Apple Crisp Mead, looking for suggestions

Hey all, I am considering making a batch of mead, which I have never done before so you could say I am a major noob. I have read the guides and know of some places where I can get the equipment needed, or at the very least can rent it. I want to use apples in my mead mixture, probably honey crisp or something that would amount to kind of an apple pie type of flavor, maybe with some cinnamon might be good. What is the process for adding apples to making mead?

Make a cyser, buy some fresh pressed cider from an orchard if you can find one near or a good quality preservative free cider at a store and add honey to that, much better than trying to add apples themselves. WVMJ

Make a base mead and when its done, use several samples to experiment with adding flavors. Making mead can be tricky, so I'd start with a very small batch, like 1 gallon until you figure it out.
Frozen apple juice concentrate can be added for the apple flavor and you can put a cinnamon stick in as well. Note that a little cinnamon goes a long way.

Like WVMJ said, make a cyser, roughly 3lbs honey per gallon & apple juice. Be sure to use yeast nutrient/energizer & DAP. Add the appropriate spices (don't used powdered) in secondary, stick cinnamon, whole allspice, split nutmeg & a split vanilla bean or two; not sure as to how much of each, but allspice & nutmeg will bee the stronger flavors, so use less of them. You can always add more. Contain the spices in a hop sack for easy removal once your desired flavor profile has been reached.
Regards, GF.

gratus fermentatio said:

Like WVMJ said, make a cyser, roughly 3lbs honey per gallon & apple juice.

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I definitely agree with starting with a cyser, but 3 lbs per gallon of juice is going to result in way too high of an OG for someone who has never made mead before. Assuming the juice lands somewhere between 1.035 and 1.050, the SG of the must would be somewhere between 1.143 and 1.159. While definitely more than doable, it's going to be hard for someone without the basics down to handle that without stressing the yeast or it stalling out.

For most cysers, 1.75 - 2 lbs of honey + apple juice per gallon of must is a more reasonable place to start out.

valverij said:

I definitely agree with starting with a cyser, but 3 lbs per gallon of juice is going to result in way too high of an OG for someone who has never made mead before. Assuming the juice lands somewhere between 1.035 and 1.050, the SG of the must would be somewhere between 1.143 and 1.159. While definitely more than doable, it's going to be hard for someone without the basics down to handle that without stressing the yeast or it stalling out.

For most cysers, 1.75 - 2 lbs of honey + apple juice per gallon of must is a more reasonable place to start out.

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I must be missing something. Why would using 3 lbs of apples result in a must that would be at least 1.143? If you simply use whatever amount of apples it takes to extract 1 gallon of apple juice that juice is not going to have a gravity of more than about 1.050 and possibly be as low as 1.040 and if you then add 1 lb of honey for every gallon of juice the gravity of that must will be between 1.080 and 1.090. You could increase the honey to 1.5 lbs /gallon and that would still be about 1.110 (maximum) or a potential ABV of about 14.5%.

That said, best to use a blend of apples rather than one variety of eating apples. Eating apples tend to have too little sugar , insufficient tannins, insufficient acids, and thin flavor.

bernardsmith said:

I must be missing something. Why would using 3 lbs of apples result in a must that would be at least 1.143?

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Gratus said 3 lbs of honey per gallon of juice, not 3 lbs of apples. I was responding to that.

Some great and interesting responses, thanks for the suggestions everyone. I am still waiting on the honey as my best friend's wife has a bee hive of several supers currently going, once it is ready I will start crafting.

I had a newbie moment a while back, forgot to take into account the sugar from the apples and used weight of honey to get to the desired SG and overshot it, since we refuse to dilute with water and didnt have more cider to add right then we went with it, tossed in some champagne yeast and let it rip, going on 2 years now, should have a taste of it this fall Better to measure the SG of the cider and then add honey accordingly and also not base your recipe on 1.050, some apples barely reach that while others can go higher. WVMJ

valverij said:

Gratus said 3 lbs of honey per gallon of juice, not 3 lbs of apples. I was responding to that.

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My mistake... Reading faster than the speed of light does that sometimes... sorry

We used Apple juice concentrate and apple cider both with great results!

I, personally, would get some apple juice, do a hydrometer reading then add honey with reference to the OG of the apple juice until it got to a table wine strength OG.

I'd use cider apples, ideally, but i'd make do with a mix of desert apples and crab apples.

madscientist451 said:

Make a base mead and when its done, use several samples to experiment with adding flavors. Making mead can be tricky, so I'd start with a very small batch, like 1 gallon until you figure it out.
Frozen apple juice concentrate can be added for the apple flavor and you can put a cinnamon stick in as well. Note that a little cinnamon goes a long way.

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I apologize for bumping a year old and my own thread, I didn't get a brewing kit until recently and financial troubles wound up putting my plans on the back burner for a while as well. My kit is a 2 gallon pail and a 1 gallon bottle, so your suggestion works out perfectly for me.