Lower ABV Carbed Cyzer help!

[MarkKF]

O.K. I'm looking for a lower ABV cyzer recipe I can modify and force carb. Trying to hit 5.5-6.5% I'm thinking I need to start with apple juice around 1.050-1.060 and add honey + water in the 1.040-1.050 area. Just afraid the water will cause it to loose some flavor. Help!

 

[Maylar]

These guys do it commercially, and publish their recipe:

https://www.groennfell.com/recipes/category/apple

 

[MarkKF]

Thanks. I don’t get the 5 packets of yeast. Most yeast packs are good for 1-6 gal.

 

[bernardsmith]

They are .. at least that's what the labs say but Groennfell argue that home mead makers routinely underpitch their yeast and that we should view a pack of yeast being good for one gallon - not for two or three or five. Honey ain't grape. But hey! It's your call. Groennfell say that they sell their mead five weeks after pitching the yeast. You use one pack for 5 gallons and your experience may be very different... But then Groennfell tend to make session meads...

 

[MarkKF]

Sounds good to me. I wanna session cyzer. But can’t I just pitch a packet into some juice and let it multiply there before pitching it into the cyzer?

 

[NotAnyMore]

I haven't had any of Groenfell's mead so I can't comment on how it turns out for them, but pitching that much and fermenting at that high of temperature is just a different way of doing it, not the only way. In my experience one rehydrated packet works just fine for 5 gallons of a session strength mead.

 

[dmtaylor]

This one took a Best of Show recently. But it turned out 9% ABV, much higher than I had planned. I could have & should have hurt the yeast with sorbate when it hit the right ABV and gravity. Oh well. I guess somebody liked it.

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=24611.msg314213#msg314213