How long do you age Cyser?

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Bauerbrewery1989

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So I decided to try my hand at a cyser, my recipe is as follows:

1 gallon batch

96oz Apple Juice
12oz Honey
1 cup boiling water
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp yeast energizer
Nottingham Ale yeast

I started this last night, and its fermenting vigorously right now. My question is, how long do I let it age after fermentation? I've made mead before and let it age for a year before thinking of drinking it, is Cyser any different?
 
Oh man i just had some of my buddies Cyser last week he aged it for 8 months it was absolutely perfect it just gets better and better the apple flavor and honey start to pop i age my 4 months but sometimes they have a hot burn to them when they go down and i notice aging longer fixes that. Really i think 6 months is fine
 
Yup- longer the better. Once it's bottled, I can't wait more than two months before I give in. I usually sit a few bombers aside to age, then tear into 120z bottles a few weeks later!!!
 
I started in Nov. with 4 gals of apple juice and 4 pounds of honey and champane yeast let it run for 6'ish months then added a pound of fresh
strawberry slurry (blenderized) been going now for 2 more months should be ready in 2 or 3 more months me thinks ...
 
I Made Ken Schramm's "Fall's Bounty Cyser" recipe & aged it 4 years; VERY TASTY! Mellow & smooth, with a nice meld of apples & honey. A few years of aging works some serious magic with cyser.
Regards, GF.
 
Bauerbrewery1989 said:
So I decided to try my hand at a cyser, my recipe is as follows:

1 gallon batch

96oz Apple Juice
12oz Honey
1 cup boiling water
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp yeast energizer
Nottingham Ale yeast
Click to expand...

What is the boiling water for? Is it to thin out the honey before adding it to the carboy?
 
As with boiling the water, it is to thin out the honey, and make it easier to combine with the cider. I guess it's not really needed if you warm the honey before pouring.
 
Bauerbrewery1989 said:
As with boiling the water, it is to thin out the honey, and make it easier to combine with the cider. I guess it's not really needed if you warm the honey before pouring.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't recommend boiling honey as it is already partially non fermentable sugar and when you boil it you convert some more sugars into a non fermentable sugar meaning your end product is less alcoholic and from my experience too sweet. I would just lightly warm it up if its for texture reasons and if its for wild yeast or similar then 150 degrees for 15 mins which is a lite simmer. I also prefer champagne yeast like red star Montrachet for mead but thats just my opinion, i don't think ale yeast is powerful enough for honey like i said just an opinion though. Keep us posted with the brew though i would like to here your results
 
Yeah, I should have used a champegne or wine yeast, when I make mead I use lalvin D-47, but I used the Nottingham because my thought was it would be more of an easy drinker, rather then an actual "wine" abv. I also thought it wouldn't need to be aged as long. The boiling water was kind of a boneheaded decision on my part, not sure what I was thinking, haha. I usually do a similar method you described above when working with honey. The cyser is clearing nicely right now, moved it to a secondary, and gave it a taste. Definatly green, and very sweet, but in a few months it will hopefully mellow out.
 
Bauerbrewery1989 said:
Yeah, I should have used a champegne or wine yeast, when I make mead I use lalvin D-47, but I used the Nottingham because my thought was it would be more of an easy drinker, rather then an actual "wine" abv. I also thought it wouldn't need to be aged as long. The boiling water was kind of a boneheaded decision on my part, not sure what I was thinking, haha. I usually do a similar method you described above when working with honey. The cyser is clearing nicely right now, moved it to a secondary, and gave it a taste. Definatly green, and very sweet, but in a few months it will hopefully mellow out.[/QUOTE

Just curious when you bottle your Cyser do you use Camden or any similar product for some odd reason and just with Cyser I've had mold issues with long time aging. I typically don't use tablets but jut curious if theres something with Cyser?
Click to expand...
 
My rule of thumb is 6 - 12 months for a cyser.

I try to at least one cyser a year. The last one I did used blueberry honey and Saison yeast. It's really, really good. However, I put in enough honey to get it to 15% and forgot that Saison yeast maxes out at 12%.

So, it's a very sweet dessert cyser.
 
Oregon- this s my first cyser, but I was planning on using both k-sorbate and a campden tablet (potassium, not sodium). Now I have had issues with my first mead I made with mold while aging so maybe its something with the honey. I soak my corks in a k-meta (campden tablet) solution now and haven't had any issues since then.

Beernick- yeah, that makes me this this will be a very sweet cyser, since I used an ale yeast instead of something that can tolerate the higher abv. Oh well, live and learn.
 

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