Time for another strong cyser. Going to keep feeding this one until the yeast gives up. Since the nominal alcohol tolerance of Safcider is 19%, that should hopefully be pretty high. Until a better name becomes apparent, I'm going to call this batch Very Strong Honeycrisp Cyser.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 2.5 gal. (five half-gallon containers) Kroger 100% Juice unfiltered Honeycrisp apple juice.
  • 1 gal. (two half-gallon containers) Tree Top 100% Pure Pressed Honeycrisp 100% Apple Juice.
  • 2 gal. (two one-gallon containers) River Ridge (Sparta, MI) 100% Apple Cider.
  • 7 lb., 3.5 oz. raw Grade A wildflower honey from Bee Happy Honey, Minneapolis.
  • 4 lb., 4.8 oz. star thistle honey from Bee Happy Honey, Minneapolis.
  • 1 pack Fermentis Safcider yeast, rehydrated in ½ c. tap water at 95℉.
  • Addition of 12 Nov 2022:
  • Addition of 1 Jan 2023:
    • 3 tsp. pectic enzyme.
  • Addition of 1 Jan 2024:
    • 1 vanilla bean from Costco, to batch 233A.

Sanitized equipment. Mixed honey into the apple juice. Pitched yeast after rehydrating it. Put lid on bucket and airlock in lid.

Brew date: 18 Oct 2022.
Estimated original gravity: 1.117 ???
Bottling date: 8 Nov 2024
Final gravity: 0.994.
Estimated ABV: 18%!

Yield:

Batch 233

  • 10 x 22 oz. beer bottles
  • 10 x 12 oz. beer bottles
  • 1 x 500mL beer bottle
  • 1 x 7 oz. soda bottle

Batch 233A

  • 11 x 22 oz. beer bottles
  • 1 x 500mL beer bottle
  • 9 x 12 oz beer bottles

Total yield: Approx. 621 fl. oz., or just over 4.8 gallons.

Notes and observations

  • 2022-11-12: Added more honey to the carboy.
  • 2023-01-01: Added pectic enzyme to the carboy.
  • 2024-01-01: Racked the batch into two three-gallon carboys; calling them 233 and 233A. Batch 233A got a vanilla bean.
  • 2024-11-08: Bottled with gold caps (plain) and blue caps (with vanilla), yielding just over 4.8 gallons of strong cyser..