Making a Mead with Apples.

I saw the threads about making a Mead with Apple Juice/Cider, but I want to use just apples, water and honey. Would one apple be enough and what would be the recommended apple to use?

Not sure that a single apple will do anything to your mead. Apple mead is called "cyser" and typically, it is made by using the juice of enough apples to replace ALL the water you would have normally used in making a regular mead - so about 1 gallon of apple juice to dissolve about 2 lbs of honey will create a nice cyser. A bushel of apples is likely to produce about 2 gallons of juice..But if you include water then all you are doing is diluting the apple flavor.. so one hand adds flavor while the other removes it... Yer pays yer money and yer takes yer chance

Thanks for the answer. Looks like I'm getting some apple juice. Apple Cider hasn't hit the shelves of my local store yet. I may have to check the local orchard and see what they have available.

Don't know where you are located but certainly Upstate NY June is too early for any apples - best juice comes after the first frost. But that said, your local health food store may carry sorbate -free apple juice from last year, as will some of the up-market grocery stores... Your supermarket may also carry apple juice that could be used. It must be sorbate free but heat pasteurization is OK if that's all there is (cooking apple juice degrades the flavor) - UV pasteurization is better.

So I picked up a gallon of apple juice made from concentrate. The only other ingredient in the juice was Vitamin C.

1: Will the Vitamin C have any affect on the mead?

2: When I begin preparing the must, how much of the apple juice should I use.

3: Yeast Starter - I prepared a yeast starter for my first mead. Should I prepare one for the Apple Mead?

4: If so, can I use some of the apple juice for the starter?

rich5665 said:

So I picked up a gallon of apple juice made from concentrate. The only other ingredient in the juice was Vitamin C.

1: Will the Vitamin C have any affect on the mead?

2: When I begin preparing the must, how much of the apple juice should I use.

3: Yeast Starter - I prepared a yeast starter for my first mead. Should I prepare one for the Apple Mead?

4: If so, can I use some of the apple juice for the starter?

Click to expand...

1: No.

2: You'll need to use less than 1 gallon of juice, as the honey will take up some of that volume.

3: You can if you want, but you're dealing with 1 gallon total volume yes? I'd just rehydrate & pitch, a starter will take up much more volume.

4: Yes.

Regards, GF.

Cider ain't beer and there is no need to use a starter if you use wine yeast. If you use ale yeast to make cider I guess that is up to you but if you are making a gallon of cider why would you need a starter?

If you ferment in a bucket rather than a one gallon carboy then I would use the whole gallon of apple juice. When it comes time to rack the mead from the yeast (when gravity drops close to 1.005) then you will lose some of the volume as lees (Cider does not create trub)

gratus fermentatio said:

2: You'll need to use less than 1 gallon of juice, as the honey will take up some of that volume.

Regards, GF.

Click to expand...

I was thinking of mixing 1/2 a gallon to 3 pounds of honey. Empty the bowl into my 1 gallon jug then add the remaining apple juice, leaving enough room for my rehydrated yeast.

bernardsmith said:

Cider ain't beer and there is no need to use a starter if you use wine yeast. If you use ale yeast to make cider I guess that is up to you but if you are making a gallon of cider why would you need a starter?

If you ferment in a bucket rather than a one gallon carboy then I would use the whole gallon of apple juice. When it comes time to rack the mead from the yeast (when gravity drops close to 1.005) then you will lose some of the volume as lees (Cider does not create trub)

Click to expand...

I meant rehydrate, which is what I did with my first mead. Added half of the dried yeast pack to a 1/2 cup of room temp water. Can I rehydrate the yeast using the apple juice or should I use room temp water again.

You can rehydrate wine yeast directly on the must. You don't need to collect a sample and rehydrate separately. Don't stir but allow the yeast to absorb the liquid at its own rate. I have never had any problem with doing that over many many dozens of batches of cider, wine and mead

The Apple Mead is in the jug. Created the must first, basically 3 pounds of honey to 1/2 gallon of apple juice. After mixing emptied the must into the jug, filled with apple juice, capped and shook the heck out of the bottle to stir it up and get a little oxygen going. I then added 25 raisins and pitched my yeast. the raisin will supple nutrients to the yeast. Not sure if the raisins were needed but I guess they can't hurt.

I would recommend using either apple juice or Apple juice concentrate. We've had great success with both