Chandler C Baez
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- Jul 30, 2019
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First off, this is a pretty long post so thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read through this and offer any suggestions and/or help; I greatly appreciate it as I'm completely new to mead making and while I've done a lot of research it still doesn't compare to experience.
So I have my parents coming at the end of November for Thanksgiving, and my In-Laws coming in December for Christmas; I was thinking about trying to put together a nice sweet, spiced holiday cyser. I've been trawling around the internet for the past 2 days studying all I can about making mead at home; I've read through tons of recipes, read plenty of forums and articles about different techniques, etc., and I think I've come up with what I hope to be a pretty good recipe. I just want to get someone to look over it and see if what I have here makes sense (it should, since I've based it off of other recipes and run different proportions through calculators, etc.) and maybe see if someone has done something similar.
Recipe:
1 Gallon Apple Cider
3lbs Honey
1 Packet Red Star "Premier Blanc" (I couldn't find a definitive tolerance range for this yeast, some pages say 12% others say 13%-15%)
1tsp Yeast Nutrient
1 Cinnamon Stick (Broken)
1 Nutmeg (Crushed)
1 Clove (Whole)
1 Vanilla Bean (Split/Scraped + Body)
*August 15*
- Pour honey into carboy, fill halfway with cider, shake to dissolve honey
- Add remaining cider to carboy, leaving enough space for the activated yeast mixture, **Measure SG
- Add yeast mixture, cap with airlock
*September 12*
- Rack to new carboy (fermentation should be done)
- Add spices in bag, taste fairly regularly and remove when adequate
*October 27*
- Rack only if needed (sediment at bottom of jug)
- Add oak spiral (American Oak, Medium Toast, 8" long, 1" wide)
*November 17*
- Remove oak spiral
- Cold crash (1 week)
*November 24*
- Rack while cold
- Warm to room temp in new container
- Add stablizer (K-META, package says 1/4 tsp per 6 gallons, I plan to dissolve 1/4 tsp in about 100ml water and then using 1/6 of that)
*November 25*
- Add stabilizer (K-Sorbate, 1/2tsp)
*November 26*
- Add bentonite to clarify if needed (2 tsps bentonite into 1/2 cup of boiling water, create slurry, let sit and cool for 4 hours or more to fully hydrate, add 1tbsp slurry if only somewhat cloudy, 2tbsp if very cloudy)
*November 24*
- Rack, then bottle from new container
I'm planning, of course, to degas this regularly and follow strict sanitization procedures (just wouldn't be good to add in 7,000 steps listed of sanitizing and degassing).
A big question I have here:
With the specific yeast I'm using and the amount of sugar in use I'm expecting maybe 13%/14% abv at most, I've used a few calculators to try and parse this out but there should be plenty of sugar for the yeast to fully ferment to tolerance with plenty of sugar left over for the sweetness...does this check out?
Thanks again to anyone who took the time to read through all of this.
So I have my parents coming at the end of November for Thanksgiving, and my In-Laws coming in December for Christmas; I was thinking about trying to put together a nice sweet, spiced holiday cyser. I've been trawling around the internet for the past 2 days studying all I can about making mead at home; I've read through tons of recipes, read plenty of forums and articles about different techniques, etc., and I think I've come up with what I hope to be a pretty good recipe. I just want to get someone to look over it and see if what I have here makes sense (it should, since I've based it off of other recipes and run different proportions through calculators, etc.) and maybe see if someone has done something similar.
Recipe:
1 Gallon Apple Cider
3lbs Honey
1 Packet Red Star "Premier Blanc" (I couldn't find a definitive tolerance range for this yeast, some pages say 12% others say 13%-15%)
1tsp Yeast Nutrient
1 Cinnamon Stick (Broken)
1 Nutmeg (Crushed)
1 Clove (Whole)
1 Vanilla Bean (Split/Scraped + Body)
*August 15*
- Pour honey into carboy, fill halfway with cider, shake to dissolve honey
- Add remaining cider to carboy, leaving enough space for the activated yeast mixture, **Measure SG
- Add yeast mixture, cap with airlock
*September 12*
- Rack to new carboy (fermentation should be done)
- Add spices in bag, taste fairly regularly and remove when adequate
*October 27*
- Rack only if needed (sediment at bottom of jug)
- Add oak spiral (American Oak, Medium Toast, 8" long, 1" wide)
*November 17*
- Remove oak spiral
- Cold crash (1 week)
*November 24*
- Rack while cold
- Warm to room temp in new container
- Add stablizer (K-META, package says 1/4 tsp per 6 gallons, I plan to dissolve 1/4 tsp in about 100ml water and then using 1/6 of that)
*November 25*
- Add stabilizer (K-Sorbate, 1/2tsp)
*November 26*
- Add bentonite to clarify if needed (2 tsps bentonite into 1/2 cup of boiling water, create slurry, let sit and cool for 4 hours or more to fully hydrate, add 1tbsp slurry if only somewhat cloudy, 2tbsp if very cloudy)
*November 24*
- Rack, then bottle from new container
I'm planning, of course, to degas this regularly and follow strict sanitization procedures (just wouldn't be good to add in 7,000 steps listed of sanitizing and degassing).
A big question I have here:
With the specific yeast I'm using and the amount of sugar in use I'm expecting maybe 13%/14% abv at most, I've used a few calculators to try and parse this out but there should be plenty of sugar for the yeast to fully ferment to tolerance with plenty of sugar left over for the sweetness...does this check out?
Thanks again to anyone who took the time to read through all of this.
). 
