light sparkling cyser/ale

Hello all this is my first post. I will be making a cyser/mead with the following ingredients.

10 cans frozen apple juice concentrate (1.74 kilograms sugar)
5 lbs clover honey
topped off to 5 gallons with spring water
safale s-04 dry ale yeast

starting gravity was 1.072, and im not sure what the FG will be. i think it will fall into the range

1.000= 9.74%
1.010= 8.47%
1.020 = 7.17%.

i considered using montrachet or cort de blanc yeast, but i want a bit of sweetness, hence the use of ale yeast. i also hope to carbonate in bottles.

ill check back in a few weeks.

9 days later , gravity is at 1.036 with no krausen and constant bubbles flowing . I plan to bottle at 1.010.( approx. 8%) with an appropriate amount of priming sugar, then pasteurize.

After 22 days the gravity fell to 1.010, but I can tell it was still fermenting. so I racked to a bottling bucket for a day, then added dextrose to prime, and bottled. I will open one a day to check for adequate carbonation, then pasteurize.

After being primed for 8 days the carbonation was slight and enough for my liking, so I pasteurized at 150-160 for 12 mins. This is a low temp and a short length of time for pasteurization, but the abv was high so I feared a high temp Pasteurization would result in bottle bombs. I prewarmed the bottles in the sink with hot tap water mixed with hot water from a coffee maker. No bottle bombs during pasteurization.

notes : cider is still cloudy, and the flavor isn't perfect yet, but has a good light level of sweetness. Drinkable, but I do hope it gets better with age.

Photo before pasteurizing

Looking good. Yeah, at 8% you'll want to wait at least a month. What did it taste like at bottling?

It's like a pretty standard apple ale, yet not as sweet and way less carbonated, and still very yeasty tasting. I'm also storing In my fridge with the setting on cold, just in case they try to bottle bomb. so far they haven't gained any carbonation.

Is it possible to bottle condition after pasteurization ?
Is it possible to bottle condition at cold temps? Those are questions I am thinking a out right now.

eskimoJoe said:

It's like a pretty standard apple ale, yet not as sweet and way less carbonated, and still very yeasty tasting. I'm also storing In my fridge with the setting on cold, just in case they try to bottle bomb. so far they haven't gained any carbonation.

Is it possible to bottle condition after pasteurization ?
Is it possible to bottle condition at cold temps? Those are questions I am thinking a out right now.

Click to expand...

Yeast need to be active in order to bottle condition, so they most likely won't in the fridge and definitely will not after pasteurization.

Next time make a plastic bottle tester and open one until they seem good. Usually 2-7 days.

I think you misunderstood me... They are carbonated, but only very lightly. When I said they haven't gained carbonation, I meant since from it was pasteurized. I actually used plastic water bottles to gauge carbonation.

It is too bad it won't age after pasteurizing. Oh well! still tastes pretty ok, it was my first cider after all.

It gets a lil complicated when you're "priming" and it's still fermenting. If you're going to pasteurize, you should just try to do that when it's at the sweetness you like. The only reason I'm chiming in is because if you're trying to end up with something sweeter than not, it's much simpler to stop it where you like it. By adding dextrose (or any sugar for that matter), you're getting the yeast party started again. Just wanted to throw in my two cents and I apologize if I missed something while skimming through the thread.

I guess that makes sense, I never thought of letting it carb with its own natural sugar . I'll try that out next time thanks for the tip

This stuff has a pretty gross aroma, kind of like... Sweet skunkyness to it . Haven't been able to drink it on a regular basis. Not 100% failure, but something to build on for next time. next time I'll use fresh juice , without honey for something around 1.040 og.
On a side note is pretty enjoyable mixed with a can of seltzer water.

interesting, im working on a 1 gallon batch of cider with 1 pound of honey and 1 cup DME melted in 1 cup of water.

about the same SG as you 1.070 Im also using S-04 The malt made it have a head like beer. I tried it before I pitched the yeast and it taste awesome! Its fermenting now....I have no idea what this will taste like in the end....We'll see

Nice, let me know how the dme works with the cyser, that sounds interesting . I wonder it will make a head of foam?