Making my first brew, a cyser

[ogr8bearded1]

So I just started making my first brew of any kind. I had thought about a hard cider and had also thought of a mead. Found out about cyser while researching and decided it was perfect to try out.

1 quart Sourwood Honey
3 quarts Lucky Leaf Apple Cider
25 Golden raisins
5 g Lalvin 71b-1122 Yeast

Way I figure I should end up with a 14 to 15% ABV before the yeast dies to alcohol level and be left with a nice off dry cyser since it should have enough sugars to go to 17 to 18%. Guess I'll find out in about 9 months how I did

Only thing I'm worried about if that I didn't hydrate my yeast right before pitching. I mixed it with a 1/4 cup of cider at 109 F, gave it a good stir and poured it in and now I think I should have let it set for a few minutes instead. House stays around 70 F and I have the growler sitting in a box to keep it out of the light.

 

[Frognostic]

Did you take a gravity reading?

I think if you're going for 17-18% and using 71b-1122 "Narbonne" yeast it might end up quite sweet because that strain tends to have an alcohol tolerance of around 14%.

Kv-1116 and EC-1118 are known to have higher alcohol tolerance, in your desired range.

 

[NyQuil]

Once I'm done with this blackberry melomel I am step feeding I am debating whether to do a show mead or a cyser which will be ready for the end of fall.

Decisions, decisions.

 

[ogr8bearded1]

OG was 1.12. Yeast action finally started last night. I'm using a 3 piece airlock and was getting 6 bubbles/minute this morning and currently 8/min this evening. I'm shooting for a semi-sweet/off dry. I was actually looking for the yeast to die out due to the alcohol while leaving some of the sugars.

 

[JJack887]

What does sourwood honey taste like? And I have a spiced cyser in secondary with D-47 yeast – No idea how it'll turn out.

 

[ogr8bearded1]

I got it because it was supposed to be a mild flavoured honey and I'm hoping for the apple taste to be predominate. I just went and took 8 tastes of what was left in the jar (left it upsidedown and still had about 2 Tbsp left.) 3 were just sweet mild honey taste, 1 had a light citrus, 2 a light ginger taste, 1 gave me a strong flavour that was like white clover smells in the summer and 1 reminded me of a woman's perfume but in a way that the taste was like it smells with a medium intensity to the flavour. None of them were unpleasant and the clover and perfume ones were strange and surprising in that I was tasting something I had always equated to a smell.

 

[foolsgold]

My first batch of mead was 5 gallons of Grandma's Apple Pie (recipe on this site).
It is good Sent a bottle to my sister and brother in law. Sis said it was spiced mead, b-i-l said it was apple lol. I told them they were both right. Either way they both loved it.

I did end up adding 2 containers of apple juice concentrate before bottling it as the spices were very upfront and the apple was just a hint at the end (bulk aged for over a year).

 

[ogr8bearded1]

Airlock showed a decrease in action so yesterday I took a reading and added some Fermax yeast nutrient. SG reading was 1.08 (down from initial of 1.12.)

I can't taste any honey at all but still get a nice apple juice flavour and the ABV should be around 5.5% at that amount of SG drop.

Airlock is now going stronger than previous (was at 10/min, dropped to 8/min and now at 11/min) and not sure if it was due to degassing (bit of foam filled headspace and minute amount overflowed from top when added nutrient) or fact they had some good food or combination of both.

So far I'm very pleased at the taste as it is what I'm looking for though still a bit sweet, but that should come down some more as the ABV goes up.