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Cyzer
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4.90 from 19 votes

Cyser (Apple Mead)

Homemade cyser is a traditional recipe for apple honey wine or apple mead. The sweet honey pairs beautifully with the rich flavor of autumn apples in this homemade mead.
Prep Time1 hour
Cook Time14 days
Secondary Fermentation42 days
Total Time56 days 1 hour
Servings: 1 gallon, or about 4 bottles
Author: Ashley Adamant

Equipment

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Start by removing about 1 quart of juice (4 cups) from the gallon. Save this juice in the freezer for topping the mixture off in secondary.
  • Dissolve all the ingredients (except the yeast) in the remaining 3 quarts of apple cider. Sometimes heating gently can help with this, but do not boil.
  • Pour the sweetened juice mixture into the fermentation vessel and allow it to come back to room temperature if it was heated.
  • Dissolve the winemaking yeast in a small amount of unchlorinated water (about 1/4 cup). A packet is sufficient to start fermentation in up to 5 gallons of juice, but you still use a whole packet for anywhere between 1 and a 5 gallon batch. Allow the yeast to sit for about 10 minutes to rehydrate.
  • Add the wine yeast to the fermentation vessel with the juice.
  • Top off the fermentation vessel with some of the apple juice you set aside at the beginning until the level of the juice is at the base of the neck of the fermentation vessel. Be sure to leave 2-3 inches of headspace to allow the mixture to bubble.
  • Cap with a rubber bung and waterlock (filled with water) and allow the mixture to ferment in primary for about 7 to 10 days. Fermentation will be very active, and may bubble up into the water lock. If so, clean out the water lock and re-attach it as necessary.
  • After primary fermentation, use a brewing siphon to move the ferment to a clean fermentation vessel, leaving any sediment behind.
  • Re-cap with a water lock and allow the mixture to ferment in a cool, dark place in "secondary" for at least 6 weeks, but preferably longer, like 4 to 6 months.
  • When fermentation is complete, bottle the wine in wine bottles and allow it to bottle age for at least a month but preferably longer before drinking. If you'd like sweet wine, back sweetening may be necessary at this point. Otherwise, bottle and allow the mead to bottle condition for at least a month before enjoying

Notes

Amount of Juice

At the start, you need about 3 quarts of juice because the honey will take up some space in the fermenter. Save the last quart of juice for topping off the container after it is racked over into secondary. Some of the volume is always lost when you leave the sediment behind in the primary fermentation vessel. Placing the last quart of juice in the freezer until needed ensures it stays fresh until needed.

Amount of Honey

Most recipes suggest between 1 3/4 pounds honey and 2 1/2 pounds honey. At 1 3/4 pounds, the result will be very dry, and I don't recommend it. At 2 pounds, you'll have a semi-dry to semi-sweet mead that has enough residual sugar to be interesting. At 2 1/2 pounds, the batch will be sweet, but not overly so. This assumes you're using the recommended Lavin D47 yeast with a 15% alcohol tolerance. Yeast with lower alcohol tolerance will result in more residual sugars, and conversely, yeast with a very high alcohol tolerance will use up more sugars and result in a dryer finished mead.

Yeast

For cyser, choose a wine yeast with moderate alcohol tolerance that either ferments clean or adds light fruit flavors.  Good yeast choices include Lavin D47, Lalvin QA23, Red Star Premier Cuvee or Lavin EC-1118.