Want to make a Cyser

I have never tasted a cyser or a mead, but for some reason I am dying to make a cyser. I love a nice hard cider and kicking it up a notch sounds like fun. Can somebody help me with a recipe and some instructions? How long from start to finish? Thanks for any help you can provide.

Check out the mead recipes section.

I did check out the mead recipe section, but I couldn't find anything. Maybe I need to check again.

All from the recipe area:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/easy-campside-honey-cyser-136212/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/cyser-question-131105/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/simple-cyser-98464/

I just made a simple cyser. Five gallons of good, no preservative cider, 2lbs of honey and dry wine yeast. Let is sit for a couple of weeks and then move to a secondary for a couple of months. It came out tasting like a dry white wine with apple flavoring. Awesome for turkey dinners!

I always thought to be a cyser you needed more than 50% honey.
I just made a 5 gallon batch with 3.5 lbs of amber honey and I'm thinking it only bumped up the OG by maybe 1/2.
Now that middle recipe of 15 lbs honey to 4 gallons cider is what I would call an imperial cyser.
I would think 6 lbs honey, 5 lbs cider, let it ferment in primary till its down to SG 1.015, rack, wait till it clears, bottle, wait until you can't wait any more.

I think I'll call mine "A Wannabe Cyser", or "Cyser light".

Kauai_Kahuna said:

I always thought to be a cyser you needed more than 50% honey.

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No, the BJCP guidlines don't specify ratios at all. Any combination of honey and apple juice results in a cyser with the results being classified according to strength:


Standard description applies. Cyser is a standard mead made with the addition of apples or apple juice. Traditionally, cysers are made by the addition of honey to apple juice without additional water. A spiced cyser, or a cyser with other ingredients, should be entered as an Open Category Mead.

I thought cyser was a hard cider with beer ingredients but I'm obviously confused. Can anyone tell me what that is called? Thanks.

never mind I found it, Graff is what I want to make. And I'm off to the recipe database!

summersolstice said:

No, the BJCP guidlines don't specify ratios at all. Any combination of honey and apple juice results in a cyser with the results being classified according to strength:


Standard description applies. Cyser is a standard mead made with the addition of apples or apple juice. Traditionally, cysers are made by the addition of honey to apple juice without additional water. A spiced cyser, or a cyser with other ingredients, should be entered as an Open Category Mead.

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Not to mention. 1# of honey will have a significantly higher amount of sugar than a pound of cider. In mead, not all pounds are created equal.

1 pound of honey in 1 gallon of water will raise the gravity by .035 while 2 whole cups of apple cider contains about 54 grams of sugar or 1.9oz raising the gravity in the same volume by just .004