It Burns!

[dave_witt]

I started 5 gallons of spiced cyser last October, hoping to have it ready for this winter. It's just been sitting for at least 6 months now; I just racked to a clean carboy for the 3rd time. It looks and smells great--just burns on the way down. Almost like a cheap whiskey. Almost to the point where it covers up the taste.

Could be the fact that the mead spiked to 76 degrees this past week--If that's the case, I've managed to clear room in our 3rd fridge for a 5 gallon carboy, so hopefully it'll help. Could also be the 16.5% ABV. At any rate, I'm pondering the idea that 4 months may not be enough to get rid of that burn.

So, has anyone had the luck of a somewhat good burn dissipating within 4-5 months? Or should I just be planning on drinking this in Fall '12?

 

[AToE]

Oh yeah, 6 months or so is very little time for high-ABV burn to dissapate. Also that heat wave during aging shouldn't cause burn, just too much heat during fermentation. Even meads I make aroun 13 or 14 % take at least a year for the noticable alcohol taste to mellow out.

 

[Medsen Fey]

I'd guess you're looking at another year at minimum.
What was the recipe and fermentation temp? If you fuseled it up, you could be waiting a long while.

 

[fatbloke]

Don't forget, a tried and tested (both homebrew and commercially) way of covering up any "alcohol hot" taste, is to sweeten it up.

The commercially made meads I've tried here, are all cloyingly sweet - dessert meads, I suppose they'd be described as (FG, IRO 1.040).

It just depends on how your batch is now, whether you could get away with that or not......

 

[dave_witt]

I'd guess you're looking at another year at minimum.
What was the recipe and fermentation temp? If you fuseled it up, you could be waiting a long while.

It fermented at 69F.

Recipe follows:

Cyser (Dreyma Refa)
10/26/10
Initial SG: (calculated) 1.145 (measure) 1.126
pH: 4
PABV: 16.5%
ABV: 0%
Balling: 29.3%

Finishing ABV: 17%
Finishing Balling: 1%

PRIMARY
3 gallons cider
1 gallon water
12 pounds blackberry honey
1.25 cup brown sugar
1.25 cup raisins
3 vanilla beans, cut and scrapped
D-47

SECONDARY
10 cinnamon sticks
10 cloves?
3 vanilla beans?

Left 3 gallons of cider out overnight, and it began fermenting. Pasteurized cider at 145 degrees and honey for 8 minutes. Let cool, added ingredients, yeast. Fermenting quickly after a few hours. Very strong scent.

Above calculations are from reading, not calculated. However, reading didn’t take into account sugar locked into raisins. Theoretical PABV is about 17%, balling 33%. This may finish dry.

Blackberry honey is rich and dark, but doesn’t taste much like berries like I was told. We’ll see how this turns out, but I don’t think it’s worth $75 for the honey again.

11/6/10
Still fermenting rather strongly. Has an odd scent. There doesn’t appear to be any mold or fungus, etc. I can’t remember how it smelled the last time I made this stuff. I shouldn’t be too worried about it. I need to take an SG reading of this to see how far it’s gone.

11/30/10
Took a sample for SG measurement. Smells, tastes fine. Has a very strong kick to it. This’ll need to sit a while. This may need some back sweetening, but not sure yet.

SG: 1.006 at 69 F
PAVB: .75%
AVB: 16%
Balling: 1.5%

12/1/10
Racked to secondary. Added 12 cinnamon sticks (a couple were small), 12 cloves ( to kill the bag), 3 vanilla beans. We’ll see how the extra spice holds up in the blackberry honey. Still fermenting slowly. I may add some nutrient, but I don’t want to step feed the yeast, especially since it’s D47. Hopefully it’ll finish slight off-dry, but I doubt it.

12/5/10
Keeping an eye on this. It’s clearing, but it’s doing that thing on the surface where the bubbles are sticking and it seems to have some type of film on the surface. Smells ok, though.

12/9/10
Still clearing. “Bubbles” have started to go away. I don’t want to wait another 7 months to drink this. >.>

12/23/10
Racked to tertiary. No extra ingredients. Slight burn, but tastes ok. Much more milder flavors than last time. Dangerous because it’s still 16% alcohol. >.>

SG: 1.005 at 68 F
PAVB: .75%
AVB: 16%
Balling: 1.5%

5/11/11
Tasted. Still has a slight burn, but less than last time if I remember correctly. Milder flavors. Strong.

8/3/11
Racked to quad. No new ingredients. Still has that burn, which is a bit disconcerting, strong kick. Mild flavors. No yeast flavor.

SG: 1.004 at 76F
PAVB: .5%
AVB: 16.25%
Balling: 1%