Hello. I have been making homebrew for awhile. I decided to try making a cyser with 3 gallons of fresh Apple Cider and 15lbs of raw honey. I bolied it for about 15 minutes, cooled it and pitched Champagne yeast. My OG is 1.460. Is this normal? Thanks in advance.
Cyser OG=1.460
- Thread starter Sacdan
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Hmm. I don't know that most hydrometers go that high. Mine stops at 1.170. How did you take your measurement?
And Welcome to GotMead?
And Welcome to GotMead?
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Hi Sacdan, welcome to GotMead!!!
I reckon you want a Sack strength cyser. lol.
You might want to check that hydrometer reading again, most hydrometers will not reach 1.460 - usually they top out at less than 1.200. Was the actual reading 1.146? If so, that is in the right range though I would usually expect with apple juice a gravity from a mixture like yours to hit 1.160 or higher, so again, double check that reading.
If the gravity is 1.146 or higher you are asking an awful lot from the yeast. High gravity starts stress the yeast, increase acetic acid production, and may produce lower levels of alcohol.
Is you goal to make a very high alcohol, somewhat sweet batch of cyser that will take a very long time to integrate?
Medsen
I reckon you want a Sack strength cyser. lol.
You might want to check that hydrometer reading again, most hydrometers will not reach 1.460 - usually they top out at less than 1.200. Was the actual reading 1.146? If so, that is in the right range though I would usually expect with apple juice a gravity from a mixture like yours to hit 1.160 or higher, so again, double check that reading.
If the gravity is 1.146 or higher you are asking an awful lot from the yeast. High gravity starts stress the yeast, increase acetic acid production, and may produce lower levels of alcohol.
Is you goal to make a very high alcohol, somewhat sweet batch of cyser that will take a very long time to integrate?
Medsen
I would like to get around 14% and have it dry, champagne like, yet somewhat sweet. Any suggestions?
By champagne-like, do you mean sparkling?
The typical MO for sparkling wine and mead (which you can of course deviate from to suit your needs/abilities) is to start from an OG of about 1.080-1.100 and let the yeast eat all the sugars. The dry still wine/mead is then primed with a measured amount of sugar and bottled. The second fermentation that occurs in the bottle gives you bubbles. Methode Champenoise procedure is to then coax the yeast in the bottle (which produced the carbonation) into the neck of the bottle (riddling), freeze the yeast plug and shoot it out (disgorging). This can be messy.
A dosage of sugar can be added at that time before recorking to produce different levels of residual sugar. You can skip all those last steps and still get a sparkling mead, you'll just have a dusting of yeast at the bottom of the bottle. Personally I'd rather have the yeast there and save the riddling for the professionals.
Starting from an OG of 1.146, your yeast are going to be pretty tired at the end of fermentation. You used a strain with a high alcohol tolerance, so you might be able to make this cyser a sparkler. Once you know the FG, you can gauge how much more oompf the yeast have left and maybe try bottle priming. If you have a keg setup, you can make anything sparkling. ;D
The typical MO for sparkling wine and mead (which you can of course deviate from to suit your needs/abilities) is to start from an OG of about 1.080-1.100 and let the yeast eat all the sugars. The dry still wine/mead is then primed with a measured amount of sugar and bottled. The second fermentation that occurs in the bottle gives you bubbles. Methode Champenoise procedure is to then coax the yeast in the bottle (which produced the carbonation) into the neck of the bottle (riddling), freeze the yeast plug and shoot it out (disgorging). This can be messy.
A dosage of sugar can be added at that time before recorking to produce different levels of residual sugar. You can skip all those last steps and still get a sparkling mead, you'll just have a dusting of yeast at the bottom of the bottle. Personally I'd rather have the yeast there and save the riddling for the professionals. Starting from an OG of 1.146, your yeast are going to be pretty tired at the end of fermentation. You used a strain with a high alcohol tolerance, so you might be able to make this cyser a sparkler. Once you know the FG, you can gauge how much more oompf the yeast have left and maybe try bottle priming. If you have a keg setup, you can make anything sparkling. ;D
