Cyser Recipe

I bought 5 gallons of pressed apple juice for the New England hard cider I am making on Friday but I will probably only use 4 of them for it.

That leaves me with 1 gallon for something else. I was thinking I could make a small batch cyser with it.

I am thinking about meads again because last Sunday Mike and I found a source for buying raw honey in bulk. I will be picking up a few gallons (uh 48 pounds) on Friday so I foresee some mead in our future.

To kick it off, here’s a simple 1 gallon cyser recipe.

I have this idea of making a dry sparkling cyser.

1 pound of wildflower honey
1 gallon of pressed apple juice (well, most of it. Need to leave a little head room for fermentation)
1 packet of champagne yeast
.5 teaspoons of yeast energizer (Fermaid-K)
.5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient (diammonium phosphate)

Starting Gravity: ~1.096
Final Gravity: Targeting around 1.000

I probably will follow a yeast energizer/nutrient addition schedule like I did for my raspberry mead but using smaller amounts for the additions.

Rack it to another gallon bottle once primary is done – maybe in a month’s time once final gravity is met. Then let it sit in the secondary for another month. Then prime with some corn sugar – not too much though – maybe a half ounce.

I’ll bottle in a couple of 12 oz bottles for competition but if Mike lets me use his new corker, maybe I can get a couple of wine bottles filled.

If it comes out ok, I will update the post with a 5 gallon recipe. Until then…