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RagnarTheRed

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So I started a cider recently but decided I would do it with honey as well. I took a gravity reading and thought it was low at 1.07 considering I'm aiming for at least 13% ABV so I added two cups of brown sugar to try to raise it (no hate please I'm new to this). I then realised that I didn't bring my sample to the correct temp before testing with my hydrometer. I planned on going to get a kitchen thermometer after work today so I can get it to temp and when I got home my gf told me she had literally JUST spilled the sample I had sitting in the fridge. CAN I STILL TAKE A GRAVITY READING? It has been approximately 22 hours since pitching yeast and the recipe is as follows:
512fl/oz Pure unfiltered Appel juice
2 cups brown sugar
1 quart clover honey
Lallemand Nottingham Al Yeast (saccharomyces cerevisiae) 11g
P.s. I'm aiming for a semisweet and even if I ferment dry I plan on back sweetening if needed. Any help would be appreciated SO MUCH.
 
I don’t do cider but I would leave it alone for awhile.You will see fermentation happening.
You can plug the fermentable numbers in an online calculator to get your starting gravity. And also check for how much yeast you need next time, one pack seems low for all of that sugar
 
I don’t do cider but I would leave it alone for awhile.You will see fermentation happening.
You can plug the fermentable numbers in an online calculator to get your starting gravity. And also check for how much yeast you need next time, one pack seems low for all of that sugar
Fermentation IS already happening. But my question is how inaccurate my reading are gonna be if I take my initial reading after there's already plenty of action going on in there. I kinda thought it was too little yeast myself after considering everything that went into it. Would it be bad to pitch more yeast after I've already got everything sealed and started?
 
The 1.07 reading was after the honey but before the sugar right? If so, you are now at about 1.075 - sugar adds 46 points to your batch per lb of sugar, then divided by your volume. Ballpark guess, but close enough if the revenuers aren't after you. A better way to raise abv in a cider is to add frozen apple juice concentrate to the batch. That adds more apple flavor too instead of primarily just alcohol burn from sugar. About 8 cans should get you closer to where you want to be. I've only made cider once so take it with an appropriate amount of salt, but I think the yeast should do ok. Cider has only simple sugars so yeast doesnt get stressed like it does in wort. One pack of S04 got me under 1.00 in six gallons of apple / cherry / honey cider at about 9.5%. Took almost 3 weeks to get there though.
 
The 1.07 reading was after the honey but before the sugar right? If so, you are now at about 1.075 - sugar adds 46 points to your batch per lb of sugar, then divided by your volume. Ballpark guess, but close enough if the revenuers aren't after you. A better way to raise abv in a cider is to add frozen apple juice concentrate to the batch. That adds more apple flavor too instead of primarily just alcohol burn from sugar. About 8 cans should get you closer to where you want to be. I've only made cider once so take it with an appropriate amount of salt, but I think the yeast should do ok. Cider has only simple sugars so yeast doesnt get stressed like it does in wort. One pack of S04 got me under 1.00 in six gallons of apple / cherry / honey cider at about 9.5%. Took almost 3 weeks to get there though.
Awesome! Thank you so much for the input. I've dabbled in mead quite a bit but this was my first 5gal batch of ANYTHING, so this one is gonna be a little sloppy anyway because I'm too excited to get back in the swing of things. I'll remember all of this for the next time, even if the cyser doesn't turn out right.
 
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