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Spiced Apple Cyser

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OldSalt

OldSalt

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 9, 2012
13
0
0
Beverly, MA
Hello,

Been making wine for around 4 years and wanted to try making mead.

I recently made two test batches of mead one with 12 lbs of honey and the other with 18 lbs. Both were fermented with Wyeast 4632 dry mead yeast. So far, I prefer the 18 lbs version; dry with just a hint of sweetness.

Now I want to try a spiced apple cyser; something with brown sugar and cinnamon and maybe some more spices. I have looked at dozens of recipes, but want to get some advice on the amounts of ingredients to use for a 6 gal batch.

Here's what I have to work with:
pasteurized, unfiltered cider
local wildflower honey
light brown sugar
Indonesian cinnamon sticks
bentonite
Irish moss
one smackpack Wyeast 4632 dry mead yeast
and possibly include
Madagascar vanilla beans
whole cloves
whole allspice
french and/or american oak

I also have tannin, pectic enzyme, acid blend and yeast nutrient and energizer.

Any suggestions on the amounts of these ingredients to use and which extras to use?

Any other tips are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
S

SilentJimbo

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Oct 9, 2012
159
5
18
Hampshire, UK
I recently made a spiced cyser.
For spices I used one stick of cinnamon and one clover per gallon, in both primary and secondary, for about 4 weeks total. Flavour from them wasn't as strong as I'd hoped, so I'd advise 2 of each per gallon, although with the allspice in there you might be alright.
 
Chevette Girl

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,447
59
48
Ottawa, ON
Welcome to the forum, I see you're already familiar with the addiction ;D (I got my start with winemaking too).

Most meads are better with a hint of sweetness unless they've had some time to age, so give that dry batch some more time before you pass judgement, 6 months to a year is when it will start coming into its own. Even the folks who like dry meads often claim it tastes like ass when it's young.

Spicing levels can be pretty individual, you sort of have to balance your preferences with the age and potency of your spices... I find one cinnamon stick per gallon (with a long residence time, as in a JAO or similar) to be pleasantly perceptible but not overpowering, whereas some folks find that's not enough or too much, they don't leave it in as long, only use half, or find they need two. And cloves, I use two new ones or 5 old ones in a JAO (try it, it's AWESOME if you like it sweet and want to drink it within the first year!), I haven't found the tongue-numbing effect from over-cloving a batch yet like others have reported with JAO. I like vanilla in my meads but I find there's something unpleasant about it in the first year or so. I usually go with one or two beans per gallon but that'll depend on whether I want it to be a dominant or supporting flavour. I chuck allspice into a lot of my spiced musts but I'm never really able to pinpoint what it contributes and I'm still playing with amounts, I've gone as low as six and as high as twenty berries per gallon, either run through my coffe grinder, cracked, or even left whole (doesn't seem to matter as long as you leave it in for a month or two, you'll get all the tasty goodness out of it eventually).

I'd start conservative, one vanilla bean, one cinnamon stick and no more than two cloves per gallon, you can always add more of one or more of your chosen spices later.

The folks on this forum don't usually bother with the bentonite beforehand, and you can safely use the irosh moss out, that's generally a beer thing and requires heating, which we don't generally do to our honey... generally we only clarifiers and fining agents if they're required by a must that refuses to clear once it's done its thing.

With brown sugar and honey, I usually pick one or the other, although some folks have had some good results using both. You'll probably be able to find a few brewlogs if you do a forum search on "brown sugar" (use the quotations or just sugar will give you way too many hits). What I like doing is fermenting on the fruit with one sugar source then doing a second run with another, I've had some really nice batches that way.
 
akueck

akueck

Certified Mead Mentor
Certified Mead Mentor
Jun 26, 2006
4,958
11
0
Ithaca, NY
Check out the ABC recipes (apple butter cyser). That might give you some good ideas.
 
OldSalt

OldSalt

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 9, 2012
13
0
0
Beverly, MA
Sorbate in the Cider

Thanks for the tips. I decided to simply put the cider, honey and yeast in the primary, add the spices to the secondary and then backsweeten with brown sugar while bulk aging.

Ugh! I just noticed the cider has potassium sorbate!:eek:

Did a bit of research and found you can remove most of the sorbate by first fermenting with bread yeast:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/wineblog9.asp (see Removing Benzoic Acid).

Does anyone have any experience with this? Is there another method for removing sorbate?
 
Chevette Girl

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,447
59
48
Ottawa, ON
That's a new one, using bread yeast under low pH conditions to absorb it and then removing the bread yeast... Good on you for doing the research, although I just finished reading it and Jack did this with naturally-occurring benzoic acid, which is NOT the same as potassium sorbate, which is what you stated that you have in your cider, and may well have different properties, although I don't know enough about its makeup to say either way... we've all just assumed that potassium sorbate can not be removed.

The good news is that sorbated must can sort of be worked around... it doesn't prevent the yeast from doing their job, it just won't let them breed. We've had a case here where someone did mostly successfully get a sorbated cider to ferment by repitching several times with large vigorous starters, just use canned apple juice in your starter instead of the sorbated cider so that your yeasties go forth and multiply before you expose them to the sorbated must.
 
OldSalt

OldSalt

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 9, 2012
13
0
0
Beverly, MA
Chevette Girl said:
That's a new one, using bread yeast under low pH conditions to absorb it and then removing the bread yeast... Good on you for doing the research, although I just finished reading it and Jack did this with naturally-occurring benzoic acid, which is NOT the same as potassium sorbate, which is what you stated that you have in your cider, and may well have different properties, although I don't know enough about its makeup to say either way... we've all just assumed that potassium sorbate can not be removed.

The good news is that sorbated must can sort of be worked around... it doesn't prevent the yeast from doing their job, it just won't let them breed. We've had a case here where someone did mostly successfully get a sorbated cider to ferment by repitching several times with large vigorous starters, just use canned apple juice in your starter instead of the sorbated cider so that your yeasties go forth and multiply before you expose them to the sorbated must.
Click to expand...

Yes, Jack does mention that sorbate is different from benzoic acid, but that they both affect yeast reproduction the same and the countermeasures would be the same as well.

I will do as you suggested with multiple yeast pitchings. Like you said, sorbate doesn't affect fermentation, just yeast reproduction. I've got a packet of Wyeast 4632 dry mead yeast to start and will look around for some additional yeast for starters ... maybe D21 or Red Star Pasteur champagne yeast.

Will start a blog on the progress soon.

Thanks!
 
Chevette Girl

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,447
59
48
Ottawa, ON
OldSalt said:
Yes, Jack does mention that sorbate is different from benzoic acid, but that they both affect yeast reproduction the same and the countermeasures would be the same as well.
Click to expand...

That would be an interesting experiment to try sometime, but I've done enough organic chemistry and biology to know that just because something affects things the same way doesn't mean you can make a valid assumption that the mechanism will be identical... just the difference in the molecular shape of the acid could affect how it goes through the cell membrane into the yeast, and I didn't see Jack mention that the treatment was the same, just that sorbate has mostly replaced benzoate for commercial use as a preservative.

The other problem with his treatment is it involves bringing the pH down to a level that would probably not work at all well with mead, given honey's natural acidity, and yes you can use something to bring it back up but it'll still show up in the taste if too many chemicals end up being added... Still, an interesting idea.
 
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