Too much sugar

[Doyley3731]

Hi guys,

I've not brewed nothing in ages. I came across this guy on youtube ([ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLycH3ktLfk[/ame]) and it inspired me to get cracking again. Tonight I made the strawberry cider in that video.

Anyway, I was trying to follow the recipe from memory and I have a bad memory and I added 1 kilo of sugar, which it now transpires I shouldn't have. It gave me an og of 1.200.

What am I best doing here? I guess syphoning half into another demijohn and adding some boiled/cooled water, but I have no spare demijohns at the minute so I could only get one tomorrow. Would it cause harm if I did this after fermentation started? Could I leave it how it is now? Would it just take longer and end up ultra strong?

Thanks!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I would split it, if you leave it as it is its going to be very strong.

 

[fivegoldstars]

Strong or sweet, depending on the yeast used.

 

[Doyley3731]

I used a Wineworks cider yeast. It's only a 5L demijohn too. Should I add more yeast later in the process?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I didn't have time to watch the video earlier but have now.

He has 4 litres of apple and one of Ribena, my apple juice has 100g of sugar per litre, assuming the Ribena is the same (it'll be more) you have 500g of sugar plus the 1Kg you added, this is way too much, when making wine we only use 1100g of sugar including the sugar in the cartons.

If you carry on it could end up at 19% (but it wont see below), you need to split it.

If the sugar concentration level of the must becomes too high at any given point--either at the beginning or during the fermentation--it starts to have an inhibiting effect on the yeast's ability to produce alcohol. In other words, the higher sugar concentration starts to act as a preservative effecting the fermentation in a negative way.

 

[Doyley3731]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the pointers. Today I have split it, around 5 days in. I topped up with boiled/cooled water and some apple juice I had left over. It's now reading at 1032, which seems to be much better. I pitched in a little more yeast (about half a teaspoon in each) along with the same amount of yeast nutrient, just to ensure it's got enough.

5 days in and it does smell very boozy already so I still think it's going to be pretty strong. I can't get the bung back in the top of one, it keeps popping out. I think I'll let it dry off and try again, it's just balanced on top at the minute to make sure no nasties get in.

Is there a way to measure the strength, now I've had to dilute it?

Thanks!