Kremer is Hard for Hard Cider

So if you've read the first part of this ongoing cider series you may have noticed that I wanted to raise the alcohol to around 18% alc. by weight. My first attempt by adding sugar I calculated wrong and it the alc. only rose to about 8%, up from 6.5%.

There still is time left; so here is what I need to do to bring up the sugar content.

Above: Brown sugar. How come you taste so good.

1. I now have 20.25 quarts of cider that had a starting specific gravity (SG) of 1.074
2. My SG needs to be up around 1.1614 if I want 18% Alcohol by weight.
3. I need to keep the total volume under 6 gallons, for that is the size of my glass carboy.
4. The current volume is 20.25/4= 5 1/16th gallons.
5. So I have 15/16th of a gallon (3.75 quarts) space for brown sugar water to boost the gravity up to 1.1614.
   

If my California math is correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're going to see some serious shit.

(20.25*1.074)+(3.75*[sugar water gravity]) = 24*1.1614
This means that my sugar water gravity needs to be 1.63336

Here's how we make the brown sugar water gravity 1.63336

• I know the specific gravity of water is 1.000
• I know that when I added two cups brown sugar to 1 quart, the final volume was 1.15 quarts. So I will assume one cup brown sugar raises the water level 0.075 quarts.
• I know that the gravity of the light brown sugar water from my previous experiment was 1.12869.
• This means that liquid brown sugar has a gravity of (1.000*1)+(0.15*[gravity of liquid brown sugar]) = 1.15*1.12869
• The gravity of liquid brown sugar is 1.98662
  

I need to solve this equation then, where X = amount of water and Y = liquid brown sugar.
X*1.000 + Y*1.98662 = (X+Y)*1.63336
and I know I can only have 3.75 quarts, so X+Y= 3.75
and then Y = 3.75 - X
Then my equation is:
X + (3.75 - X)*1.98662 = 3.75*1.63336
X + 7.449825 - 1.98662X = 6.1251
-0.98662X = -1.324725

X = 1.342690 quarts water
Y = 2.4073098 quarts liquid brown sugar

If 0.075 Quarts liquid brown sugar comes from 1 cup brown sugar, then I need:
2.4073098/0.075 = 32.097 cups brown sugar. [appx. 32/2.25 = 14 pounds of sugar!]

Umm.. WTF. 14 pounds of sugar? I'm going to need to find what I can scrape up around the house or go to the grocery store/Costco. Maybe I'll just throw in the towel...
No. Goonies never say die.
I'll be back with an update.