The Heart Warrior

[MxWhiskey]

This is a cyser (apple mead) I am making for, and in honor of, my son Nathaniel. He was born 10 weeks premature 6 months ago with a congenital heart defect and had open heart surgery when he was 2 and a half months old. The intention is to age and open this mead with him on his 21st birthday to celebrate him and how hard he has fought to live.

The Recipe:

• ~4.75 lbs wildflower honey
• ~1.2 gallons apple cider (S.G 1.042, Brix 10.46)
• 5g EC-1118
• 6.3g Go-Ferm Sterol Flash
• 63 ml cider for go-ferm
• 2+ g Fermaid-O

Aging:

• 2 Madagascar Vanilla Beans
• 2 Ceylon Cinnamon sticks
• 2 Cloves
• 1 Nutmeg
• ⅓ tsp Allspice berries
• 1/10 oz licorice root
• ¼ tsp Black peppercorns
• 1/3 spiral medium toast French Oak

This is my first time utilizing step feeding, so while that is a lot of honey, it is not going in all at once. Regiment is as follows:

1. Mix must to S.G. of 1.08 and add activated yeast.
2. Follow typical staggered nutrient addition schedule at .5g/addition
3. One gravity has dropped to approximately 1.05, add more honey to get back to 1.08 and .5g of nutrient.
4. After 24 hrs add another .5g of nutrient
5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 until all honey has been used.
6. Let finish fermenting, stabilize, and begin secondary.

The goal is for the final mead to be sitting at ~21% ABV. At that point, I'll be aging with medium toast French oak and the spices I listed. None of the spices will be in longer than a week or two, and the wood will be in for the recommended time for a spiral (I believe that is somewhere around 3 weeks), and then it will proceed to age in bulk for a year. After that year it will be bottled with natural cork and bottle aged for 20 more years. Here's hoping it doesn't go wrong

 

[Kickass]

What an inspiring story. Isn’t it incredible how much fight a newborn has in them, let alone one born with so many odds stacked against them. My prayers and well wishes are with you and your family.

One of the favorite meads I’ve made thus far is a bochet cyser. I really like what apple juice brings to the table. Keep us posted.

 

[bernardsmith]

Apologies: I don't want to sound harsh but have you checked the spec sheets for your choice of EC 1118? Lallemand , the lab that cultures this yeast, states that it's tolerance for alcohol does not exceed 18%. Sure, it MAY be able to survive a little higher under optimal conditions, but looks like you are counting on it being able to get above 20% ABV. Is that something you have successfully achieved when your desire for a similar cyser has not been as critical? How many meads have you made that have not peaked flavor-wise before their fifth year?
That aside, a well-balanced mead or wine is incredibly challenging to make at alcohol levels much above 13 -14%, which is why really good wines are rarely, if ever found much above 12%. I am simply concerned that you are going to disappoint yourself if this mead turns out to be less than you hoped.

 

[MxWhiskey]

Did you check the spec sheets for your choice of EC 1118? Lallemand , the lab that cultures this yeast, states that it's tolerance for alcohol does not exceed 18%. Sure, it MAY be able to survive a little higher under optimal conditions, but looks like you are counting on it being able to get above 20% ABV. Is that something you have successfully achieved when your desire for a similar cyser has not been as critical? How many meads have you made that have not peaked flavor-wise before their fifth year?
That aside, a well-balanced mead or wine is incredibly challenging to make at alcohol levels much above 13 -14%, which is why really good wines are rarely, if ever found much above 12%. I am simply concerned that you are going to disappoint yourself if this mead turns out to be less than you hoped.

Hey, valid concerns. With step feeding and proper nutrients, EC-1118 is well known and documented going as high as 22%. It's actually the recommended yeast for step feeding to high ABV because it does well with it and frequently goes to that 22% mark. I'll be monitoring it as I step feed for reduction in activity, and if I feel like it's not going well I'll absolutely stop early.

The mead is not going to be great at first. Having made a sack mead before, it's rough and takes at least a year to age before it's tasty. This isn't going to be drank for 21 years. So it is absolutely a gamble and an experiment, and it'll either end with something I can drink or something I laugh about in 21 years. This alcohol content was also recommended to me for aging for so long.

It very well may be a fools errand, and yeah ultimately would be an expensive failure. But I'm ok with that risk. The results will be fun and interesting regardless.

 

[SeanC138]

Apologies: I don't want to sound harsh but have you checked the spec sheets for your choice of EC 1118? Lallemand , the lab that cultures this yeast, states that it's tolerance for alcohol does not exceed 18%. Sure, it MAY be able to survive a little higher under optimal conditions, but looks like you are counting on it being able to get above 20% ABV. Is that something you have successfully achieved when your desire for a similar cyser has not been as critical? How many meads have you made that have not peaked flavor-wise before their fifth year?
That aside, a well-balanced mead or wine is incredibly challenging to make at alcohol levels much above 13 -14%, which is why really good wines are rarely, if ever found much above 12%. I am simply concerned that you are going to disappoint yourself if this mead turns out to be less than you hoped.

First MxWhiskey, prayers and well wishes to your family. I know someone who went through something very similar and their child is in his 20's now and healthy/happy.

Second, I've used EC-1118 and had it go well above 18% many times. As a famous YT personality says often "Yeast don't read". Spec sheets are just spec sheets. It doesn't mean EC-1118 will hit 18% and stop. In my experience with this yeast, if you give it the proper sugar/nutrients, it will 9 times out of 10 go above 18% in the right environment. I also find that higher alcohol content (with time) tastes much better in meads than in wine.

 

[MxWhiskey]

Update

Took a gravity reading yesterday and its hovering around 1.02. Currently, if I did my maths right from the start, it is sitting juuuuuuuuuuuust shy of 20%. Letting it sit another week to see if it is just being slow and stirring the lees daily from here on. I'm toying with the idea of aging it sur lies for at least a month, I like the idea of the complexity it brings, but I am nervous about the potential production of sulfur compounds, so if I go for it I will be monitoring it often.

If anyone has had any experience with sur lies I'd love to hear about it.

 

[MxWhiskey]

Update: Took a gravity reading yesterday and it came out to 1.012. It's so close to dry but doesn't taste like it. Its surprisingly sweet on the tongue, has a little bite from the alcohol but not a bad one. Overall, this feels like a very clean ferment, which I'm happy about. I do believe it is done fermenting so I will be racking to a carboy today and adding the spices and oak.

 

[AzOr]

Best wishes. That’ll be the best tasting mead, regardless of how it turns out.

We all want your mead to be the best. Cysers, when aged properly, have a ton of flavor. We just opened a bottle of 5 year cyser and it was amazing.

Your recipe has a LOT of spices. There really is no hurry to add all that up front. You have another two decades. My advice would be to add 1/3 of those spices now and adjust later.

Either way, best of luck and I’m sure it’ll be great tasting.