Turn juice Brix into OG/FG/ABV for free — or unlock Pro for sulfite dosing, yeast nutrient (YAN/DAP), and carbonation & keeving.
Use a refractometer or hydrometer reading, or leave the default (12°Brix) if you don't have one yet — typical apple juice ranges 8.0–18.9°Brix depending on ripeness.
Dry ferments all the way out to 0.997. Keeved stops naturally sweet in the 1.010–1.025 range, without adding any sugar back.
You'll get your estimated starting gravity (OG), target finishing gravity (FG), and expected ABV.
"Save recipe" keeps it in your browser (free plan: up to 3). "Download PDF" gives you a printable sheet to take with you on brew day.
OG — starting sugar density of the juice, before fermentation. FG — the density you're fermenting (or keeving) toward; compare it to this number to know when your cider is done. ABV — expected alcohol strength based on how far the gravity drops.
Enter your juice's Brix reading (or an estimated starting gravity) and pick a finish — dry, or naturally sweet via keeving — to get your expected OG, FG, and ABV.
Campden tablet dose to protect juice from wild microflora before pitching yeast, or to stabilize before bottling.
How much juice or cider you're treating, in gallons.
Perry (pear) juice needs a higher dose than cider (apple) — the calculator adjusts for it automatically.
Initial juice treatment and pre-bottling stabilization call for different amounts — pick the one you're actually doing.
You'll get the exact tablet count for your batch — never estimate this by eye, since both under- and over-dosing carry real risks.
Want the chemistry behind sulfite and cider's malolactic quirks? See Chapter 10 in Home Cidermaking Science →
Get the exact Campden tablet dose for your batch — apple or perry, juice treatment or bottling. This is a Pro feature.
Unlock with Pro — $6/moApple juice is a fairly poor nitrogen source for yeast — this calculates the DAP dose to hit your target YAN, split into a staggered addition schedule.
The volume of juice you're fermenting.
Apple juice YAN varies widely (roughly 9–574 mg/L depending on variety and ripeness) — without a lab test, the default is a reasonable planning assumption, not a measurement of your specific juice.
Leave the default unless you have a specific reason to aim higher or lower.
Pear juice has different typical nitrogen levels than apple — the calculator adjusts for it.
You'll get the total DAP dose plus a staggered addition schedule, rather than one large dose at pitch.
Want the full YAN-range data and why stuck fermentations happen? See Chapter 3 in Home Cidermaking Science →
Get the exact DAP dose and a staggered addition schedule for your target YAN. This is a Pro feature.
Unlock with Pro — $6/moPriming sugar for a still or sparkling cider, or the keeving protocol for natural clarification and sweetness.
Priming for carbonation and the keeving protocol are two completely different processes — one happens at bottling, the other happens right after pressing, before fermentation even starts.
Chill your cider to roughly 10°C (50°F) before bottling — the calculator's CO₂ baseline assumes that temperature.
You'll get the PME and CaCl₂ doses plus the full step-by-step protocol and timing.
Either mode gives exact doses — priming sugar and keeving reagents both need precision, not a rough guess.
Based on the one solubility reference point the source gives — CO₂ saturates at ~2.5 g/L at 10°C (50°F). This calculator doesn't model a full temperature curve; for best results, chill your cider to roughly 10°C before priming so this baseline applies.
Want the full malolactic and keeving chemistry? See Chapters 8 & 10 in Home Cidermaking Science →
Keeving is documented for apple juice only — not for perry (see Home Cidermaking Science Ch.8).
Get exact priming sugar doses, or the full PME/CaCl₂ keeving protocol scaled to your batch. This is a Pro feature.
Unlock with Pro — $6/moFigure out what kind of apples you're actually working with, and whether your juice needs blending before you pitch yeast.
Titration gives a real, reliable number. A pH reading alone is a rough last resort — the source book warns acidity can vary by a factor of 4 at the same pH, so use titration whenever you can.
Supermarket dessert apples are assumed low in tannin by default. If you're working with actual bittersweet or bittersharp cider apples, check the box and judge the tannin level by taste — there's no home method to measure it directly.
You'll get your titratable acidity and apple category (Sharp, Sweet, Bittersharp, or Bittersweet), plus a link to matching styles in the catalog.
Enter a second juice's TA to get an exact blend ratio — how much of it to add to bring your batch back into range. Batch volume is pulled automatically from the Recipe & ABV tab.
TA (g/L, malic acid equivalent) = (mL NaOH × 0.1 × 67.05) ÷ mL sample — the same titration method used in the wine calculator's TA tool.
Rough estimate only — the source explicitly warns that for the same pH, acidity can vary by a factor of 4 between apples. Use titration whenever you can; treat this as a last resort, not a second equally-reliable method.
There's no home method for measuring tannin (lab titration/HPLC only, per the source) — this is a taste-based judgment call, not a measurement.
Only needed if your result lands outside the 4–6 g/L target range and you want a blend ratio. Batch size is pulled from the Recipe & ABV tab.
Find out if your apples are Sharp, Sweet, Bittersharp, or Bittersweet, and get a blend ratio if your juice's acidity is off-target. This is a Pro feature.
Unlock with Pro — $6/mo