checking cider alcohol content

[misha]

Just after about 2-3 months of fermentation, and didnt take any readings at the begining, so is there a way/tool that can tell quite exact the alcohol content? I have Triple Scale Wine & Beer Hydrometer. It says only 'potential alcohol' in one place. Cheers

 

[Kyle05STi]

You would need to know the Original Gravity of the must before starting. No real way to know at this point.

If the juice or cider you used is commercially produced, you could get some more and measure the gravity, but even then you're just estimating.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hiya Misha,
And sorry Kyle05STi but I disagree. There is no way* to know exactly but you could make a very reasonable estimation. What was the recipe? Just apple juice? Apple juice is likely to have a gravity of about 1.050 (sometimes up to 5 points less sometimes 5 points more) and a gravity of 1.050 has a potential ABV of about 6.5%. If you were trying to make the cider more like a wine then you may have added sugar and the addition of 1 lb of sugar IN a gallon (so that the total volume does not exceed the gallon) will increase the gravity by 40 points. (1.040) - Forty points has a potential ABV of about 5.25 % (and the potential ABV is a straight line - so if you added 4 oz of sugar to the gallon the increase would be 1/4 of 5.25% (or 1.3%) and if you had added 2 lbs of sugar then the increase would be 10.5% etc etc.. If you perhaps added honey, 1 lb of honey in this gallon would increase the gravity by 35 points (you got it - 1.035 and 1.035 can ferment dry and give you an ABV of 4.5% ).. So... with simple arithmetic you can approximate the ABV of your cider.

* In fact there are several ways to know "exactly" the alcohol content of a liquid but these methods involve either fairly sophisticated equipment or very sophisticated procedures

 

[Kyle05STi]

I know it can be estimated, that's why I ended my response with "you're just estimating."


For what it's worth - speaking from my (limited) personal experience:

I picked up 12 1/2 gallon bottle of store-bought juice to start my second batch and top off the secondary of my first batch.

- The contents of the bottle I used to top off the secondary measured 1.048.

- I mixed the other 11 bottles (5.5 gal total), drew a sample and measured 1.046. There had to be something with a lot more water in it than it should have had to put me there, or my 1.048 was a "high" gravity bottle and the rest were mid-1.04's. Either way, there was an outlier somewhere. The juice all had the same date/batch code on the bottles and was purchased at the same store on the same day.

OP can certainly estimate it, but short of sending it out to be analyzed or investing in specialized equipment, it's just an estimate. I think we're saying the same thing and I don't disagree with your post in any way.

 

[misha]

thanks! well its all pure juice(extracted inquite traditional way)from Dabinett aplles I got locally, nothing else. I thought theres some easy way to check it as commercially produced alcohol has quite strict norms to obey. About wine approach, wine is 5-15 abv more or less so if they don't use additives, why it shouldn't reach that levels as well in this case(although its a different topic)? Cheers

 

[bucketnative]

Either way, there was an outlier somewhere. The juice all had the same date/batch code on the bottles and was purchased at the same store on the same day.

Mass production keys on consistency, especially within a single batch. I would lean towards measurement error or standard variance in the measurement technique.

Were all of your measurements made at the same temperature?

About wine approach, wine is 5-15 abv more or less so if they don't use additives, why it shouldn't reach that levels as well in this case(although its a different topic)? Cheers

The starting Brix (sugar content) of grape must is much higher than that of apple must. Brix is the percent of sugar in 100 g of solution. From 19 CFR 151.91 - Brix values of unconcentrated natural fruit juices, one can see that the average apple juice Brix value is 13.3, while that of grape juice (vitis vinifers) is 21.5. Therefore, there is much more sugar present in grape must than there is in apple must, hence higher ABV is achieved in grape wine.

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2009-title19-vol2/xml/CFR-2009-title19-vol2-sec151-91.xml

 

[Maylar]

Somewhere in the 6-8% range is typical, but it depends entirely on the amount of sugar that was in your apples. The Dabinett is a bitter sweet so I'd guess it'll be in the 6.5% area.

 

[bernardsmith]

thanks! well its all pure juice(extracted inquite traditional way)from Dabinett aplles I got locally, nothing else. I thought theres some easy way to check it as commercially produced alcohol has quite strict norms to obey. About wine approach, wine is 5-15 abv more or less so if they don't use additives, why it shouldn't reach that levels as well in this case(although its a different topic)? Cheers

By "wine" you mean wine from wine grapes? Wine grapes are specially made to have enormous amounts of sugar compared to table fruit. I think that you can expect to find that juice from pressed wine grapes might have a gravity of about 1.090 without any problem. But table grapes may be lucky pushing half that. Here's what you might do to check this out: go to your local supermarket and see if they have any processed fruit juices - the kind that might be stocked in refrigerated areas or on shelves. Buy one or two and take a reading with your hydrometer. Then check out (perhaps online) what the Brix reading is (the sugar content) of the last harvest of wine grapes in your locale - any variety.
eg: "BRIX varies directly with plant QUALITY. For instance, a poor, sour
tasting grape from worn out land can test 8 or less BRIX. On the
other hand, a full flavored, delicious grape, grown on rich, fertile soil
can test 24 or better BRIX. The higher the BRIX, the sweeter the
taste. Sugar converts to alcohol in fermentation, so the higher the
BRIX in the grapes, the higher the alcohol content in the wine" (http://www.chanticleerwine.com/assets/client/File/Harvest-Information-Article.pdf)
Brix = SG/4 (approximately) - so a Brix of 24 = an SG of about 1.102

 

[Kyle05STi]

Mass production keys on consistency, especially within a single batch. I would lean towards measurement error or standard variance in the measurement technique.

Were all of your measurements made at the same temperature?

I thought it was all very strange too. I'm an "attention to detail" guy although I'm nowhere near perfect.

All 12 bottles were at the same temp. I topped off my secondary and then started batch 2 in primary within a half an hour or so, and the temp was consistent. I used the same hydrometer and took notes on everything to reference later.

SG of the top-off juice was measured in a 14" plastic test jar while the OG of the must for batch 2 was measured using a sanitized plastic thief as to measure the gravity of the combined 5.5 gallons. I doubt the two vessels would result in different hydrometer readings though.

 

[beermanpete]

There is a method to determine alcohol content by using a refractometer and a hydrometer described here: a http://byo.com/stories/item/1313-refractometers

 

[javalin]

ignore this, double posted :/

 

[javalin]

Just after about 2-3 months of fermentation, and didnt take any readings at the begining, so is there a way/tool that can tell quite exact the alcohol content? I have Triple Scale Wine & Beer Hydrometer. It says only 'potential alcohol' in one place. Cheers

Sure, you can grab a vinometer from most homebrew stores, or there's this one on amazon. They're like five bucks.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006O2E658/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Does nobody know what a vinometer is? Seems like I've run into this question a lot.

 

[Kyle05STi]

Sure, you can grab a vinometer from most homebrew stores, or there's this one on amazon. They're like five bucks.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006O2E658/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Does nobody know what a vinometer is? Seems like I've run into this question a lot.

I had no idea such a tool existed. Learn something new everyday.