Thanksgiving is around the corner. That means it's time to brew 2020's Thanksgiving brews. This is one of them: a honeycrisp cyser with cranberries added after primary fermentation is over.

Because a better name never became apparent, I'm calling this batch Thanksgiving 2020 Cranberry Honeycrisp Cyser.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 2 gallons Tree Top honeycrisp apple juice.
  • 5 lb., 8.1 oz. Kirkland Colorado dark wildflower honey.
  • 1¼ tsp. Vintern's Best pectic enzyme.
  • 1¼ tsp. Wyeast beer nutrient.
  • 1 packet Safale Safcider dried yeast, rehydrated in ¼ c. tap water at 100℉.
  • 3 lbs., 12.7 oz. fresh Ocean Spray cranberries, frozen before adding on 15 December 2019.
  • 2½ c. Kroger 100% Apple Juice (SG 1.054), added on 18 Dec 2019.
  • ¾ tsp. pectic enzyme, added on 18 Dec 2019.
  • 3½ c. dark solera mead (batch 166), added on 19 February 2020.

Sanitized. Mixed honey into the apple juice one half-gallon of juice at a time by pouring some juice into the brewing bucket, putting some honey into the half-gallon juice container, and shaking vigorously to mix. Added pectic enzyme and beer yeast nutrient. Rehydrated and pitched yeast.

Brew date: 13 October 2019.
Original gravity: 1.130. (but we're using an as-if OG of 1.123.)
Bottling date: 25 June 2020
Final gravity: 1.013.
Estimated ABV: 16.5%.

Yield:

  • 1 x 375mL wine bottle
  • 2 x 750mL wine bottles
  • 14 x 500mL wine bottles

Total yield: Approx 8.9L, or approx. 2.6 gallons.

Notes and observations

  • 2019-12-15: Added just over three and three-quarter pounds of fresh cranberries, frozen, to new carboy, then racked cyser onto cranberries.
  • 2019-12-18: Many cranberries are above the level of liquid in the carboy, so I added a bit more apple juice to ferment, and some additional pectic enzyme to help with clarification. All the cranberries are now covered in liquid.
  • 2020-01-14: Pulled off a hydrometer tube's worth of still-fermenting cyser to free up some headspace: the cranberries had swollen, and the cyser was beginning to be pushed into the airlock. Gravity: 1.010. There is still plenty of carbon dioxide being produced in the carboy.
  • 2020-02-19: Topped off the carboy with seven-eighths of a quart of dark solera mead.
  • 2020-06-25: Bottled, yielding almost nine liters of 16.5% ABV cyser.