JQ Cyser

[JohnQ]

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

[Richard]

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

[JohnQ]

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

[chrismccull]

Where did you get all the honey?

[JohnQ]

Where did you get all the honey?

LOL, of all places...
Costco.
$16 for 3 kg.

JQ

[Kyle]

I hope its not "wildflower" honey... cue the epic hangovers... p.s I still have some of that mead

[JohnQ]

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

[JohnQ]

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

[JohnQ]

1/3 Sugar Break...
Added 10 ml of Nutrient with hulls and aerated.

JQ

[JohnQ]

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

[Richard]

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

[JohnQ]

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

[JohnQ]

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