need help with a little mistake

[GeneDaniels1963]

I just started up 3, 1 gal batches of cider. I want to play around with different things in the secondary of each one. I always add FAJC to my ciders, but this time I forgot that I was going to do a secondary addition, so I got my SG too high, around 1.070. What can I do so that my secondary fruit additions don't kick it even higher?

I was thinking about letting them finish the primary, then dilute with a bit of apple juice before adding my secondary fruits.

What do you think? Can I get the final product back down to about 7.5 or 8% without making it taste watery?

 

[Justwingnit]

I just started up 3, 1 gal batches of cider. I want to play around with different things in the secondary of each one. I always add FAJC to my ciders, but this time I forgot that I was going to do a secondary addition, so I got my SG too high, around 1.070. What can I do so that my secondary fruit additions don't kick it even higher?

I was thinking about letting them finish the primary, then dilute with a bit of apple juice before adding my secondary fruits.

What do you think? Can I get the final product back down to about 7.5 or 8% without making it taste watery?

I can only speak for what I've done....I almost always have my primary make the alcohol and flavoring in secondary. Example.... let primary go till stops then add non fermentable stuff for flavoring and dilution, or using potassium sorbate, or even cold crashing.
The other option would be to dilute your products now with more of the base juice you used to lower the og.

 

[Corey Fish]

I just started up 3, 1 gal batches of cider. I want to play around with different things in the secondary of each one. I always add FAJC to my ciders, but this time I forgot that I was going to do a secondary addition, so I got my SG too high, around 1.070. What can I do so that my secondary fruit additions don't kick it even higher?

I was thinking about letting them finish the primary, then dilute with a bit of apple juice before adding my secondary fruits.

What do you think? Can I get the final product back down to about 7.5 or 8% without making it taste watery?

Wouldn't any added juice just restart fermentation and not reduce ABV? It seems to me the only way you can lower the ABV would be to cut with a non fermentable liquid like water which may not be that good OR use sorbate and k meta after fermentation is complete then add base juice back again (without restarting fermentation). However, you won't be able to bottle condition by doing this, you'll have to live with a still cider OR force carb in a keg.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

yeah the juice would restart ferment, but from a lower SG, that is why I was thinking about cutting it with more apple juice

 

[Corey Fish]

yeah the juice would restart ferment, but from a lower SG, that is why I was thinking about cutting it with more apple juice

I get it but have a look at this (it's a fortification calculator but works for calculating final abv when mixing two different abv solutions):

https://www.winebusiness.com/tools/?go=winemaking.calc&sid=7

What's the gravity of the juice you're cutting with? Assuming juice at 1.04 and fermentation restarts to dryness, that's basically 6% abv. So you're talking about cutting something that's 2 gallons of 9% abv with something that's 6% abv. If you want to drop that even by 1%, you'd have to add 1.39 gallons of juice to get you to 8%. To get to 7%, you need to add 9 gallons of juice!

 

[ebbelwoi]

Do you have any more empty containers? If you could pour off half of each bottle and replace it with fresh juice, that should bring the SG down around 12-15 points, right?

 

[FatDragon]

FAJC + Water = Apple Juice. I wouldn't be too worried about diluting with water if you're looking to dilute the strength significantly without adding a ton of volume. It will be lighter than you're used to if you usually add FAJC to apple juice for your cider though, just as yogurt made with milk is thinner than yogurt made with milk fortified with milk powder. I suspect that the body and "wateriness" will be tied pretty closely to your adjusted OG anyway, so if you add water to an effective OG of 1.060, the final product will probably be very similar to what you'd get by diluting to the same OG with apple juice, you'll just have less of it because you'd need to add more apple juice to achieve the same dilution rate.

However, I'm a beer brewer - I've only done one cider and it was just store bought apple juice and yeast. This is the logic I'd apply to diluting a beer re: diluting with water versus lower-gravity wort. I can't guarantee it will translate to cider.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

I am thinking about going half/half with apple juice to get back to the gravity I wanted. But fatdragon's idea of using water is interesting. I would only have to add a little bit so... I need to do some calculations