Approximate OG for cranberry wine

[Odysseus]

Okay, going to make a batch of cranberry wine this week. I don't have a hydrometer and was just trying to get a base approximate OG. I'm using store bought cranberry juice (no preservatives).

For a 64 oz bottle with 8 servings, the sugar content is 30 grams - so I figure 240g for yhe batch.

I'm also going to incorporate some raisins in it for yeast nutrient. I though about making a raisin and sugar wash with around 12 ounces or so of water to help incorporate the fruit and add a little more volume.

A - Estimated OG of original juice (and fotmula so I can do it myself in the future)
B - Does it even need any more sugar based on OG?
C - Raisin sugar wash a good or bad idea?

Also, as for store bought juice, will ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) affect fermentation?

Thanks in advance!

 

[bracconiere]

someone else will chime in talking about points and how simple it is...and it always feels like it is, but like logarythms being multiples of multiples, i still don't grasp it...

but i was just trying to understand points my self...my best guess 1g sugar in 1g water is 1 point....

if you just want to know ABW though, 1 mol of glucose will make two mols of ethanol... so the mol weight of glucose is 180, mol weight of ethanol ~46....

14.3g's ethanol...and quick trick to convert ABW to ABV is multiply or divide to convert between the two by 0.8....depending on which way you're going....


and i'm still trying to figure out how to get 1.048, out of the fact 8 FLoz's of this cranberry juice actually weighs 250g's instead the 227 water would....it's a tough one, but fun...i feel like i'm pumping iron in the gym!

 

[bracconiere]

wait, that for 12oz's...here it for 8

 

[D the Catastrophist]

One pound of sugar is about 453 grams, so you have a little over half a pound of sugar. Google sg of sugar and you will find one pound raises sg by 45 points per gallon. So your sg would be roughly 1.0225 with just the juice.

Does it need more sugar? That's up to you depending on what abv you want. I probably would.

Yes you can add raisens but from everything I have read, Cranberry wine can be difficult to ferment because of the high acidity so you may want to add more nutrient in addition. There are multiple ways to do this without buying a commercial mix if you do not want to.

Those other additives will not impede your fermentation.

I would suggest searching Cranberry wine on this site to see what others have dealt with.

 

[bracconiere]

nah, 1.048...


my juice is 28g's a 8floz pour though.....

not sure if it's helping or hurting this topic, but 342 is the mol weight of sucrose....and 17'gs is how much more 8oz's weighs on a scale then plain water....and sucrose has a density of 1.59....water 1.000

i think there should be a simple weigh (pun intended) to just put a glass on a scale, and see the difference in weight for the same volume?

 

[Raptor99]

Cranberries are very acidic. My batch last year, made from whole cranberries, had a starting pH of 2.84. Depending on the concentration of your cranberry juice, your pH might be similar. Ascorbic Acid (aka vitamin C) is an antioxidant, which is useful, but it might lower the pH a little more.

With cranberry wine I always add some Potassium Bicarbonate to raise the pH to around 3.2 or so. Anything below 3.0 and the yeast might be very difficult to start.

It's difficult to adjust the pH without a pH meter, so I can't tell you how much to add.

 

[bracconiere]

well as an expirement trying to figure this out... i can say, adding 60g's of table sugar to a measuring cup, and topping up with water to '1 cup'...caused a 18% increase in weight, and my hydro is reading around 1.085, and the cup might be a few grams off....

the cup of sugar solution weighed 276g's, but only 8 floz...so it's 18% more dense then water? (as maybe i am also) i think? i don't know where the damn extra zero comes from though.....

 

[bracconiere]

damn been working on this all day...but i think i got it now....

i just added the zero for the hell of it....got 16 grams of sucrose based on it's mol weight... for a target of 1.030...hit it right on!


being i'm cheap and don't like wasting thing, i'll try it again shooting for a 20 point boost....then i'll try and calm down from having so much fun, and simplify...


hope i'm not sounding too stupid....but this is something that's always interested me....

 

[bracconiere]

so i got a confirmation on my 1.020 target....

so if you want to bump the gravity, multiply how many points you want to add, so like 0.02x1.59(density of sucrose, or whatever you're adding)

then multiply that by the molecular weight of it... that should give you how many grams to add....

(until someone else chimes in, i just am saying seems to work. in reality, if you're adding raisins, i'd use a hydro AND refrac on the finished product...)

 

[Odysseus]

Thanks everyone!

While looking at the two bottles I bought (one for drinking and one for experimenting), I realized that one of them was actually grape juice. Same sugar content

I might go half-and-half or something to try to balance the acidity, or maybe just go with regular grape wine.

However, this does bring up another question:

The grape juice has ascorbic acid and citric acid. Will the citric acid affect fermentation, or is it harmless too?

I won't be brewing for a few days, so I'm just absorbing everyone's comments and researching now before I pull the plug and decide exactly what route to go.

 

[D the Catastrophist]

Avoid sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite. These specific preservatives will impact fermentation. Ascorbic or citric acid are fine.

 

[bracconiere]

Thanks everyone!

While looking at the two bottles I bought (one for drinking and one for experimenting), I realized that one of them was actually grape juice. Same sugar content

I might go half-and-half or something to try to balance the acidity, or maybe just go with regular grape wine.

However, this does bring up another question:

The grape juice has ascorbic acid and citric acid. Will the citric acid affect fermentation, or is it harmless too?

I won't be brewing for a few days, so I'm just absorbing everyone's comments and researching now before I pull the plug and decide exactly what route to go.

well you've given me a good time today, crunching the windows calc!

 

[bracconiere]

@Odysseus hey i think i got this simplified for you.....


get a good measuring cup, put it on a scale, tare the weight. then fill it with what ever you want to know the SG of, and then divide whatever the cup of liquid weighs, with 236...will give you how much more dense it is then water, or in other words SG.....

 

[bracconiere]

welp, i think i may start using this method....i just pulled a cup to check FG using it, got 235.4g's for a cup....and double checked with a hydro, read ~0.997


seems almost easier in certain situations....i'm thinking about using my cheap mg scale and seeing if it's as good as an easy dens..?


for the record it's comparing weight of cubic centimeters of volume, compared to water....

edit: i'm noticing it seems to help to multiply both the volume and weight difference from water quite a bit to smooth out the reading....


edit 8-11-22: for the finalization of my journey down the rabbit hole....best way to put it 1 liter of water weighs 1000 grams...it has a cm3 of 1000, so if you weight one liter of something and it weighs 1064 grams it has a SG of 1.064! to me that's way simpiler then points! (and cross platform! )