Super Cider

Mewshew · Post by **Mewshew** » Saturday Jan 14, 2006 9:53 pm

I've got a B'day coming up and as I'm new to Hbing I thought it would be fun to brew up a ale for the boys and a cider for the ladies. However, the cider was expected to reach an a/c of about 3%. However, at the moment it's hovering around 7% and still going strong according to my hydromiter reading and the a/c equation provided on this site. I used a Black Rock Cider kit and did did everything as per the kits instructions (except that I boiled it down a little and added some about 300g of lactose as it's going to be 18/19/20 yeal old ladies drinking it and I figure they like their drinks a little sweet. Can you guys work out how this happened? I'm stumped.

Cheers,

- Jim

edit: just figured I should have posted this in the "making beer" section. Sorry fella's. I've enjoyed a few Sparkling Ales tonight. Reckon I might go another.

gregb · Post by **gregb** » Sunday Jan 15, 2006 5:36 am

The Black rock cider kit, plus 300g Lactose. What else went in, what volume did you top the fermenter up to?

Cheers,
Greg

Mewshew · Post by **Mewshew** » Sunday Jan 15, 2006 9:38 pm

I also added 1kg of Coopers Brewing sugar (not sure why I chose that one..)

Filled it up to 23ltrs as per the instructions on the kit.

Post by **Oliver** » Sunday Jan 15, 2006 10:07 pm

Mewshew,

There's no way 300g lactose (which won't add any alcohol), 1kg of brewing sugar and the can of concentrate topped up to 23 litres will give you more than about 4.5%.

What makes you think it's at 7%? What was the original gravity taken with the hydrometer? And what is it now?

Oliver

Mewshew · Post by **Mewshew** » Monday Jan 16, 2006 1:07 am

OG: 1060
FG: 1010

1060 - 1010 / 7.46 = 6.7

I like to think that I'm quite careful with my hydrometer readings (else I would have simply shrugged off these results as due to a mis-read)

pharmaboy · Post by **pharmaboy** » Tuesday Jan 17, 2006 8:13 am

Wondering what the temps were for the hydrometer readings? The readings are temp depandant i thought.

Have made a black rock up the same as you have (well sans 80grams of lactose), and having drunk it (22.5 litres) it is definitaley lower than 5%. If it was 7% - it would be like a belgian ale. Rest assured after having 3 triples on an empty stomach, all beer drinkers can spot a 7% upon drinking a few LOL!.

Note - the required wife dose seems to be about 3 middies in an hour and a half - about right!

Mewshew · Post by **Mewshew** » Tuesday Jan 17, 2006 3:08 pm

Hahaha.

The readings were taken at about 22 - 24 degrees.

I hope you guys are right.

JaCk_SpArRoW · Post by **JaCk_SpArRoW** » Tuesday Jan 17, 2006 3:21 pm

Oliver wrote:There's no way 300g lactose (which won't add any alcohol)

What is the ingred. that will increase the alc/vol?...would 1kg of Light Dry Malt do it?

Mewshew · Post by **Mewshew** » Tuesday Jan 17, 2006 10:39 pm

Malt will do it, as will dextrose/glucose, sugars etc.

JaCk_SpArRoW · Post by **JaCk_SpArRoW** » Wednesday Jan 18, 2006 7:23 am

Mewshew wrote:Malt will do it, as will dextrose/glucose, sugars etc.

Exxxxxcellent, thanks Mew!

Mewshew · Post by **Mewshew** » Wednesday Jan 18, 2006 1:47 pm

No worries mate. You might want to check out this site's ingredients section for a summary of different sugars and glucose/dextrose etc. They all have differect characterists and it's worth a read.

Cheers,

- Jim

JaCk_SpArRoW · Post by **JaCk_SpArRoW** » Wednesday Jan 18, 2006 1:57 pm

Mewshew wrote:No worries mate. You might want to check out this site's ingredients section for a summary of different sugars and glucose/dextrose etc. They all have differect characterists and it's worth a read.

Cheers,

- Jim

Cheers for that mate...just another quickie (love quickies...

)
What level of dextrose/glucose, sugars etc. would be too much?...obviously 10kgs is too much but whats the limit?...off topic, sorry guys!

Mewshew · Post by **Mewshew** » Thursday Jan 19, 2006 1:51 pm

I don't know mate. I usually tru to keep to the recommendation (or just a little bit over). I never put more than about 1.5kg of fermentables in, I don't know if I've ever come close to that now that I think about it. If you make a thread asking the other fellas I'm sure they would know.