SG of 1.119, am I now making wine?

[Happyhammer]

Hi,

I am trying to make cider/perry from some crab apples and pears my neighbour gave me. We started with 50kg (110 lbs) of fruit and pressed 30 litres (8 gallons) of juice, 60% yield. When I measured the SG of the juice I took a photo of the Hydrometer and went back to check the reading later. The reading was 1.119! After 8 days in the fermenter the primary fermentation is over and I took a measurement today and the gravity was 1.065. According to my calculations the cider is already 7%+ ABV and I am on my way to making wine.

My first question is what would have caused this high reading, here are some of the factors that may have contributed:

• The fruit had been blown off of the trees and was not fully ripe but had been on the ground for a couple of days, we didn't include any fruit that looked rotten of course.
• I didn't fine filter the juice before putting it in the fermenter but expected any tiny solids would settle over time.
• It was a very hot day, 36C (97F) when we pressed the fruit and the juice temperature was around 27C (80F), this may have affected the hydrometer reading?
• The original Ph was very high 4.1, I think this was caused by the pears, so I added malic acid to the juice to bring it down to 3.6
• I killed off the natural yeast using camden tablets, waited 24 hours, and then added Mangrove Jack M02 Cider yeast
• The primary fermentation was very quick, due to the temperature, and the juice bubbled quite rapidly for 6 days and has now slowed right down

My second question is what should I do now?

1. Rack it and kill the fermentation with camden tablets, let it settle and drink it as it is?
2. Leave it and make 15% ABV Wine
3. Throw it away its dangerous

Any help gratefully received.

HH.

 

[jheinikel]

Don’t throw it out. Worst case, back sweeten it a little to cut the edge. You could rack off that yeast and add Potassium Sorbate to hinder the yeast from reproducing. Or, use Camden tablets. Whatever you choose will likely be fine. Option 1 might be potent but tasty.

 

[madscientist451]

Test your hydrometer in some distilled 80F water (same temp as your original sample) and see if its calibrated. I'm skeptical you can get that high of a gravity reading from just pears and crabapples.
But who knows, maybe its possible. Any idea what variety of pears you used?
Pears have some unfermentable Sorbitol in them so I wouldn't do anything. Just let it finish, the solids will drop out in a month or so, then rack to another container and let it age a few months or longer.

 

[Happyhammer]

Not sure on the variety but the trees are old possibly 60-70 years old maybe older.

Good point on the hydrometer, I’ll test it. If I leave it to ferment where do you think it will finish?

 

[madscientist451]

Don't know, my pear juice usually starts at 1.060 or so, if yours is double that, who knows where it will stop. But my experience has been the least intervention, the better, let the cider or perry be what it wants to be.

 

[JimRausch]

1.119 is the equivalent of about 3lb. of sugar per gallon. Seems unlikely. Did the original cider prefermentation taste cavity-producing sickly sweet? What does it taste like now? Personally, I'd pitch more yeast. As 451 posted above, most ciders start with a SG of around 1.045-1.055, and Perrys a bit higher. I wonder if she even fermented? Although you do say there was evidence of fermentation. I'm perplexed.
Not trying to be a troll, but this seems extremely odd.

 

[Happyhammer]

OK so heated some distilled water and hydrometer read 1.000 so it seems to be ok. I’ve attached photos of my readings so far and the distilled water reading.

First reading is the juice after pressing
Second is earlier today
Third is distilled water

 

[Chalkyt]

I am not an expert by any means, but the first photo makes me wonder if the juice was so full of solids that it was somewhat thick and so distorted the hydrometer reading.i.e. it was like floating in the dead sea! I found that when I tried to make Perry the pear juice was quite "goopy" until it was well filtered.

I recently tried making "cider" out of cherries and found that juice alone was very thick so the hydrometer floated quite high. It wasn't until I added water and sugar to make wine instead that it ended up with something like the consistency of AJ and behaved normally.

 

[Happyhammer]

That’s why I mentioned that I didn’t fine filter the juice in my original post. I think you could be right Chalkyt I think it could be a high level of solids throwing out the readings. Unfortunately this means I won’t know the ABV when it’s finished.

