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Spire Dark v2
Kegged on January 31, 2011.
I decided to make another version of my Spire cider clone. In this version I wanted the alcohol content to be a little higher and I also wanted the molasses flavor to be in between the two previous half batches. I used four gallons of Tree Top Apple Juice, one gallon of water, 12 fluid ounces of molasses, 20 fluid ounces of light brown sugar, and Wyeast Pacman (1764) yeast. I heated the molasses and brown sugar in a pot with the water. I poured this mixture into my fermenting bucket and then added the juice and yeast. The image below shows some of the ingredients I used.
I again took measurements with a hydrometer every few days so I knew when to slow fermentation. The graph below shows these measurements.
The original gravity was 1.057 (rounded from 1.0565). I transferred the cider into two small carboys after eight days and placed them in my fridge. I also added two cinnamon sticks to one of the carboys. The carboys remained in the fridge for 12 days, giving a total duration of 20 days. The final gravity was 1.015, resulting in an alcohol content of 5.4%.
For my initial specific gravity reading I used a hydrometer instead of an estimation based on the weight of the sugar and molasses. If I had tried to calculate this value like I did in my previous version, I would have come up with 1.0591. As mentioned on the page for my original Spire clone, the reason this calculated number is higher is because I measured my ingredients in fluid ounces rather than ounces and also because I did not take into consideration the mass percentage of sugar for each ingredient. To get a more accurate estimate I need the mass percentage of sugar for each (187 grams sugar/337 grams molasses and 213 grams sugar/220 grams brown sugar) and the density to convert from fluid ounces to ounces (11.89 ounces/8 fluid ounces for molasses and 7.05 ounces/8 fluid ounces for brown sugar). If I multiply both of these values by the amount of each ingredient I used (12 fluid ounces of molasses and 20 fluid ounces of brown sugar) I find that the mass of sugar from each is 9.9 ounces for molasses and 17.1 ounces for brown sugar, for a total of 27 ounces. From the table relating sugar weight to specific gravity, I know this will increase the specific gravity of five gallons of liquid by 0.0155. I also know that four gallons of Tree Top Apple Juice (specific gravity: 1.0514) mixed with one gallon of water (specific gravity: 1.0000) will result in a combined specific gravity of 1.0411. When I add the two I get 1.0566, which is much closer to my measured value of 1.0565. Another source of error I should mention that I cannot account for is that the actual density of brown sugar will depend on how tightly it is packed; the number I used was one I found online, it was given without any information about how it was obtained.
Both versions turned out pretty good, unfortunately I don't remember if there was a noticeable difference from the cinnamon sticks.