10 Gallon Batch
30 lbs of Honey
7.5 Gallons Apple Juice
3 packets Lalvin 71B yeast
2 tablespoons of Yeast Nutrient with Hulls
OG was 1.140 (Too high for the Refactometer to read it!)
Pitched at 69F, Brewhemoth got it down to 62F in 1 Hour.
If I don't Sulphite it, we could end up with a 18% monster, but I'm planning on testing daily after a couple of weeks and then kill off the yeast to leave it sweet, probably 12-14%.
Edit on July 2nd...
At 1/3 Sugar Break...as found on the gotmead site, add some more nutrient, and aerate.
So I added another 10 ml of Nutrient with hulls and aerated a bit...think I might aerate some more yet, some folks do it right down to 1/2 Sugar Break.
JQ
Quote from: JohnQ on June 25, 2013, 02:58:17 PM
If I don't Sulphite it, we could end up with a 18% monster, but I'm planning on testing daily after a couple of weeks and then kill off the yeast to leave it sweet, probably 12-14%.
JQ
Methinks more like 15-16% to leave it sweet - Any more than that and your FG will be >1.035 - i.e. really syrupy and sweet.
I was meaning to mention earlier - my recipes were for 13 gallons at this scale, not 10 :)
Interesting,
Planning on pulling it out a little at a time and experiment with different levels of mixing with other juices to secondary with.
I'd be ok with 16% before adding some juice.
JQ
Where did you get all the honey?
Quote from: chrismccull on June 25, 2013, 05:22:13 PM
Where did you get all the honey?
LOL, of all places...
Costco.
$16 for 3 kg.
JQ
I hope its not "wildflower" honey... cue the epic hangovers... p.s I still have some of that mead
Quote from: Kyle on June 25, 2013, 10:40:11 PM
I hope its not "wildflower" honey... cue the epic hangovers... p.s I still have some of that mead
We are going to be testing the same recipe that was the hangover king as well as soon as I empty out the BH full of Lager.
The hypothesis is that the hangovers were actually a result of a yeast byproduct. I'm going to be using 71B at 62F to hopefully eliminate that problem.
JQ
Day 6,
Vigorous Fermentation still apparent with a constant stream of bubbles through the blowoff keg.
Gravity is measurable now at 27.6 Brix, which Beersmith tells me is a gravity equivalent of 1.105, down from 1.140, the ABV right now is at 4.75%.
It tastes sooooo very good right now, that I'd happily stop it and drink it, only a very little at a time as it is INSANELY sweet still.
Of course having combined basically sugar with sugar, I guess that's not a giant surprise.
Can't wait for a couple more weeks.
JQ
1/3 Sugar Break...
Added 10 ml of Nutrient with hulls and aerated.
JQ
11.5% this morning, the oversweet is gone I think, definitely going to pull a couple litres today and continue pulling more every 0.5% from here on out.
RB, are you home today, might drop by with a sample for you to try??
JQ
This was superb. The apple and mead balance together perfectly - reminded me of the sweeter ciders. I suspect with age, this will be phenomenal.
Thanks for dropping by JQ. Was a nice break from coding :)
Small change of plans, gonna cold crash it all right now, loving the taste as it is, will let it mature for a few weeks and see what the result is like.
JQ
Interesting Factoid...
Just Sulfited the 2nd batch run of this, 15 gallons this time.
After the early feedback on batch 1, I left this to ferment a little longer to dry it out some more.
It had slowed down around 16.2%.... 1.139>1.019.
Pulled out the brochure from Moonlight Meads, their Cyser is listed as Semi-Sweet, and 16.8%, hmmm pretty close.
Will be interesting to compare in a couple of months time.
JQ