Wanting to try making a cyser

[ASamWitch]

I have made several batches of 'show' mead and now that the apples are comming in here in NC, I thought I might try my hand at a cyser. I thought I would start with a gallon. Any recipe suggestions?

 

[biochemedic]

Any reason not to go to a full size batch? If you have the equipment, I think the time an effort that go into making mead (which is essentially the same regardless of the batch size) makes it worth having 5 or 6 gallons to go into bottles rather than 1 gallon!

I use 5 gal of cider and 1 gal of honey for a 6 gal batch. With a gallon of honey being approx. 12 lbs, scaling the ratio down, you could use 1 gal of cider and 2 lbs of honey. I'd pull out some of the cider to give you some volume space to dissolve the honey, and then top back up to your 1 gal volume, pitch yeast and go. I've used the Wyeast Dry Mead yeast, and also 71B for cyser. Both come out very nice.

Oh, and I use staggered nutrient additions, and add pectic enzyme. I generally use a bit of tannin powder, and at the end (before bottling) some acid blend to taste.

 

[Walking_Target]

Really depends on what kind of honey-to-apple taste you want and what ABV you're shooting for.

2lbs a gallon is a good general rule of thumb though.

You could also do an Apfelwein using honey instead of another sugar source to raise the ABV potential.

Or if you don't want to do that, you can substitute a Candi sugar for part of your honey, but be warned you'll get more caramel flavor.

 

[Gamrchick]

Here is a recipe for one of the cysers we made beginning last season including log. We just bottled. We tend to go a little nuts and this was one of four 5 gallon cyser batches we made last fall. (We have a cider supplier at the local farmers market that sells to us in bulk)

"Show" Cyser
Batch #24
An Apple Pie mead that out of laziness became a plain cyser
5 gallons

10/25/10 "Brew Day"
Prepared:
6 lbs orange blossom honey
6 lbs clover honey
4 gallons apple cider
water to 5 gallons
5 grams Fermaid-K
GoFerm to directions
7.5 grams of Lalvin D47 (ran a little short)

OG = 1.122
Target FG = ?? Dry

03/13/11
G=1.002 (15.72% abv)
Very tart and dry as hell. Stilled and racked.

09/25/11
G = 1.001 (15.85% abv)

We did backsweeten a bit to taste and I thought we marked the new gravity, but the log doesn't show it. I do know we added approx. 2 cups of honey at the end.

 

[ASamWitch]

Thanks All. I was wanting to make a small batch to see how it would turn out to see if I needed to make a large one. Anyone tried it with a JAOM type?

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Check out my thread ASam... heehee... thing is I havent seen how it came out yet, so I have no assurances. What I can say is that it smells like God through the airlock!!!

 

[ASamWitch]

I think I might just have to try that. Tanks CG

 

[larkincrain]

I just made a cyser the other day, and I kept it to a 1 gallon batch so I didn't have to drop a lot of money on the ingredients in case it didn't come out perfect.

My recipe:

1 gallon apple cider (pasteurized)
2 lbs honey
1 packet of champagne yeast.

Add the honey to the cider while adding some heat (not enough to boil), just enough so that the honey is able to dissolve in the cider. Pour the must into fermenter. Add yeast.

This recipe should give you a must with an OG around 1.100.

 

[ASamWitch]

Thanks Larkin I added 2 cinnamon sticks to it as well

 

[Stinger]

I just made a cyser the other day, and I kept it to a 1 gallon batch so I didn't have to drop a lot of money on the ingredients in case it didn't come out perfect.

My recipe:

1 gallon apple cider (pasteurized)
2 lbs honey
1 packet of champagne yeast.

Add the honey to the cider while adding some heat (not enough to boil), just enough so that the honey is able to dissolve in the cider. Pour the must into fermenter. Add yeast.

This recipe should give you a must with an OG around 1.100.

How long do you let yours ferment? I just put together my first batch over the weekend and wasn't really sure how long I should leave it. Thanks