Apple Pie Cyser

[stonecutter2]

I'm sampling some of this from last year, and it's incredible!

Very Apple pie like.

I undersized my corks and had a couple blow out and make a mess. Oh well! I numbered the bottles and my last gallon was sweetened more than the others. All "bombs" were from that last gallon. It was super fizzy and delish though . The remaining bottle from gallon 3 that didn't blow popped like champagne. Which my wife enjoyed lol.

the other bottles did carbonate in the bottle, but about the right amount. I let mine ferment for about 2 months total before bottling. Gravity didn't go down anymore, but somehow kept going in the bottles. Must have been sloooow.

I will make more of this for next year!

Thank you for the recipe, Russ.

 

[Psywar]

I am bringing this back from the dead lol.

I just made this today for National Homebrew Day.

Slightly modified:
I did 1 full gallon of the apple juice on the stove to a simmer 195F.
While it was getting to temp I added 3 cinn. sticks and I added the apple pie spice.
Once it hit 195F I took it off the burner and added in the 2lbs of dark brown sugar and then I also added in pretty much all 3lbs of honey.

Before hand, I put the other 2 gallons of apple juice into my primary fermentation vessel and I split 2x vanilla bean pods in half and dropped them into the apple juice / primary vessel.
I have never used or worked with real vanilla beans. I thought there would be beans in it? It kinda looked like black dirt inside so hopefully mine were not bad or whatever. So like I said I just split in half and dropped both pods in.

After all the sugar and honey dissolved in my juice I put it in the sink to cool it down to around 80F and I ended up taking out the 3 cinn. sticks I put in.
Then I threw 3 new sticks into the primary.

I am using WLP720 Sweet Mead Yeast and I have it in my closet with the heater wrap on set to 73F w/ a 2F difference. The yeast says between 70-75 for optimal effect.

My SG was a bit over 1.100
I did try a tad bit of it in my hydrometer jar and it is really good like this lol.
I did also add some Yeast Nutrient I don't know if it will need it or not, but I never made Mead before and I thought I read you should use a nutrient because mead does not have all the stuff yeast need to strive well?

My plan is to let this sit for 3 or 4 weeks because I will be on vacation soon and then I will put it into a clear vessel for secondary. Then I was just going to let it sit until December and then I was going to keg some of it.
(Do you guys have any idea what a good PSI might be for something like this?)
Then I was going to bottle it and give it to some family members for Christmas.

I will add some photos.

 

[russ_whaley]

The forum told me this thread was active again. Awesome! Vanilla beans sound like a wonderful addition.

PSI... I'll have to confess, I have never even considered that factor, so I'm not even sure what range it would be in. I know it's there, I opened a bottle too fast once and had about half the bottle jump out.

It should taste great starting around Thanksgiving (late November).

Small update - I recently opened my last bottle of a batch I made about 18 months ago. It had lost some of the spice overtone, but was very sweet and smooth.

Cheers!

 

[Psywar]

So it has been almost 30 days since I went into primary with my Cyser. I am super freaking stoked. I racked into its second home today.
I checked the FG and it was .996 I started with a bit over 1.100 which makes the mead around 13.65%.
I tried a bit from my tester and it was hot, but I think you could drink as is if you really wanted it.

The mead yeast I used has a tolerance of 14% so I back sweetened the secondary with about 1 1/3 cup of honey and 12oz of apple juice as the notes recommended. I am hoping the yeast reactivates and gets that last half percent and dies off.

On another note: I am attempting to harvest the yeast from this Cyser. I have never done this before and I wanted to try it and I thought this would be a good time to try it out.
I made a 1 gallon batch of what I had left over from this Cyser and I will attempt to ferment it later once I have done the yeast wash thing.

 

[nitack]

If your at 13.65% ABV and your yeast has a max tolerance of 14% you are not going to get a real viable culture to harvest. Your max ABV for a yeast is the "most of it will be dead" number. That is the LD99 (lethal dose 99%). If your going to harvest you probably want to be about 1/3 below you max tolerance. It's going to be mostly dead yeast, and you may have SOME living but super stressed live yeast. Probably not enough to get off to a good start. Likely throwing out off flavors due to stress. Spend the buck and buy another packet of yeast

 

[Psywar]

It is interesting you say that because this morning I was wondering and thinking the same thing.
I did end up ordering a packet of dry on Amazon, but I did dump my washed yeast in this afternoon. So I will see what ends up happening. Luckily it is a small batch.

 

[smishylyn]

I followed the recipe as best I could. Used EC1118 for the drier turnout. Started at around 1.090 and a week in I'm already at 1.000. Am I already done?!?
I was wondering if I should feed it some more or just let it sit another week before racking?
Also, I only have a 5 gallon carboy to move into secondary and I was hoping to let it sit in the secondary for a month or so to clear before bottling. Do I need to worry about all of the extra headspace?

 

[peoples22]

old thread I know but curious if anyone has attempted this recipe and how it turned out?

 

[Psywar]

A bunch of people have made this and they all said it turned out really well.
Mine is currently still fermenting I finished it on 5/6/17 - I did a re-rack about 3 weeks ago and I tried some of it. It was very good.
I am letting mine age until Dec and I was planning on kegging it and using a beer gun to bottle some for Christmas presents.

 

[smishylyn]

A bunch of people have made this and they all said it turned out really well.
Mine is currently still fermenting I finished it on 5/6/17 - I did a re-rack about 3 weeks ago and I tried some of it. It was very good.
I am letting mine age until Dec and I was planning on kegging it and using a beer gun to bottle some for Christmas presents.

I just moved mine to its secondary last week after stabilizing and back sweetening. I had about a pint leftover that wouldn't fit in the secondary. A wee bit hot but damn good. I don't think these bottles will make it to Thanksgiving! I'll post pics after it all clears.

 

[AlwaysBeeGoen]

Super excited! Starting to make this for the holidays. Hope I'm not too late as original post indicated 6 months for the best taste, and I'm hoping it will be ready to give some away at Christmas (2 months!).

My OG was a whopping 1.100 @75 degrees F!! That's about 13.2 abv if it goes all the way to 1.000. Anyway, I used this apple juice from the local health food store, no preservatives... from some brand called Field Day... it has yummy sediment in the bottom and everything. The Honey is from Texas, store bought, but says it's not heated or anything and is natural etc...

Honey has granuals and everything in it so I'm thinking it's not been heated at all. Had to stir it in and break it up quite a bit.