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.

An open letter to Tonk re: Hard Cider

Tonk you asked me a question to which my facebook reply was too lengthy to be allowed. So here I am posting it here for peer review.

edit: This is a winded and round about way to answer your question about how much brown sugar you need to add to boost your cider's alcohol percent

Hard Cider experiment
Goal: to make 18% Alcohol (by weight) hard cider to use in making Apple Jack.

-Prelude
I did an experiment which I thought was scientific and reliable; but it is neither:

I had exactly 2 quarts (1/2 gallon) of cider juiced from apples in my backyard with a specific gravity of 1.052

1. I took 1 quart (1/4 gallon) of water and boiled it with 2 cups light brown sugar. [1 quart water plus 2 cups light brown sugar resulted in about 1.15 quarts. The jug that contains the apple juice holds 3 liters which is 3.17 quarts. This jug was near full after combining the sugar water and cider, which means that 3.17-0.02 quarts remaining space-2 quarts cider leaves 1.15 quarts sugar water.]
2. I then combined the apple juice and sugar water and let the mixture cool back down to room temperature
   
3. The measured the gravity was 1.080.
   

So I assumed that for every 1 quart water boiled with 2 cups brown sugar raised the gravity by 0.028.

• I didn't put much thought into this assumption although I based the remainder of my experiment on it.
• [Update] What I now believe is that I should have measured the specific gravity of the sugar water before combining it with the apple juice.
• Had I measured the sugar water's gravity before combining it with the cider I believe it would have been 1.129
• Working backwards, if 2 quarts of 1.052 + 1.15 quart of X specific gravity brown sugar water = 3.15 quarts of 1.080 specific gravity, then (1.052*2)+(1.15*X) = (3.15*1.080) then the specific gravity of the light brown sugar water would have been X = 1.12869.
  

What is your opinion?

The Main Experiment
I wanted to make another cider 18% Alcohol by weight. I knew it had been fermenting for a day and a half so measuring it's gravity was worthless at that point, but I knew that the initial specific gravity was 1.060.

-side note: I don't care if I am unable to ascertain the final % alc. anyways, since I will be ice distilling the cider into apple jack; As long as the liquor doesn't freeze in a freezer it's good, or perhaps I am able to proof it] I also knew that the yeast had an alcohol tolerance of 18%, thus my goal.

Assumptions:

• I have 4 gallons of cider
• It had a starting specific gravity of 1.060
• I am assuming that this cider ferments to a final gravity around 0.990. I have done two previous ciders which fermented down to 0.992 and 0.990 respectively. Although this time I am using a different type of yeast, Lalvin EC 1118, I predict it will ferment similarly.
• The alcohol tolerance of this yeast strain is 18%.
  
• The calculation for % alcohol by weight is 105*(starting gravity-final gravity) = % alcohol by weight.
• My Goal would be to add sugar so that 18=105*(Starting Gravity-0.990) - Thus my starting gravity should be around 18/105+0.990=1.1614
• And I need to raise the gravity by 1.1614-1.060=0.1014
  
• And for every 1 quarts water plus 2 cups light brown sugar, the gravity increases by 0.028. [Wrong]
• Therefore I need to add 0.1014/0.028= 3.62*(2 cups light sugar and 1 quart water)
• Because it's easier to measure, I boiled together and added 3 2/3rds quarts and 7 1/3 cups light brown sugar
  
  

Results:
As yet to be determined but the air lock is indicating a healthy fermentation bubbling a couple bubbles every second.

Upon Further Review:
Like I previously stated, I believe some of my methodology was wrong. Estimates using my updated hypothesis are as follows:

• 4 gallons of cider*4 quarts a gallon = 16 quarts of cider at 1.060 starting specific gravity.
• The ratio of water to brown sugar mixture did not change, so it's gravity should be the same as well: 1.12869.
  
• Therefore, (16*1.060)+((1.15*3.66)*1.12869) = (16+(1.15*3.66))*[Starting Gravity]
  
• Thus, what I actually created was a starting specific gravity of 1.074
  

Side notes:

From rough estimations I found that 2.25 cups sugar is roughly 1 pound. I've also noticed that recipes call for upwards of 5#'s sugar for 5 gallons sugar. with 7 and 1/3rd cups of sugar, I added approximately 3 and a 1/4 pounds sugar for 4 gallons cider (also, I have a hunch that it's over 4 gallons of starting apple cider when I include a few 12 oz. concentrates I threw in there.)

This means that I just brought my cider up to about 105*(1.074-0.990)= 8.82% Alc. by weight, or /0.79 = 11.16 % Alc. by volume. Not bad when you consider your average beer is 5% Alc. by vol. but this is upsetting if you're trying to make a liquor.

TL:DR version
I tried to make my cider more alcoholic by adding sugar. It turned out not as alcoholic than I had hoped but there is still some time left to add more sugar. Should I add more sugar?