Super Cyser??

[Jwin]

And move to secondary before fermentation is over. You want a few gravity points left to scrub o2 out from transfer

 

[MindenMan]

Jwin is correct. Unless you have a way to CO2 blanket your fermenter, rack to secondary before all the yeasties have died.

 

[JDXX1971]

Hello again,

Thank you everybody for the replies. Definitely helps me decide what to do.

Tested and tasted again just now, the sg is 1.025. Sure is getting strong!! I had my wife taste it with me and........ There is a bit of a bitter taste but a lot less than the last time I tasted it. At the current sg we can taste plenty of flavors from the honey and brown sugar I put in. There is definitely a strong alcohol bite and aftertaste. My wife likened the aftertaste to a clean alcohol like vodka. I did not get much apple flavor but my wife could taste it but thinks it would be nice with more. So the current plan is that will be finishing with Langers ajc.

We do have C02 on hand so I think we will finish all fermenting in the primary 30L Speidel and then rack under pressure to a purged 20L speidel. Not that I have done it before, but I am sure I have enough parts to figure something out.

Since this batch is so big and will grow more with the ajc additions I am going to have to figure out what to put the extras in. We have a one gallon glass jug, I will probably grab another and put the extra in those. Then my wife and I can each have one to experiment with. I want to try some oak in one to see if I want to oak the whole batch. I am a bit leery after reading up on adding oak. Cinnamon sounds good too but my wife does not like it. So I will probably use my test jug to try the oak. Who knows what she will do with hers??????

 

[Maylar]

Besides cinnamon, there's nutmeg, cloves, and cardamon that go well in cyser. Very small amounts (especially clove) of whole spices, not powdered.

 

[JDXX1971]

Tested SG today at 1.017. I have to work tomorrow so I went ahead and added three 11.5 oz. cans of FAJC. This brought the SG up to 1.023 (maybe a little more).
Being as the cyser is still fermenting at a good steady rate I did not worry about oxygen contamination and just gently stirred the FAJC in with a sterilized spoon. Hopefully everything will be ok.
I plan to test the SG again in 2-3 days as long as the airlock is still pumping away. When it drops back down to 1.015 +\- I will add three more cans of FAJC. My FG target is 1.025 or so. I will top up the FG with the concentrate or maybe more honey once the yeast have reached their alcohol tolerance. After that it will be racked into a purged secondary with very little head space.

This sure has been a fun batch of brew. I have learned a bunch from the process so far. From our taste test it seems like it will be very drinkable. Waiting for it to age is going to be the hard part.

 

[JDXX1971]

Getting closer!!!!!!!!!!! We added four more cans of FAJC today to bring the sg back up to 1.025 from 1.017. By my calculations we should be at 15% or so now. D254's tolerance is 16%, we will see how far it goes.

 

[JDXX1971]

So a Recap,

Sept 17, 6 gallons Mott's all natural AJ, 5 pounds Wild Mnt. honey, 1\2 cup lemon juice and D254 yeast with Ferm Protect with a o.g. of 1.067.

Sept. 22, s.g. 1.040 Added 10 lbs. WM honey and 2 lbs. brown sugar new s.g. 1.096.

Did a three day nutrient feeding of Fermaid O.

Oct. 4, s.g. 1.017 added 3- 11.5 oz cans Langers FAJC. new s.g. 1.023.

Oct 7, s.g. 1.017 added 4- 11.5 oz cans Langers FAJC. new s.g. 1.025.

Oct 9, s.g. 1.021 added 3- 11.5 oz cans Langers FAJC. new s.g. 1.027. So...

1.067
.056
.006
.008
+ .006

= 1.143 O.G.

Oct. 11 (right now) s.g. 1.024 which should put it near 16% now!!! I am hoping it will stop soon as I am out of things to put in this brew.

I guess I will have to go buy some more FAJC just in case it decides to keep on going.

 

[JDXX1971]

Down to 1.020 for approximately 16.5% this morning and still bubbling happily away.
I am thinking to put it in a 20L Speidel for secondary soon, there wont be any room to add any more sugars if need be though. So I am gonna leave it alone for now.

