Water

[nowelsmd]

Last Sunday I started my new project of making liquor. The idea is to take water and add enough sugar to ferment it to about 15% ABV and then freeze distill it to raise the ABV to around 35%.

Since it was my first time trying this I only did 1 gallon consisting of 10.75 cups of city tap water and 5.25 cups of granulated sugar. The hydro reading at room temperature (70 F) came out to 1.12. I then added a teaspoon of yeast nutrient and pitched roughly 1/5 a packet of Lavlin EC-118 yeast and set it in my closet to ferment. The next day it was bubbling away happily. On Thursday I decided to check it and make sure it was working but the hydro only read 1.110. I found this weird because I usually brew cider and generally after about 3-4 days most of the alcohol is already fermented.

My question is, would the city water really slow fermentation that much or is there something else in my recipe that could have caused it? If it is the water is it even worth waiting for it to ferment completely or should I just bury it and restart?

Thanks in advance!

 

[JoshuaW]

Plenty, if not most, people use city water. The difference here is in what you are trying to do. Were your prior ciders that high of gravity? Its not uncommon for large fermentations to be very, very slow. You should also consider that plain sugar water has very little nutrients, for the yeast which is going to further slow things down.

Finally, remember that what you are intending to do is illegal. You can not legally freeze distill for personal consumption in the US. Hypothetically speaking though, if you were to do so, I wouldnt use sugar water. I would bolster up some cider or beer, then concentrate it. It will ferment much easier.

 

[nowelsmd]

Oh you don't say. Well then let's just say I'm from Scotland. Thank you though! That is very interesting and useful information.