Ginger Cyser

I like a really strong ginger burn. I've been making Ginger Wine using invert sugar and apple juice as my fermentable, and it's been turning out great. I thought I'd try my hand at a ginger cyser (basically, increasing how much apple juice, and using honey instead of sugar).

I've never fermented with honey before, nor have I made a batch bigger than 1 gallon, so feedback would be appreciated. I'm aiming for ~14% ABV plus a little residual sugar.

Here's my plan. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or tips!

Ginger Cyser:

• 2.5 gallons apple juice
• ~10.5 pounds of honey
• ~3.4lb ginger (I've been using ~9-11oz/gallon in my wine)
• 2.5 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp yeast energizer
• 4.5 tbsp acid blend
• .75 tsp wine tannen
• 5 campden tablets
• 1 or 2 Lalvin D-47 Wine Yeast (good to 14% ABV)

Steps:

1. Slice ginger, add to ~2 gallons of water. Bring to a boil, cover, then simmer for 30 minutes.
2. Take ginger-water off heat. Let cool to <= 100°F. (Possibly add apple juice until it is ~100°F)
3. Stir in honey.
4. Add the remaining apple juice and all other ingredients.
5. Put in carboy... wait. Keep waiting. Wait some more.
6. After it's all done, I may try mulling it with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and anise. (I found adding these to my must tasted great, but the flavor seemed to blow off during fermentation)

Two other thoughts: do you think this would need to be aged a lot? When I made more or less the same recipe, but with less apple juice and invert sugar instead of honey, it was drinkable after 6 weeks in the fermenter, with no additional aging. I'm reading online most people are aging their meads for like 6 months... if switching to honey means waiting that much longer, it might not be worth it to me...

Also, how much head space do I need? I was thinking of 5 gallons of brew in a 6 gallon carboy.

Mead typically does take longer to come around, as compared to wine; but it just depends on the individual's taste. Many recommend 1 month of bulk aging for every % of ACV. The majority of experienced mazers are aging for 12+ months, though there are always exceptions.

Personally, I would not heat the juice, just add it to the must, no reason to heat it.
Is there any reason you would not want to use more apple juice, allowing for just enough water to steep your ginger? What about adding some ginger to secondary container?
4.5 tablespoons of acid?
Wait until at F.G. to add vanilla extract, you will find you may not need as much.
Consider using 'staggered nutrient addition' instead of one fell swoop. See sticky in mead section, there is a FAQ one, first entry, loads of helpers.

saramc said:

Personally, I would not heat the juice, just add it to the must, no reason to heat it.

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I wasn't heating the juice? The bit in step 2 was an idea to lower the temperature of the ginger-water by adding refrigerated juice. If you think it'd affect the flavor, then I will just wait for it to cool normally.

saramc said:

Is there any reason you would not want to use more apple juice, allowing for just enough water to steep your ginger? What about adding some ginger to secondary container?

Click to expand...

Mostly just to reduce the amount of changes to what I've been doing in the past, so I can make easier qualitative comparisons - I've been using 25% apple juice by volume, so this would jump it to 50%. The focus is really on the ginger, not the apple juice or the honey, although if you think more apple is a good idea, I would be willing to try that.

I guess I should probably do some 1 gallon tests before doing a 5 gallon batch, but I am soooo sick of how much you lose racking from a 1 gallon carboy. Not to mention my impatience to try it

That said, I based the cyser off of a recipe I found http://www.eckraus.com/wine-making-mead-honey/. That's also why it has the acid. Too much acid?

Wait until at F.G. to add vanilla extract, you will find you may not need as much.

Click to expand...

With the wine version, I was using .5 tbsp/gallon. I forgot to halve the number... that should be 2.5 tbsp

Consider using 'staggered nutrient addition' instead of one fell swoop. See sticky in mead section, there is a FAQ one, first entry, loads of helpers.

Click to expand...

is 14% high enough that I risk it stalling if I don't do that? I've never had a problem with the same OG in a smaller container using sugar. D-47 yeast seems quite hearty.

Many, many thanks!

How did this turn out?