Cyser recipe

[meadfromthebees]

My goal with this cyser is to not have to backsweeten and get something fairly drinkable quickly. My idea was for 1 gallon using 1 packet of 71b yeast

3 lb orange blossom honey (I have a lot of it)
2 lb brown sugar
64 oz apple juice no preservatives (this contains roughly 240 g of sugar)
Top up with water to 1 gallon
I'm using 125 ml to rehydrate yeast with goferm 6.5 g
At 24 and 48 hours .85 g of fermaid O
At 72 hours .95 g of fermaid k and 1.35 g of either LD Carlson yeast nutrient or yeast energizer, not sure which would be better, leaning toward the energizer then repeat the 72 hour feeding at 7 days passed.
Since I'm assuming the sg is going to be higher than the yeast tolerance at 14% should I calculate the 1/3 sugar break by taking the sg multiplying by .14 for 14% then dividing that by 3? I haven't started nor taken any gravities yet, but I'm interested to see what someone more experienced than I would do. Also, any idea on how to calculate an approximate sg for this batch? Many thanks!

 

[Barzahl]

Use a mead calculator The Mead Calculator – Got Mead? The Largest Mead Resource on the Web I punched the stuff in and got SG of 1.221 which is over 26% abv the yeast would have a really hard time fermenting it and it would probably be sickeningly sweet with lots of fusels, they didn't have apple juice as an option so I put .51 pounds of sugar roughly 240 grams, they also lack a brown sugar option so i had to sub that for white which i think is equivalent in sugar content.
I'm not sure about the 1/3 sugar break thing I've only done 5 batches of mead and always added nutrients with amount based on the package recommendation in three doses one upfront one at 48 hours and the last at 72 so far it hasn't ruined anything but if abv is above 9% and your nutrient has diammonium phosphate the yeast won't be able to absorb the DP and it will cause an off flavor, I've been meaning to look into the tosna nutrient schedule but haven't done it yet.

 

[meadfromthebees]

Use a mead calculator The Mead Calculator – Got Mead? The Largest Mead Resource on the Web I punched the stuff in and got SG of 1.221 which is over 26% abv the yeast would have a really hard time fermenting it and it would probably be sickeningly sweet with lots of fusels, they didn't have apple juice as an option so I put .51 pounds of sugar roughly 240 grams, they also lack a brown sugar option so i had to sub that for white which i think is equivalent in sugar content.
I'm not sure about the 1/3 sugar break thing I've only done 5 batches of mead and always added nutrients with amount based on the package recommendation in three doses one upfront one at 48 hours and the last at 72 so far it hasn't ruined anything but if abv is above 9% and your nutrient has diammonium phosphate the yeast won't be able to absorb the DP and it will cause an off flavor, I've been meaning to look into the tosna nutrient schedule but haven't done it yet.

So using this batch builder BatchBuildr - MeadMakr a 3 gallon batch calls for 11 lb of honey to yield a 14% abv (which is to tolerance of the yeast I'd be using.) Using this conversion honey to sugar conversion .76 lb of sugar to 1 lb of honey, assuming I up the honey to 5lb (roughly half the fermentable sugars coming from honey) that would leave 6 lb of honey left to use left times .76 (to convert to lb of sugar) leads me to 4.56 lb of sugar. Assuming I use one gallon of the juice at 240 g of sugar per half gallon that is slightly above 1 lb of sugar (1.05 lb) that takes me down to 3.51 lb of brown sugar. This leads my adjusted batch for a 3 gallon must to:
1 gallon preservative free apple juice (contains 480g of sugar)
5 lb of orange blossom honey
3.5 lb brown sugarBat
Water to top up to 3 gallons

The specs I put on the batch builder are as follows:
Batch volume: 3 gals
Yeast abv: 14% (using 71b yeast)
Sweetness: 1.025
Medium nitrogen requirement
Travis-Blount-Elliot nutrient schedule which to my understanding stops DAP additions either at or before 9% abv is reached thus leading to no off flavors, but I could be wrong?

 

[Barzahl]

DAP is contained in both fermaidk and LD Carlson yeast nutrient; it is possible your brew will have hit 9% by the 7 days passed mark which I believe is why you were asking about calculating 1/3 sugar break?

 

[meadfromthebees]

DAP is contained in both fermaidk and LD Carlson yeast nutrient; it is possible your brew will have hit 9% by the 7 days passed mark which I believe is why you were asking about calculating 1/3 sugar break?

Yes

 

[Barzahl]

Yes

If it were me trying a new recipe I would use the hydrometer if I was going to calculate 1/3 sugar I would take the fractal SG since the 1 represents the water subtract the .025 that sugar will be past the yeasts tolerance going to make up an easy number, .115-.025=.09 .09÷3=.03
You probably know this but the yeast won't necessarily do 14% sometimes it will stop early others go past usually not by much though