apple cyser

So this is what I did...

I had a few beers and was feeling good so i decided to make a 5 gal batch of apple cyser.

I used 5 gal of some fresh pressed apple cider from a local orchard.

I only used 5 lb of blueberry honey.

It has been in primary for a week over a month and is starting to clear really well. I plan on adding a lb of Golden Raisins and 3, 2 3/4 inch cinnamon sticks to the secondary when i switch it over later today.

Now I was socializing with my guest having a few drinks and i never took an OG reading.

I know my cyser wont have a high ABV, I was wondering if anyone could tell me about what i could expect for a finished product, such things as what abv i might get, did i add enough honey? or any input would be great.

I want it to be sparkling kind of like a "zombie killer", something that you can drink a pint of, that will be refreshing.


Thanks

Comes down to a number of factors, yeast strain, ferm temp, FG etc. Cyser stands on its own without the additional flavourings. Hard to say as we dont know what variety of apple was used.

For me, 5lbs honey is too low, looks like it will be bone dry. I would go with at least 12lbs. Ultimatly, this is your product, when its done, try it and adjust it to your tastes.

As aceparadis hints, the OG of the cider itself can vary, as can the points per pound per gallon rating of honey...based on my 5 years of working with cider every fall, average cider gravity is probably around 1.050. Given an average pppg rating for honey of 1.037, I would guestimate your OG to be about 1.087 (range is likely between 1.081 and 1.092)...

Do you have a FG reading for us? What yeast did you in fact use? Even many ale yeasts would be able to take this dry (~ 11%) given that is is essentially all fully fermentable simple sugars...

I used D-47 yeast,

would it be ok to add more honey win i rack it to the secondary, and then just let it ferment and continue to clear kind of like a back sweeten or would that not be a good idea?

So with less honey it will be dry V.S if i added more it would be sweet?

I wish i was thinking when i started and added more honey I really don't know what i was thinking

I'm almost certain that D-47 will take your mead dry...I don't use D-47 much, but I believe it's rated to 14% -- be aware, though, that you can sometimes "push" yeast past it's tolerance by incrementally feeding (IE, if you were to add more honey after the fact....)

You can add more honey at any time; honestly if you're going to add more, I'd say do it in primary...let if kick up again then settle/clear in primary. At that point if you feel it needs to be transferred for more clearing and some bulk conditioning time, do it then. For point of reference, my cyser recipe is 5 gal honey and 1 gal (12 lbs) of honey (I do 6 gal batches for mead), but honestly, there's nothing wrong with an OG 1.090, 11% ABV cyser!

The whole dry vs sweet thing is relative. It refers to the amount of residual sugar, which mostly relates to your FG and has much less to do with your OG. Roughly speaking, FG < 1.010 is dry, 1.010 - 1.020 is semi-sweet, and > 1.020 is considered sweet. There's certainly some palate variability there too though...my personal perception of semi-sweet seems to start at ~ 1.007, and anything over 1.015 starts to seem overly sweet to me. Getting to dry is easy...just pick a yeast that will outpace the amount of sugar you put in... Accurately achieving semi-sweet or sweet can be a little tougher sometimes. The most reliable way to get where you want to be is to go dry, stabilize with sorbate and metabisulfite, then add back sweetness to taste. Of course, if you do this, you can't have a carbonated mead, at least not by bottle conditioning. It's much tougher/less predictable to add more sugar than you need, and have the yeast "poop out" where you want it to be...this really requires that you know your yeast very well, and how it will perform under your own fermentation conditions.

Thank you so much for the info