Acai Cyser (my first shot at a mead)

[sculpinslayer]

This juice is awesome and goes great with the Blackberry honey. I can't wait to drink it.

SG 1.120

Starter
3 cups Blackberry Honey
cups water
White Labs Champagne Yeast
1 tsp DAP
1 tsp nutrient (generic from the brew store)

The Must
14 lbs Blackberry Honey
1.75 Gallon Knudsen Organic Acai Berry.
1/4 tsp pectin enzyme

So I made the starter by pasteurizing the honey with a little water (8 cups) at 160F for about 30 min. Then let it cool and topped it off to about 50 oz in a growler. Threw in the yeast, DAP, and nutrient. Then I waited, and waited. I waited almost four days for the thing to start bubblin.

Then I made up the must. I pasteurized the honey at 170 for 30 minutes periodically skimming off the albumin. After the 30 minutes I put the juice in the primary. The juice was organic and I didn't bother pasteurizing it (maybe a mistake?). I then threw in the honey water, another tsp of DAP and Nutrient, and topped of the fermenter to about 5 gallons. I then hooked up the air (oxygen) stone and pumped in air for about an hour while the must cooled to about 80F. Then I threw in the starter and twelve hours later the things is bubblin every 6 seconds.

I'm thinking that if the yeast hit about 80% attenuation I should end up with a dersert cyser at about 12% alc by vol and a final gravity of about 1.027. I plan to add another tsp of DAP and Nutrient at the 1/3 and 2/3 sugar breaks.

Does anyone have any idea when I should expect to hit the 1/3 and 2/3 sugar breaks? I don't want to be testing the gravity every other week. Anything I could have/ should have done differently

I'll post updates on the progress. I'm pretty sure this one will be a winner.

 

[electric_beer]

I LOVE acai! I am interested in how this turns out. You should post picts and tasting notes when you finally complete it!

 

[sculpinslayer]

So it appears that fermentation has neared an end SG is 1.002. Now comes the hard part: the wait. My first taste is dominated by a fiery alcoholic spiciness. I'm hoping this will mellow an the fruit flavors will come out. I may need to back sweeten. I was really worried about the attenuation of my yeast. I made the recipe up assuming my WL champagne yeast would have a 80% attenuation. Judging by the gravity now, it has gone was beyond that.

SO this leads me to a question. If I decide to backsweeten when should I do it? Should I let the mead age for a while to decide whether or not to backsweeten? Do I have to add the extra honey now?

Thanks

 

[Shinglejohn]

Dont worry about the attenuation, What you are fermenting with honey and fruit juice contains much more fermentable sugar than a typical beer and you are using a very high attenuating yeast that has a dry character.

provided the numbers you gave here, your in the 14-15 percent range, this will definatley cause a alcohol taste while young. Your going to need to let this age. I would let it sit in secondary for 4 months or so, bottle, and give it another year(sampling a bottle here and there, of course). Youll be happy you did.

I wouldnt sweeten, but thats me. I like dry meads. If you want to sweeten, you will have to stabilize it using potassium sorbate or the yeast will eat anything you add to it.