SG allowance for pulp?

[blagooba]

Hi everyone,

I am making strong cider using cloudy, pressed apple juice.

I have 5 gallons poured into my barrel, the SG is coming out at 1.050 ish.

My hydrometer is estimating that this will produce alcohol of around 8%.

My original recipe asked for an additional 2lbs of cane sugar. This however I am debating, as the current SG suggests a nice ABV for a strong cider.

My concern however is that the pulp from the thick juice is throwing out my estimate. Does anyone have any expertise or knowledge of this?

Any suggestions?

Matt

 

[TexasWine]

Hi everyone,

I am making strong cider using cloudy, pressed apple juice.

I have 5 gallons poured into my barrel, the SG is coming out at 1.050 ish.

My hydrometer is estimating that this will produce alcohol of around 8%.

My original recipe asked for an additional 2lbs of cane sugar. This however I am debating, as the current SG suggests a nice ABV for a strong cider.

My concern however is that the pulp from the thick juice is throwing out my estimate. Does anyone have any expertise or knowledge of this?

Any suggestions?

Matt

Hey Matt. I have no experience with pulp throwing off my hydrometer reading, but with a SG of 1.050 you'll get about 7.8% ABV if your yeast takes it all the way to 0.990. 1.040 to 1.050 seems to be a typical range for unfermented apple juice. Usually if folks want to boost the ABV they'll take it up to 1.060 or so.

What yeast are you using. Depending on what yeast you use, you may or may not get all the way to 0.990.

My advice, add the sugar if you really want something around 8% ABV. Otherwise you're most likely gonna end up in the 5-6% range.