How far will it go??????????

Place your bets

I am going to feed it sugar until it dies.

 

[Jwin]

Just be careful as the bubbling in your airlock could just be off gassing throwing you off and you'll end up with a super super sweet Boosie and you'll end up with a super super sweet boozy mess

 

[JDXX1971]

Just be careful as the bubbling in your airlock could just be off gassing throwing you off and you'll end up with a super super sweet Boosie and you'll end up with a super super sweet boozy mess

Yeah I thought about that, so far the s.g. is still dropping. I am not going to add anything else until the s.g. drops near 1.010. I have 3 more cans of FAJC ready to add if needed, which should raise the s.g. about 6 points. I think I will just let it be wherever it finishes for aging. I just want to be sure the yeast have sugar available until they reach alcohol toxicity.

 

[Jwin]

Lol. Stupid text to speech^

Are you wanting to bottle it still? Or carbonate?
At this point, how much of a difference is 16 and 18% or whatever the difference is?
Rack to secondary while there's still a bit of active fermentation going and age it. If you wait until the yeast dies, you'll oxidize it. Or, I forget, maybe you racked already.
If you want to keep pushing the limits, you could pitch some super high gravity yeast.

 

[JDXX1971]

No I haven't racked it yet. I just wanted to make sure it had enough sugar to finish first. We do not plan to use chemicals here, so I wanted to brew something that could be bottled from the keg later and be stable. I should rack it though I know it. I was thinking about purging a carboy and racking under pressure but it would be easier to rack it now. Tomorrow, tomorrow is the day, I will take another reading and decide if I want to add more FAJC or not and rack it. I need the 30L Speidel for a batch of Pappy's pub cider anyway.

 

[JDXX1971]

Lol. Stupid text to speech^

Are you wanting to bottle it still? Or carbonate?
At this point, how much of a difference is 16 and 18% or whatever the difference is?
Rack to secondary while there's still a bit of active fermentation going and age it. If you wait until the yeast dies, you'll oxidize it. Or, I forget, maybe you racked already.
If you want to keep pushing the limits, you could pitch some super high gravity yeast.

You really got me thinking last night so I checked the s.g. , it was down to 1.016. So we added four more cans of FAJC which brought the s.g. to 1.026. I tasted it at 1.016 and decided that I liked it better the last time I tasted it at 1.025. I want the yeast dead from alcohol toxicity, if it manages to use up too much sugar I will sweeten it later.

This morning we racked it to secondary. We ended up with a 20L Speidel full up the neck, a one gallon glass jug full and a 1\2 gallon AJ jug full. Damn rubber stoppers I finally got the one in the AJ jug to stay but the one gallon glass jug keeps spitting it out.
Anyway I am nervous that we were too late and fermentation had stopped already. The air lock on the Speidel is starting to slowly work again so I am hoping there is a little more fermentation happening yet. Though it is, by my calculations, at 17% now. But I do think it is still going a bit, I will check it again in a couple days. I am thinking about hooking up the Speidel to c02 for taking samples as I am freaked out about oxidizing it now.
We will keg 5 gallons and to carb and probably bottle the rest still. We have never bottled (decided to go straight to kegs) so I will have to figure all that out next.

 

[Jwin]

Perhaps with the extra, freeze(jack) it?

 

[JDXX1971]

There is an idea!

 

[JDXX1971]

This stuff is still going!!!!! I checked three days ago and the s.g. was 1.024 now it is 1.022. for approximately 17.75% now.

Will it ever stop?

 

[Jwin]

Sounds like it's on its way there.
Getting pretty cool there in North CA at night. Keep it warm.

 

[BWRIGHT]

Been a year now. How'd this turn out? Guessing you had to age it quite a bit.

 

[JDXX1971]

Been a year now. How'd this turn out? Guessing you had to age it quite a bit.

This is still aging, and needs it. I dont know how "good" it will ever be it is still kinda alcohol hot and sickly sweet. Though my wife has been drinking it here and there mixed with ginger ale, which is quite good actually. I also bottled up some of it to save long term so time will tell.