Ok I lied. I am going to tell you about my Cyser experiment.

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CreamyGoodness

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Ok, on a lark because I had extra crap honey on hand I made the pineapple JAOM varient and then read up on Cyser. I realized that I would more or less have to break every single rule in the book if I wanted to actually try my hand at this, but I figured that doing so might hurt the hearts of some (my apologies there) :( but would cost me a grand total of $5 at the time. Further compounding the heart rending aspect is I didnt get the airlock on it until 11pm, and by then I was in no mood to take a reading. I will do one tonight, which I think will give me a vague idea of OG. Anyways here goes. Again I want to stress that I have absolutely no doubt that this will fall flat on its face, and could very well require a team of licensed professionals to discard.

1 gallon carboy, sterile
1 gallon of Motts Apple Juice
3 pounds of crapola storebrand mystery honey
25 raisins for yeast food if needed
1 teaspoon Di-go bread yeast. You know its quality because the text is all in Croatian.

Here is where I got creative. SWMBO kindly sewed a bag out of cheesecloth for my spices. The bag is currently at the bottom of the carboy, weighed down by cheap honey, apple juice, and the ill-feelings of better brewers everywhere.

In bag-

1 cinnamon stick
1 tiny star anise pod
1 allspice berry
2 cardommom pods
1 clove
1 fragment of a nutmeg seed (a chunk taken off an eighth of a seed)

I had the beloved who must be obeyed sew the final side onto the bag, and then wacked the bejoobus out of it with something heavy. Into the carboy it went. After corking, shaking like a lunatic and cleaning off the side of the carboy I pitched my yeast. Slapped on my airlock and went to bed. This morning, no MEA and the airlock is abubbling.

If this doesnt work, who will want to drink it anyway? :drunk::tank:
 
Hey, a bit of residual sugar can cover a multitude of sins. You should wind up with a sweet, spiced cyser - chances are it'll turn out good, and for $5 you can certainly afford to say "what the heck?"

I hope it tastes great!
 
Thanks for the encouragement Medsen. Kinda looking forward/excited to seeing what happens here. I'm going to wait until I get clarity, taste, and then take it from there. I am going to treat it like JAOM until it tells me otherwise (bottling timeframe etc).
 
I'm sorry to bump the thread, but I wanted to point out I can smell the spices and the apple goodness through the airlock. This is the second most exciting mead I have ever tried to make!! (The first was lavendar, and that one sent an airlock 4 feet into the air and painted a Pollock on the ceiling).
 
This actually sounds pretty awesome. Keep us updated! There will definitely be sugar left over; 3lbs honey plus AJ is a fairly high gravity, especially for bread yeast. The spices sound good.
 
Hey, if any of you are in Astoria 3 months from now show up with a glass ;-). I'm only half kidding. SWMBO very gently suggested that watching airlock bubbles for extended periods of time does not make me look like the intelligent college grad I am. So I did my Rainman impression. "definitely, definitely fermenting. Its definitely fermenting."

Seriously though, its so hard to not mess with the carboys, so I wind up watching them.
 
Hey, if any of you are in Astoria 3 months from now show up with a glass ;-). I'm only half kidding. SWMBO very gently suggested that watching airlock bubbles for extended periods of time does not make me look like the intelligent college grad I am. So I did my Rainman impression. "definitely, definitely fermenting. Its definitely fermenting."

Seriously though, its so hard to not mess with the carboys, so I wind up watching them.


Wait, i thought that was normal....
 
DSC010561.JPG
 
Ok, my friends and I sampled this last night (@1 month in). The spices taste light, very much in the background. Lots of sweet apple flavor, tastes like a rather thin apple cider. Definitely needs time to acquire spiritual creaminess, but so far so good.
 
Good on ya.
Making a spiced cyser myself (cinnamon and cloves, TONS of unfiltered apple juice and apples)

I used a champagne yeast though, so it's turning into more of a sack mead with apple and spice hints.

Additionally, the yeast refuses to flocculate. I think it's trying to reach 20% ABV, despite being rated for only 16%. It's doing a damn fine job of it too. 18~% and still bubbling every 20 seconds for the past week.
 
If I want this to sparkle, can I rack into a grolsch bottle, add a teaspoon of honey or corn sugar, shake to combine and then cork? Or will this make essentially a personel targeting fragmentation grenade?
 
Ok, in case anyone is still interested in this particular brew, I had two (or three) glasses last night. Woo Hoo Dilly! I like it! I like it a lot!

It had a big cardomom punch, a little acidic spiciness that I think will mellow with age. Had a decidedly "meady" overtone and nice legs when I swirled the glass. I always did like nice legs.

Since I have a palate like a slab of leather could I encourage one of you to brew up the same and tell me what you think? I know its not differentiated enough to be a recipe perse (its essentially JAOM with a twist) so I have to give Joe all the credit, but this is definitely interesting, at least to me. I also think it would be nice if served hot with a cinammon stick hanging out of it....
 
I may try this minus the anise depending on how much cider I have left over post the couple batches of graff I plan to make. A bit surprised it is so "drinkable" after only one month though. If I make it I wont touch it for probably 6 months when i would pull the first sample.
 
Put a lava lamp behind them and tell her your getting in touch with your inner hippy.
(Not that it is a bad thing or anything like that).
 
Hehe, I got enough outer hippy to worry about the inner hippy ;-).

I polished this stuff off and started another batch. One thing to mention, killer cardomom heart burn! That will likely reduce with age though, I'm thinking.
 
Since it was already wet and laden with lees/yeast goo it just popped right out with a good shake...
 

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