Whoops! Much higher ABV than intended - green cider tasting

[Theyeofra]

Hey guys!

My first cider is almost done fermenting, and I wanted to thank you guys for the huge amount of information hidden away in this forum.

My batch is still bubbling but very slowly. The thing is, I didn’t notice I till now that the jug of AJ I used wasn’t a full gallon. It was 2.84 liters. I added a full pound of sugar to it, having assumed it was a full gallon of juice. Whoops!

Haha. Anyways it still fermented. I carefully stole a small sample of the green still fermenting cider to taste test. Holy **** is that **** high ABV. It actually has a nice apple flavor considering the strength of that hooch. Very very dry. But I’m impressed, the yeasty note will go away with racking and time if all goes well. It should taste great.

Anyways because I am still waiting for my hydrometer to arrive I don’t know what the ABV actually is. But my guess is like 13-15%.

Also don’t worry, I didn’t contaminate my batch by opening it. I’m anal as hell and usually work under a flow hood (I also grow gourmet mushrooms and sterile procedure is second nature)

Anyone else ever jump the gun and drink those little yeasties alive like I just did?

 

[Theyeofra]

Whoa. There is a censor?!? If you’re old enough to drink . . . You can read four letter curse words. Just my opinion. I dislike censorship in any form. We’re adults here. Being politically correct and not swearing just takes the fun out of life. It’s like not being able to say retard.

Anyways I digress.

 

[jseyfert3]

Whoa. There is a censor?!? If you’re old enough to drink . . . You can read four letter curse words. Just my opinion. I dislike censorship in any form. We’re adults here. Being politically correct and not swearing just takes the fun out of life. It’s like not being able to say retard.

Anyways I digress.

Not swearing is a very common rule in forums. It's rule 4 on this forum, and one you undoubtedly would have had to agree to while signing up for the forum. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/forum-rules.647513/

If you're old enough to drink, you're old enough to understand rules. Just my opinion.

Anyways because I am still waiting for my hydrometer to arrive I don’t know what the ABV actually is. But my guess is like 13-15%.

You won't ever be able to know that the ABV actually is on this batch, not with a hydrometer anyway, as you didn't take a IG reading. You need both an IG and FG reading to calculate ABV. Best you can do is estimate the initial gravity and use the final gravity reading to make sure it actually fermented out completely.

As I outlined on your previous thread ABV is (IG - FG)*131.25. My store bought juice was 1.046, but this can vary. Table sugar adds 0.046 points per pound per gallon, but you have ¾ a gallon, so a pound will add 0.063 points instead. Assuming the juice was 1.046, that's an estimated IG of 1.109, or if it ferments dry to 1.000 an ABV of 14.3% when it finishes, which is inline with your guess.

 

[Theyeofra]

Hey thanks for those gravity numbers! Good to know my oral booze-o-meter is still calibrated haha! Yeah even if the hydrometer arrived I don’t have my IG, but I was planning on duplicating the must in a few days and taking the IG of that batch. Should be close enough, I used an accurate digital scale for the lb of sugar.

It’s most certainly done fermenting. At least mostly. It went from a bubble a minute yesterday to “well I’m tired of waiting I’ll rack it next week”.

I also stole another sample. This time for an idea of how I want to backsweeten it. (That turd wrangler is DRY!) pomegranate juice was nice. I also tried coconut sugar, but I think maple syrup complemented the apple better.

Fun fun! I’m extremely pleased with how this first batch went. I’ll update this post when I attempt to carbonate some of this batch.

<3 Ra