Had an idea - Will it work?

[thrall]

Hello,

I had an idea. I made some rather nice mead a few months back which is aging in my cupboard. I also made some nice apple cider using pure apple juice.

So i was thinking I would try to mix it up and attempt some sort of apple mead (im sure this has a name).

I have a spare 5 litre demijohn so was thinking:

4 litres fresh apple juice
2 x 400g fresh blossom honey
1 tspn Yeast nutri
handful of raisins ( are these needed like when making mead )
High alcohol tolerant wine yeast

Does that sound like it will come out tasting nice? Also should I bottle carbonate or bottle flat like my mead.

 

[paraordnance]

sure it will work. Honey + apple juice = cyser. Search for it, plenty of recipes here or you can make your own.
You can omit rasins since apple juice has lots of nutrients but its up to you

 

[fatbloke]

Don't forget, the higher the alcohol level, usually, the longer the ageing period it needs (general rule, not certified/guaranteed).

If you're gonna make a cyser, normally, the best yeast for that, would be 71B-1122. But it's only got a max tolerance of 14% (I think). It's good at metabolising some of the malic acid, but if you want higher alcohol, then I'd suggest K1V-1116 (gervin varietal "E" is the same). Then it should go to 18% ABV. Plus as it's got the "killer" property, if you get the AJ from apples pressed by yourself (as opposed to just buying juice) then it'd nullify any wild yeasts that maybe on the fruit........

Whether you end up with the flavour even close to what you have in mind is a different matter. I'd have thought it would make a good, semi/sweet brew, but depending on the gravity at the start, you might need to step feed the batch, certainly do SNA, and whether you want to carbonate it, well if it's dry and lower than the tolerance of the yeast, then it's entirely possible to make it like "methode champenoise", but if you wanted it sweet, then it's likely to need more honey, fermented dry to max tolerance for the yeast, back sweetening and then force carbonation - corny keg ?

 

[Bugeaud]

Hmm, well, an idea just struck me. You could just mix mead and cider to create a cyser blend.. I would think that would be good, right?

 

[tweake]

Hmm, well, an idea just struck me. You could just mix mead and cider to create a cyser blend.. I would think that would be good, right?

fantastic.
you can brew the cider with a yeast more suitable to it and the mead with another yeast. then blend to taste.

 

[GinKings]

Cyser is apple juice and honey. No water is used.

Making a mead separately, you'd have to use water. That means less juice is in your blended cyser. You might be able to offset the water in the mead by using some AJ concentrate in the cider portion.

Personally, I prefer to stick with the traditional method.

 

[Bugeaud]

Making a mead separately, you'd have to use water. That means less juice is in your blended cyser.

Yeah that's true but, if there's a chance it will turn out good I'd say it's worth a shot. Though there is that problem, there is a very large benefit. More control over the individual delicate flavours in the mead, and cider, as to create a complex flavour and aroma with relative ease, and to use the most suitable and resilient yeast for each mead and cider individually, so the time of fermentation may be faster. With all these benefits, I believe it's worth it, despite the fact about watering down the apple flavour, which may be easily offset-able by a variety of techniques. ( at least in my view anyways). One idea that just popped into my head is rack onto a lot of apples. You'd regain a lot of fresh apple flavour that way.