I am contemplating a really basic cyser that will be a little bit of a bastardization of some recipes I have seen. My Only real questions are If I use apple juice instead of spring water then how much honey do I need for each gallon of apple juice. I like a sweet mead and my last two batches I have used around 4 pounds of honey to each gallon of water. I am thinking that 2 pounds of honey is safe but I want a more experienced brewers take on that. Just for sake of knowledge my other ingredients in this are going to be cinnamon, clove, and raisins as a nutrient.
Going to try a basic cyser
- Thread starter Carrick
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I did a straight apple juice to 2lb mesquite honey and it went dry after about 4mo. Used Nottingham yeast. Was a thrown together batch, so no gravity readings. Just tasted no residual sweetness.
I plan to do it again and take sg measurements this time.
I plan to do it again and take sg measurements this time.
bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
I know that many wine makers on this forum choose a yeast that they hope will give up the ghost before the wine has finished fermenting - and so they have sweet wine .. but that method means you have no control over the level of sweetness and you trust to luck. To each their own. For me? Wine is a mix of art and science not a spin of the roulette wheel. And my recommendation would be to choose a yeast that will have no challenge fermenting your cyser bone dry (brut). You then stabilize the wine (with K-meta and K-sorbate) and you add precisely the amount of additional honey to sweeten the mead to exactly the level of sweetness you want. No luck. No risk. No problem.
That said, your apple juice will probably have enough sugar to produce a cider with a starting gravity of around , say 1.045. One pound of honey will add 40 points per gallon. Two pounds will add 80 points - so your total may be 1.125 - 1.130. Fermented dry that is about 17% ABV. To back sweeten , 4 oz of honey (or sugar) will add 10 points per gallon. I don't know what you call "sweet" or how sweet "sweet" needs to be for a wine at 17% ABV. Bench testing will provide you with the answers..
That said, your apple juice will probably have enough sugar to produce a cider with a starting gravity of around , say 1.045. One pound of honey will add 40 points per gallon. Two pounds will add 80 points - so your total may be 1.125 - 1.130. Fermented dry that is about 17% ABV. To back sweeten , 4 oz of honey (or sugar) will add 10 points per gallon. I don't know what you call "sweet" or how sweet "sweet" needs to be for a wine at 17% ABV. Bench testing will provide you with the answers..
bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
For the record, I have four batches of cyser quietly aging since November - all made with the same orchard supplied sweet cider (pressed for cider makers) and each batch with a different 2 lb quantity of honey - sourwood, late fall wildflower; orange blossom (OB) and acacia. Planning on checking the OB at the end of the weekend, stabilizing and then back sweetening to about 1.010 with 4 oz of OB honey.
