TC Warning... I made a mess!

[xpers]

I can't decide if I should feel stupid about this or not. Now it has happened it seems pretty obvious it might...

Ok here goes - I made up my TC two days back and all was fizzing away nicely. Now for reasons that will remain my own I decided that I wanted to make this batch a little stronger so when I topped up the demijohn I mixed 200g of sugar with 200ml of apple juice and then poured it all in...

What happened next can only be described as Mentos in Coke bottle (if this means nothing to you, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoB0MHVBvM).

Oh dear... Wife not happy - cider all over the kitchen. Words stupid and idiot were used, and my pass to brew in the corner of the kitchen came so close to being revoked it is scary.

People, learn from my mistake. Don't do it! Or at the very least do it slowly. Don't just throw it all in!

Luckily the remaining TC is still fizzing away so everything not lost.

[lollypopp]

I'm glad you posted this, It's something that I thought of trying later, did it do as seen on the YT video? I would have thought 200 grams of sugar mixed with 200ML of AJ would have been fine, is it some sort of chemical reaction? bit puzzled, but I will be weary of this!

[joel_m]

ok I'm going to be really sad here but I think its not a chemical reaction as such its a process called nucleation. The large surfaces area of the sugar granules allow a localised build up of gas (nucleating) until it becomes too boyant and rises to the surface... lots of granules... lots of bubbles... big sudden realease of gas! (I could be wrong)

ironically even understanding this I've looked at my TC and thought ... shall I add more sugar? It never occured to me this may happen!

You should be able to avoid it if you disolve the sugar in the apple juice then leave it to cool before adding it.