Well this is my first cyser as well as my first post here on gotmead.com.  I was turned on to cysers from Oskaar.  I met him over at a friends and he was kind enough to let me sample his cyser.  Love at first sip.  It was outstanding and I knew I had to make one soon.  1 month later and $80 lighter, I decided to take the plunge.

I belong to a brew club called the BrewCommune and we had a brew day last Saturday (8/12/06).  Myself and another brewer (who was absent that day but will be doing the same recipe later next week) purchased all of the ingredients needed.  Ingredients list as follows:

5 gallons Trader Joes Apple Juice
15# Orange Honey from Millers
2 packages of Dried Pitted Tart Montmorency Cherries from Trader Joes
2 packages of Dried Rainier Cherries (unsulfered) from Trader Joes
2 packages of Dried Wild Blueberries from Trader Joes
20g of ICV-D47 (4 packs)
20g of GoFerm
16g of FermaidK

8/12/06
Made sure to rehydrate the dried fruit the day before.  The day of mazing, I made sure the apple juice had ample time to come to room temp.  We poured 4.5 gallons of apple juice into the bucket/kettle.  Leave that extra .5 gallons out so you can rinse out honey containers and stuff.  Added all of the honey.  Note: the orange honey was a little light in sugar so Oskaar added another # or so of mesquite honey to get me to 1.130. Added the pureed (thanks for bringing the blender Oskaar) fruit, STIR WELL.  I borrowed Oskaar's lees stirrer and need to buy one of my own – an upside down racking cane is just a PITA!  Added some Goferm (i forget the amount) to 200ml of 110d water.  Once the misture dropped to 104d we added the yeast.  Covered and let the yeast proof for 15 minutes.  At this time I poured everything into a 6.5g carboy and hit it with my O2 system for 1.5 mins.  Pitched the yeast, covered with sanitized cloth and a rubber band, and let it be.

Later that afternoon I brought the must home and put it into a temp controlled fridge.  Must temp controlled at 70d.  Stirred twice that day using an upside down racking cane attached to a cordless drill.

SG 1.130

Daily notes:

8/12/06 stirred 2x SG 1.130
8/13/06 stirred 3x
8/14/06 stirred 3x + 20s shot of O2 SG 1.108 tastes sweet and good, lightening up in color, bubbles are a steady stream out of the blow off tube.

8/15/06 stirred 3x + 20s shot of O2 SG 1.084 starting to pickup a slight hotness from the alcohol but still tastes great, still steady stream of bubbles.

8/16/06 stirred 3x still bubbling away.  1-2 bubbles a sec now.  Will take gravity sample tomorrow.

That's it for now, I'll update again in a few days.  This aeration thing scares me – but I know I'm getting good advise.  Mazing is definitely different that brewing beer.  There's much less work up front but more work on the back.  The complete opposite of brewing.  It's still fun – I kinda like the hands on approach to it.  I just need to invest in more better bottles!  This 6.5g gets heavy having to constantly lift in and out of the fridge.

 

8/17/06 No longer stir to aerate but stir for 1 min to keep the yeast in suspension.  The bubbling has slowed just a tad but it's still 1+ bubbles per sec from the blow off tube.  I took a sample after stirring and the gravity looks to be 1.062.  Gave the sample and taste and mmm… chunky sweet goodness.  I'm curious to see just how clear this thing will get once it's done.  I showed my wife and she said it looks like swirling puke – I think she's right.  She declined the hydro sample – it's OK, I'll change her mind in about…. a year.

 

8/18/06 stirred 1x slowly just to mix up the must and keep the yeast in suspension
8/19/06 stirred once SG is now at 1.041
8/20/06 had to move to water bath to make room in fermentation fridge, stirred once.

8/21/06 must at 1.032. Racked in the evening and wound up leaving almost a gallon of the lees at the bottom.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to carry this over so I just left it – I guess it's ok since there is plenty of yeast still in suspension. 

8/22/06 added 1 quart of apple juice to fill 5g carboy to the neck.  There appears to be additional fermentation.  Will leave alone to see if second fermentation starts and will check gravity again in several days.  I already see small white bubbles along the outer liquid line.

8/23/06 there is definitely secondary fermentation going on.  Plenty of activity being seen (I can't see the bottom because it's in a water bath) and there's lots of CO2 being released – sounds like rice crispies almost!  I will wait about a week for this ferment to finish then stir once daily for the next 4 weeks as instructed.  Remind myself to buy The Compleat Meadmaker.

 

8/27/06 – Gravity has dropped to 1.023 and I like it where it's at.  As suggested, I will crash and rack to tertiary after about 2 weeks for bulk againg.

 

8/29/06 – placed carboy into a modified 60qt cooler and crashed at 46-50d.  Must is really starting to clear up.  Best news is, my copy of The Compleat Meadmaker arrived today.  I can't wait to dig into this!  Mental note, pick up some 1g jugs to test out a few more recipes.  Will check gravity again in about 1 week.  There still seems to be a little activity coming the airlock but it's chugging slooowly now so I'm not worried.

 

9/6/06 – A little over a week now and the must is starting to clear.  There is still active fermentation but it's very slow.  Gravity sample taken today reads 1.020 and it tastes awesome.  Not as hot as I remember the previous sample tasting but perhaps it's due to the lower temps.  I will rack to trietery this week for exntended aging.  Will be doing a JAO this week as well as soon as I find a place that sells cinnamon sticks.  Love this stuff

 

9/9/06 – racked to tertary and will store at ~70d for the rest of the time.  When racking, I lost about .5 gallons to the trub/lees at the bottom of the carboy.  There is still slight fermentation activity going on so I hope this helps purge the O2 in the carboy as I forgot to fill it with CO2 before racking.

 

9/12/06 – Cyser is just sitting in the fermentation cooler and will be for the next 1/2-1 year or so.  No more posts on this item as there is nothing to post about!

 

10/11/06 – So I decided to take another sample to see how things are coming along. The gravity is now 1.012 which puts me at close to 16% ABV.  The taste however is slightly medicinal in flavor and mouthfeel to me.  It's almost as if drinking cough syrup on the finish in that there's a slight mouth numbing quality to it.  Doesn't taste BAD but not quite as good as I had hoped.  Oskaars batch of course tastes awesome.  (we did a side by side batch).  I will start swirling the yeast into suspension twice a month for the next 5-6 months before allowing to drop clear again.  I'm not giving up on this batch and besides, I have a JAO that should be ready in a month to hold me over 🙂

 

11/02/06 – I continue to swirl the carboy about once or so every 2 weeks.  I'm hoping the strange medicinal flavor drops out.  I am resisting temptation and just leaving the lid on it and will stir and just wait it out for a few more months.  If I get a chance to meet up with Oskaar, I'll thieve a sample so he can tell me if this batch is salvagable.