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Super Cider

Posted: Saturday Jan 14, 2006 9:53 pm
by Mewshew
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.

Posted: Sunday Jan 15, 2006 5:36 am
by gregb
The Black rock cider kit, plus 300g Lactose. What else went in, what volume did you top the fermenter up to?

Cheers,
Greg

Posted: Sunday Jan 15, 2006 9:38 pm
by Mewshew
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.

Posted: Sunday Jan 15, 2006 10:07 pm
by Oliver
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

Posted: Monday Jan 16, 2006 1:07 am
by Mewshew
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)

Posted: Tuesday Jan 17, 2006 8:13 am
by pharmaboy
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! ;-)

Posted: Tuesday Jan 17, 2006 3:08 pm
by Mewshew
Hahaha.

The readings were taken at about 22 - 24 degrees.

I hope you guys are right. :D

Posted: Tuesday Jan 17, 2006 3:21 pm
by JaCk_SpArRoW
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?

Posted: Tuesday Jan 17, 2006 10:39 pm
by Mewshew
Malt will do it, as will dextrose/glucose, sugars etc.

Posted: Wednesday Jan 18, 2006 7:23 am
by JaCk_SpArRoW
Mewshew wrote:Malt will do it, as will dextrose/glucose, sugars etc.
Exxxxxcellent, thanks Mew! :wink:

Posted: Wednesday Jan 18, 2006 1:47 pm
by Mewshew
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

Posted: Wednesday Jan 18, 2006 1:57 pm
by JaCk_SpArRoW
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... :lol:)
What level of dextrose/glucose, sugars etc. would be too much?...obviously 10kgs is too much but whats the limit?...off topic, sorry guys! :oops:

Posted: Thursday Jan 19, 2006 1:51 pm
by Mewshew
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.