Determining the alcohol content of cider that i didnt brew...

Panda

So my uncle brewed some cider from scratch.

I dont know where he found the recipie but he didnt add any sugar or yeast.
Apparently yeast naturally occurs on apple skins.
I've tasted the cider and while i was expecting cider vinegar, its pretty decent.

I took a reading on my hydrometer of 1.020 and according to this page,
http://www.apple-cider-vinegar-benefits.com/hydrometer.html
the cider could have 2.84% alcohol.

Can anyone tell me if this is accurate?

One other thing is i dont know how long he has fermented it for.
Can any cider brewers tell me what a good average to ferment cider in bottles?
Is there a time frame where the cider could turn to vinegar?

Cheers!

granda

your alc would be about that but it will depend on what it started at (with apples its about 1040-1050 i think)as for fermenting in bottles i hope its not as that is a bomb waiting to happen,make sure it has finished fermenting before you bottle(add campden tablets and pottasium sorbate of you have them)
it will only turn to vinegar if its not stored properly i.e. airtight containers(glass or plastic but thinking plastic is better if your not sure if it has finished fermenting yet)

BeerNut

Panda wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if this is accurate?

It's not. You can only get a measure of alcohol using a hydrometer if you have a pre-fermentation (original gravity) reading. To measure the actual alcohol levels in any liquid you'd have to send it to a lab.

Cider starts to peak after about six months aging. I've been told by some cider-makers that you need at least a year for it to mature properly. But, as granda says, it'll depend on other factors. Keep tasting it every few weeks and when it starts to deteriorate you'll know.

rubadub

Most commercial apple juice is around 11% sugar (which is more than coke BTW).

You can get vinometers to try and determine alcohol content, but they are really suited to dry wines/brews and not that exact.


You can also boil your brew and check the boiling temp. Last calculator on this page

e.g. 5% boils at 96.2C -but I imagine the sugar in the brew might alter this.

Or just do it the old fashioned way I used to use -down 3-5 pints and try and gauge it yourself!

enda1

rubadub wrote: »

snip

Or just do it the old fashioned way I used to use -down 3-5 pints and try and gauge it yourself!

Solid advice there from the mod of Nutrition & Diet

evolving_doors

enda1 wrote: »

Solid advice there from the mod of Nutrition & Diet

+1 to that

how about maybe down 3-5 pints then go for a spin and get the Boys In Blue to breathalyse ya.
Make a note of exactly how much you drink and times etc...

to corroborate result, contest the reading and get a blood sample taken..

Carawaystick

Panda wrote: »

So my uncle brewed some cider from scratch.

I dont know where he found the recipie but he didnt add any sugar or yeast.
Apparently yeast naturally occurs on apple skins.

That slightly tacky feel you get off real apples after they've been in the fruitbowl a few days is (mainly) the yeast.

rubadub

Carawaystick wrote: »

That slightly tacky feel you get off real apples after they've been in the fruitbowl a few days is (mainly) the yeast.

Totally off topic, but many fruits will naturally ferment. I read elephants are demons for the booze and are known to eat fermented fruit and then head off causing trouble while pissed -I have heard this is where the phrase comes from "he was elephants".

This says they do not get pissed though.

Elephants cleared of going on drunken rampages

ELEPHANTS are big, powerful and can be very dangerous - but they are not drunkards. Anecdotes about African elephants going on alcohol-fuelled rampages after eating the fermented fruit of the marula tree are probably incorrect, says Steven Morris at the University of Bristol, UK.

Assuming an alcohol content of 3 per cent, his team calculates that a 3-tonne elephant would need to eat more than 1200 fruit to get drunk. That would require a diet solely of fermented marula fruit consumed at 400 times the normal maximum food intake.

It is more likely that "drunk" bulls are just defending a prized food source, says Morris. The study will be published in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology next year.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18825304.500-elephants-cleared-of-going-on-drunken-rampages.html

I have heard of them raiding breweries though and going on rampages.

Here is one
http://2beerguys.com/blog/2007/10/23/elephants-electrocuted-in-drunken-rampage/

GAUHATI, India – Six Asiatic wild elephants were electrocuted as they went berserk after drinking rice beer in India’s remote northeast, a wildlife official said Tuesday.

Nearly 40 elephants came to a village on Friday looking for food. Some found beer, which farmers ferment and keep in plastic and tin drums in their huts, said Sunil Kumar, a state wildlife official.

They got drunk, uprooted a utility pole carrying power lines and were electrocuted in Chandan Nukat, a village nearly 150 miles west of Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya state, Kumar said.

“There would have been more casualties had the villagers not chased them away,” said Dipu Mark, a local conservationist.

The elephants are known to have a taste for rice beer brewed by tribal communities in India’s northeast. Four wild elephants died in similar circumstances in the region three years ago.

India’s northeast accounts for the world’s largest concentration of wild Asiatic elephants with the states of Assam and Meghalaya alone estimated to have 7,000 of them.

“It’s great to have such a huge number of elephants, but the increasing man-elephant conflict following the shrinkage in their habitat due to the growing human population is giving us nightmares,” said Pradyut Bordoloi, a former forest and environment minister for Assam.

http://www.elephantsinsrilanka.com/human_elephant_conflict_in_sri_lanka.htm#drunk

Wild elephants are known to go on the rampage, but drunken elephants can be a handful or is it a mouthful as both villagers and wildlife officials in Mahavilachchiya came to experience.

Wild Life officials said a roaming herd of wild elephants walked into a kasippu den after sniffing the aromatic smell of fruits used in distilling the brew and had more than a mouthful of the booze and in their drunken state ran amok destroying crops and houses in the village.

The men at the illegal brewery showed a clean pair of heels no sooner they spotted the elephants stepping into the premises and left the illicit brew unattended to be enjoyed by the wild beasts.

Wild Life Department officials said the wild elephants often roam into human habitats in search of water and the smell emanating from the brew might have attracted them to the liquor den.

The officials had subsequently used fire crackers to chase the drunken beasts away. Residents however fear the animals may storm the village again having once tasted the forbidden brew.

So be careful if you live near the zoo.

BeerNut

rubadub wrote: »

but many fruits will naturally ferment

I'm reading a book at the moment which mentions that the legal point where a drink may be declared alcohol-free is lower than the alcohol content of lots of fruit due to spontaneous fermentation.

Carawaystick

There's a method of making red wine which ferments the juice inside the grapes before they are squashed, called carbonic maceration

I doubt any of this is really relevant to cider though..