Fermenting Table Sugar

[JamesM]

Hi, I'm making a hard ginger ale. The recipe called for about 30 cups of sugar (I used table sugar) and a pound of ginger. Its been fermenting for a week with Nottingham yeast. I gave it a taste today and its still VERY sweet. Before you ask, no, I don't have hydro readings. I can see active fermentation here so I know its going but this is my first attempt trying to ferment sugar cane. My question is, will the super sweetness dry out and how long do you think it will take?
Thanks!

 

[Shooter]

It could take a while to dry that all the way out and it sounds like it will make something terrible. Is table sugar the only fermentable material you are using?

 

[JamesM]

yeah, I'm only making a half batch, so my whole procedure is
2.5 gal water
15 cups sugar
1# ginger
1 lime
boil 60 min
cool and pitch Nottingham

Terrible how?

 

[Brew-Happy]

yeah, I'm only making a half batch, so my whole procedure is
2.5 gal water
15 cups sugar
1# ginger
1 lime
boil 60 min
cool and pitch Nottingham

Terrible how?

Based on your measurements in Qbrew software:

OG: 1.129
Estimated FG: 1.032
ABV: 12.5%
Color (SRM): 3

Basically, you have made ginger h00ch. It will probably be bitter and/or spicy from the ginger and "hot" from the alcohol content.

Chalk it up as a lesson. Look around the forum for apfelwein and variants for some inexpensive ideas for brewing.

Keep experimenting though. Tis fun

Edit: for your edification, 1 cup of sugar is approximately 0.5lbs of fermentable sugar. Goes a long ways.

 

[JamesM]

Interesting. Thanks for the help, any idea on how long it will take to get to the FG?

 

[LSDracula]

I don't think nottingham will finish in this environment. A wine yeast like Lalvin 1118 or Redstar Montrachet would have been more appropriate.
Even still some nutrient would have helped. I don't know exactly what the maximum attenuation rate for nottingham is but full attenuation seems improbable for such a nutrient depleted wort.

I would steer clear of table sugar in the future!

Maybe someone else will chime in with more help.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I made a cider with 7 lbs of table sugar and Weihenstephan Weizen yeast.

I expected an attenuation of 75%, but the FG ended up at 1.000 which was 100%.

 

[JamesM]

Is nutrient something I could add at this point?