 

[Chalkyt]

As suggested above, I wouldn't panic too much, just enjoy the ride without getting too scientific. It is likely that the pear is around 1.060 or so. Do you have any pears left? If so, a refractometer could give you an idea of the juice SG if you don't have enough to measure with a hydrometer, similarly with the crab apples. If you know what quantities you mixed then you could calculate a good approximation of the OG.

At the end of last Last year I made a cider using all of the "left overs" to get enough juice. I was surprised to see that the crab apples had a SG of 1.080 whereas Red Delicious was 1.060, and other odds and sods ranging upwards from 1.052. Overall this batch ended up with an OG of 1.070.

So, the chances are that your must might be in the range of OG 1.060-1.075 after you have mixed the pears and crab apples together, i.e. a "robust" cider but nothing to panic about. Let it go and enjoy the results... you really only have to worry about the ABV if you are at risk of falling over or "blowing in the bag" (! don't know what they call it in the USA!)

 

[Happyhammer]

I’m in Aus too mate but I haven’t seen a bag for a while I reckon you’re right, I’ll rack it in a few weeks and filter out some of the solids at the same time and let it run.

Thanks everyone for your responses.

 

[Chalkyt]

Yep, I saw you were from Oz so figured you would know what the "bag" was.

Another way of looking at your problem is... Over eight days your SG has dropped from 1.119 to 1.065, i.e. 1.054 (typically the sort of drop you might expect if you started at 1.064 and were now at 1.010).

If your secondary eventually clears and drops to 1.000 and there hasn't been much bloop-blooping in the airlock ,the chances are that the drop is due to settling of the muck rather than robust fermentation chewing up sugar and generating lots of CO2 (and alcohol).

So, is the "goopyness" of your must causing an offset of something like 0.044? At this stage you might expect any "offset" to be more or less constant as the solids probably haven't settled much. Have you tried using pectinase or anything else to speed the clearing up a bit?

Try taking a small sample (250 ml or so) and "kill" the fermentation in it. When it clears, or is aggressively filtered, compare the SG with what you have now... that might give you an idea of what the "offset" was (if there was one).

Others might have a different view.

 

[MindenMan]

After looking at the pictures you posted I believe your first gravity reading was so high due to the amount of pulp in your sample. But I do agree with the other posters here: just let it go and see how it turns out. Seldom ever should a batch need to be dumped because it wasn't what you expected when you finished fermenting. Given time most "odd" batches can age into something amazing--within reason of course--and then become something you wish you could replicate.
Many years ago I made a batch of apricot ale and it wasn't really drinkable until after a year in the bottle--not something you would think an apricot ale would need.

 

[Drewed]

Your first two pictures are a different scale from your last picture. I think you might be reading it wrong.

 

[ten80]

I agree with Drewed. You're reading the hydrometer incorrectly and are looking at two different scales. The third photo shows the correct scale for reading gravity. I can't quite tell what scale the first two photographs show. You can get a pretty good idea of what your OG and FG are by comparing the scale on the first two photos to the scale on the third photograph. Just draw a line straight across...

an SG of over 1.100 is impossible with pears or apples without freeze-concentrating the juice. I've heard of some apple and pears ciders hitting 9% ABV which would be about 1.075 starting gravity. The highest I've seen is about 1.075 using only very ripe crabapples.

 

[Chalkyt]

Well spotted Drewed. If you eyeball the yellow band and the red band from the third pic, you can sort of interpolate the readings in the other two pics.

Roughly in the first pic, the reading is a bit below the red band, say, roughly 1.042. In the second pic, the reading is roughly three times the yellow band, say 1.020.

i.e. all fairly normal, given that in my experience pears have a slightly lower SG than Apples so a 1.040-1.050 OG wouldn't be unusual. So by now (a week later) if all of this theory is right, the 1.020 should have dropped a bit more so that you are ready for secondary, etc. and all will be well on the way to a nice Perry of 5-6% ABV.

BTW, Happy Oz Day tomorrow!

 

[Happyhammer]

Sorry guys, been really busy the last couple of weeks.

How embarrassing that I was reading the wrong scale, time for an eye test.

Chalkyt you are pretty close I make it 1.044 and 1.024, I'll measure it again tomorrow and let you know how it's going.

Apologies for wasting your time.

Had a Straya day thanks Chalkyt, hope you did too.