgenius74]

I had already considered that but getting the correct SG would be difficult as you would have you have the same volume of liquid as the juice concentrate to have the math work out. But with every candy you put in it will add more volume thus throwing off the amount of actual sugar used to get the SG needed. basically what i need is a sugar weight to use. or i guess i could reverse engineer if i knew how much normal table sugar to use as i could figure out its weight and apply that to the candy as the weight of the candy should consist mostly of sugar.

 

[TipsyDragon]

i dont really see where math comes into it. you know how much water you started with. you know how many candies you used to get the SG you wanted. store the liquid in a sanitized milk jug or something and keep it in the fridge. then when it comes time to bottle just pour off how ever much you need and do what ever you want with the rest.

 

[oldmate]

well break out your hydrometer. find out the SG of a normal priming solution. then slowly add the candies to a fresh pot of water and measure the SG ever so many candies. when you are close enough to the normal priming number stop and use that to prime your cider.

This pretty much.

I just don't think all the artificial colours/flavours/preservatives in the candy will come out as a nice flavour after fermentation. I'd try it on a small batch, and report back so we can all try it if it turns out good!

 

[evlgenius74]

@ tipsy: yes your idea will work to a certain extent...thats assuming i dont mind making a batch FAR larger than what i want. Thus why i clarified and asked if anyone knows a weight of sugar to add. i will be quite happy with a weight of sugar they add to a single bottle...i dont care i can do the math. but for what i am doing volume and SG arent that useful. with a by weight measurement i can calculate it out to any candy or any sugar for that matter.

@ oldmate: i agree completely it may ruin the batch and make it undrinkable but i want to try it out to see what happens. my plan was to split a batch and try different things to see what does and doesnt work. but i simply cant do that till i find out the weight of sugar used to carb. my plan is to test out jolly ranchers (probably just apple flavor to start), werthers originals, and possibly other flavors as i find them to see what happens.

 

[evlgenius74]

ok i gave up and looked it up online and did the math myself. now if anyone is interest and i did my math correctly...

the original calculation for table sugar (sucrose) is 3.82 grams/liter which i converted roughly to 0.5 oz/gallon or 14.5 grams/gallon. now im not going to say my math is perfect and by all means double check my calculations as i may well be off. (again please check my math and 0.5 oz seems like a small amount...but could very well be accurate)

from here i should be able to figure out how much each candy weighs and figure out (within reason) how many candies would be needed to carbonate a batch. now true all of this is dependent on them using sucrose as the base for said candy but its a fair assumption that they did.

Edit: just went to the store and jolly ranchers work out to 4 candies per gallon (again figured at 11 g per 3 candies as stated on the package)