Apple Pie Cyser

[Psywar]

Hello, everyone!

I am planning on making this Apple Pie Cyser sometime this week or next. Then possibly give out bottles of it for Christmas this year. This should give it plenty of time to age and taste real good.

I had a question about yeast. I have never made a Mead before, and later this week or next I am making a Belgian Tripel. I ended up buying two packages of White Labs Belgian Abbey Ale WLP530.
If I make a 1.52L starter I will have more than enough yeast for this beer, so I was thinking instead of making a small starter and using two packages of this yeast could I use one of these yeast packages to build this Mead?

I know the Belgian yeast profile is supposed to be sweet and fruity? I know it also ferments at about the same temp most Mead yeasts do as well.

What do you all think?

Thanks in advance!

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Psywar. This is not the answer I think you are looking for but every yeast will impart different qualities to any wine or mead and will enhance notes and will dull others. If you have never made a mead before you might want to start with a yeast that will be comfortable fermenting the amount of sugar that will be in your planned cyser and which will bring out the apple and the flavor notes of the honey and which will help provide the kind of mouthfeel you want - mead ain't beer and it can have a very thin watery mouthfeel. But you know that.

There are mead makers that swear by D47 and others who use only 71B while yet others who use DV10 (all three are wine yeasts). Bray Denard's BOMM recipes use Wyeast 3188. I guess my point is the best yeast to use is the yeast you think will best bring out the characteristics that you are looking for while inhibiting and masking those you don't want.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Yeah, you just have to experiment.
I suspect the Belgian yeast would lend too much of that yeast character you find in Belgian beers to the mead and thereby compete with the flavors you are trying to accentuate.

I happen to like WLP 720 Sweet Mead yeast, but as the name implies, it leaves a fair amount of residual sugar, which IMHO is great because you don't have to use as much honey to get a sweeter mead, and it will still ferment out to around 14-15%.

Some of the drier yeasts require so much honey to remain sweet after attenuation that you end up with a hot, rocket fuel alcohol taste that takes forever to mellow through aging.

WLP 720 with about 3.5 to 4 lb/gal will make a sweet mead you can drink and will taste good in a month. (4 lb/gal will be a little syrupy, but very tasty).

 

[bernardsmith]

But if you dilute the honey with pressed apple juice (whether from an orchard or made commercially as a sweet drink) you will be adding about 50 points to a gallon - so 3 lbs of honey will result in a gravity of about 1.105 and if the liquid is apple juice then that will result in a starting gravity of 1.155. That is already a starting gravity that most yeast will find damaging if not catastrophic. IF - and that is a big IF - Psywar wants to have such a high gravity must a better approach might be to start with 2 lbs of honey (1.070) in a gallon of apple juice (1.120) - This is still high but then the approach would be to add more honey as the yeast attacks the sugars in the must

 

[Cavpilot2000]

But if you dilute the honey with pressed apple juice (whether from an orchard or made commercially as a sweet drink) you will be adding about 50 points to a gallon - so 3 lbs of honey will result in a gravity of about 1.105 and if the liquid is apple juice then that will result in a starting gravity of 1.155. That is already a starting gravity that most yeast will find damaging if not catastrophic. IF - and that is a big IF - Psywar wants to have such a high gravity must a better approach might be to start with 2 lbs of honey (1.070) in a gallon of apple juice (1.120) - This is still high but then the approach would be to add more honey as the yeast attacks the sugars in the must

Good point - I was referring to a clasic straight honey mead with no other fermentables.
If you were making a cyser, which the OP is, you would definitely have to reduce that amount significantly, probably no more than 2 lb/gal.

 

[thm57]

Just looking at the recipe in the OP and it looks like they're only shooting for 11-12% abv.

I have zero experience with Belgian yeast though, so I don't know if that's too high for it.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

I just question the use of Belgian yeast. I don't think I would enjoy that Belgian character in a mead, but to each his own.

 

[bernardsmith]

Just looking at the recipe in the OP and it looks like they're only shooting for 11-12% abv.

I have zero experience with Belgian yeast though, so I don't know if that's too high for it.

Well, if the OP is aiming for 11-12% he is planning to hit 20% and that means that this will be rocket fuel or else it will be so sweet that it will need to come with a health warning .

 

[Psywar]

Thank you all for the replies.
I guess what I am going to do is save the Belgian yeast and do another Tripel but something Frankenstein-ish with it.
I am going to go with the Wyeast Sweet Mead slap pack.

 

[bernardsmith]

Not sure that the issue is with the yeast... Your potential ABV is very high and that means the concentration of sugars is high ... Too high a concentration of sugar will be a challenge to any yeast... That's why honey has a shelf life that is in fact measured in decades if not longer...

 

[thm57]

According to the gotmead calculator, using apple juice that has an sg of 1.05, the overall recipe should come out to 1.105 or so. 3 gallons apple juice, 2 1/2 pounds honey (2 pounds for the ferment, 1/2 pound for sweetening) 2 pounds brown sugar. Potential ABV of 13.78%, a little higher than my original estimate. Just reading over everything looked like people thought the recipe had a way higher SG.