Our first cyser, based partially on this recipe. This apple juice from Perricone Farms is unspeakably delicious. The must smelled glorious while brewing.

We're going to call this recipe Motherfucking Cyser.

Ingredients in this batch

Yield:.

  • 1 x 16.9 oz. bottle;
  • 1 x 500 mL bottle; and
  • 7 x 12 oz. bottle.

Total: 118 fl. oz., or about 92% of a gallon

Heated the apple juice to 113°F in our 20-quart pot, stirring frequently, to assist with dissolving the honey. Poured in the honey, then heated approximately six ounces of tap water to above 100°F in the microwave and swirled it in the honey container to get most of the rest of the honey out, then poured that into the must. Stirred in the yeast nutrient and then stirred vigorously for five minutes to ensure it was aerated. Temperature was still over a hundred, so the pot got an ice-water bath in the sink until the temperature came down to 77°F.

Meanwhile, rehydrated the yeast in 2 oz of water at 104°F, letting it sit, covered, then poured the must into a one-gallon (actually: four-liter) carboy. There was almost a liter left over, which will be used for cocktails, I guess. (It's tasty with a shot of whiskey and just a bit of lemon juice. And some chocolate bitters.) Pitched the yeast into the carboy and swirled it to mix everything in. Popped a fermentation lock into a stopper and the stopper into the carboy, and labeled the carboy.

Original gravity: 1.126.

Observations

  • 2016-05-15T21:59:00: No sign of fermentation in the carboy yet. Of course, it's only been twenty-nine minutes.
  • 2016-05-16T10:15:00: Definite vigorous fermentation going on this morning when I looked at the carboy. Cyser had backed up into the airlock, so I went through the empty-rinse-sanitize-refill process. Xenia says that she had to do this on her way to work several hours earlier. Dumped a bit of cyser out to make more room for krausen.
  • 2016-05-16T23:23:00: No further trouble with krausen and cider getting to the airlock, and krausen seem to have fallen back toward the must. Carbon dioxide continues to be produced quite rapidly.
  • 2016-06-12T20:25: Returned from a week and a half on the road. No indication of continuing fermentation.
  • 2016-06-18T04:39: Still no carbon dioxide discharge.

Bottling

2016-07-17_15_41_38_HDR
Bottling batch 005.

Bottled on July 9. It's still rather hot, but is delicious nonetheless, and promises to mature well with aging.

Lessons Learned

  • Stirring honey into apple juice doesn't save as much volume as I'd hoped: three pounds of honey in a gallon of apple juice doesn't come anywhere near fitting into a four-liter glass carboy. It would probably take a gallon and a half of space to brew the entire amount. (On the other hand, the leftover honey-juice mixture is delicious.)

Wish list for next time

  • A blowoff hose for early stages of vigorous fermentation.