Newbie Cyser Question

[claude3c]

Hi all this is my first post so please be gentle. ive made cider fore the last 3 yrs all from 100% apple juice that i have collected and pressed myself with great success. im going to be starting with a simple mead recipie now so its ready for xmas lol. my question is Cyser

id like to give it a bash but i want to keep the alc % to about 8%

now my ciders last few yrs have been 6-7% natural no water or additives just juice and Ec1118 yeast

so thinking to get the extra 2% i wouldnt be adding that much honey to get any real honey flavour across

so as i got some months yet before i have to do this i was thinking through the methodology and was wondering if you guys could give me some pointers

choices

Apple juice fresh dont really want to heat this up as heat does odd things to the pectins to get it hot enough for the honey to break down.

so i was thinking i would heat the honey in water

fill fermentor say 1/4 with honey water and cool check gravity say 1030

add juice to and check gravity idk say 1080 they add water to dilute to 1060

add usual camdent tabs dap and pectin enzyme 24hrs pitch yeast and off i go.

or

brew mead and cider seperatly and blend on first racking to get gravity of 1060 leave it go

what ya think im i on right path, over thinking, completly wrong?

thanks

Claude

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi claude3c and welcome. I have made only a few cysers but I would suggest that there is no need for water. Water will simply dilute the flavors. That said, I would adopt a rather more simple approach. I dislike complexity.

Your apple juice is likely to have a gravity of about 1.050 and a pound of honey will likely raise a gallon of that juice to about 1.080 - 1.085 (or about 11.5% ABV), so by estimation you may want to add .5lb of honey per gallon and that will raise the gravity of your pressed apple juice to about 1.065 and so give you a potential ABV of about 8.5%

I would avoid adding water. There is no need, and in fact , in my opinion water will simply dilute the flavor of your apples and the honey. Here's what I would do: stand your honey jars in a pot of hot water (off the heat) for five minutes. Then pour the honey onto the apple juice and mix thoroughly. I generally pour a batch of apple juice into my blender, add some honey and beat the crap out of that mixture for a few seconds until honey and juice are well mixed. That mixing also acts to incorporate air into the solution and air is really important for the yeast at this stage. For your goal I would then draw a sample of the must and check the gravity. If the gravity was higher than my estimation I would add more apple juice (that will drop the gravity). If the actual gravity is too low (because the apple juice has less fermentables than my estimation) then simply add some more honey (very approximately 4 oz of honey in a gallon of liquid will raise the gravity by 10 points). when you are happy with the starting gravity and it is all well mixed, I would then add crushed Campden (if the apple juice has not been pasteurized) and pectic enzyme and after 24 hours pitch the yeast..

 

[claude3c]

Hi

thanks Bernardsmith that makes sence i like the blender idea too.

thanks again i look forward to the end of the year now lol

 

[Farmboyc]

Won't 0.5lbs honey per gallon leave a very weak honey contribution to the flavour?

I would think it will end up basically a slightly fortified cider. Or am I way off here?

 

[Mazer828]

Hi all this is my first post so please be gentle. ive made cider fore the last 3 yrs all from 100% apple juice that i have collected and pressed myself with great success. im going to be starting with a simple mead recipie now so its ready for xmas lol. my question is Cyser

id like to give it a bash but i want to keep the alc % to about 8%

now my ciders last few yrs have been 6-7% natural no water or additives just juice and Ec1118 yeast

so thinking to get the extra 2% i wouldnt be adding that much honey to get any real honey flavour across

so as i got some months yet before i have to do this i was thinking through the methodology and was wondering if you guys could give me some pointers

choices

Apple juice fresh dont really want to heat this up as heat does odd things to the pectins to get it hot enough for the honey to break down.

so i was thinking i would heat the honey in water

fill fermentor say 1/4 with honey water and cool check gravity say 1030

add juice to and check gravity idk say 1080 they add water to dilute to 1060

add usual camdent tabs dap and pectin enzyme 24hrs pitch yeast and off i go.

or

brew mead and cider seperatly and blend on first racking to get gravity of 1060 leave it go

what ya think im i on right path, over thinking, completly wrong?

thanks

Claude

After three years of successful cider making, who could possibly call you a nube, or second guess your processes? If you like what you've been doing, seems to me you're only really looking to give a little bump to your cider with a small honey addition.

 

[WVMJack]

We enjoy making cysers and have planted a small orchard with cider apples and have bee hives we hope give us enough honey this year to make some cysers. Your yeast, Ec1118 is going to eat all the sugars in the cider and then eat all the honey and leave you a dry 8% cider, seems you like it dry? but this isnt going to give you a lot of honey flavor. Some options would be to switch yeast to a lower alcohol level yeast, or backsweeten your finished cider with honey after its been stabalized, the darker the honey the stronger the taste, so if you want just a hint of honey a clover would work well, if you want a stronger honey prescence something darker would show up better. As far as adding the honey, you can warm the honey in its container by putting the whole container in a bucket of warm water if its crystalized and add the amount you predicted right to the cider and just stir it in, we use a drill mounted stirrer, very simple, doesnt oxidize the cider, easy to clean. If you up your alcohol level up to the 12% level you have a lot more options of adding honey for its fermentiation to contribute to the whole taste. WVMJ

 

[Squatchy]

With such a honey add your not going to get any added body to your batch as well.