Cyser recipe

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Lukus

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2007
Messages
111
Reaction score
1
Location
Central Washington
I found a recipe on GotMead.com. Being that I am brand new to making mead I need a little help. Here is the recipe.

2 lbs honey
5 gal pastuerized apple cider
1 lb brown sugar
10 cinnamon sticks, crushed
palmful crushed allspice berries
palmful crushed cardamom
3 tsp lemon peel
3 tsp orange peel
1 pkg Pasteur Champagne yeast

Heat 1 gal cider to 160 d F.
Add honey, brown sugar, and all spices.
Keep at 160 for 15 minutes, stirring to dissolve honey and brown sugar.
Put 3 gal cider in 5 gal food grade pail.
Add hot must to pail, straining out spices.
When temperature drops below 80 d. F, pitch yeast and add 3.5 tsp yeast nutrient, agitate pail with top on to mix well.
Airlock and let sit for 1 month, then add last gallon of cider, and boil 2 cups water and steep 5 sticks of cinnamon (crushed) for 15 minutes.
Remove cinnamon and add water to must.
Add honey dissolved into boiled water as needed to enhance flavor and body to taste.
When ferment is complete, bottle and age at least 1 month.
O.G. 1.080
F.G. 1.000


So it seems pretty straight forward till I get to the fermenting. How long should I ferment? and how do I know when the "ferment is complete"?

Also I want to make a nice sweet mead do you think this recipe will yield that?

Thanks for any help.
 
This sounds like it could be pretty spicy, allspice is pretty potent. Also, I don't see the brown sugar being necessary, I would increase the honey to at least 2 lbs per gallon for sweeter mead. If you use pasteurized apple juice, heating the juice and honey is not necessary. Put a gallon or two of juice in the carboy with the honey, and shake like mad to mix and aerate. add the spices (half what is there) and top up with more juice. Add yeast. Make sure you leave plenty of head space, this will foam up as it ferments. Primary fermentation will probably take several weeks to a month, maybe longer, depending on temperature. Try to keep it 62-68 degrees. When the airlock slows down and the gravity is stable over a week, rack it to secondary, and taste it. Add more honey if you think it is not sweet enough. It will need to sit in secondary for a few months till clear.
 
Is it alright to make a smaller batch (like a 3 Gal) in my 6.5 carboy?

Also is there a better recipie for a sweet cyser than this one.

Thanks for the help.
 
3 gallons of pasteurized apple juice
6 lbs honey
3 sticks of cinnamon
3 oz of fresh ginger
yeast

Don't heat anything. Put one gallon of juice in your carboy, add half the honey, shake like h*ll. Put juice into the honey container, cover and shake, shake, shake. Add this to the carboy, and repeat until all the honey is dissolved. Toss int the spices. Shake some more. Pitch the yeast, plug with bung and fermentation valve. It will foam up when fermentation starts. After fermentation slows, rack to a second fermentor, and leave till clear. Overall, it will take a few months.
 
Thanks for the help. I am trying to get this put togeather this weekend, I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again.
 
I would increase the honey to a least five pounds. Use pastuerized unfiltered apple juice if you can find it. It will add complexity to final product. Cut the spices in spices such as cinnamon, allspice etc. Alcohol will intensify these flavors ,this will add to the aging time.
Rick.
Primaries Nothing waiting for Apple juice to appear.
Secondary 1: Peach spice mead
Secondary 2: Peach Aprocit Mead
Secondary 3: Vanilla Mead
In Bottles Traditional Mead (just finished bottling) Cyser(down to last two bottles), Cranberry-Orange, Plum Meads
 
Back
Top