Which one of your wine making kits would I buy to make a basic Apple Cyser recipe? And a list of other ingredients needed. Thank you Janet
Name: Janet N.
State: CA
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Hello Janet,
Without a doubt you will want to get the “Your Fruit!” Wine Making Kit for making apple Cyser. This wine making kit has been designed for beginning winemakers that will be using their own fruit instead of a wine concentrate – in your case, the apple juice. It works great for making wines from strawberries, blackberries, cherries, peaches, watermelon… the list is endless. And yes, it will work great for making an apple Cyser recipe.
This starter wine making kit includes all the essential wine making ingredients you will need to make almost any fruit wine. The wine yeast, nutrients, sanitizers, etc. It also comes with two wine making books. One of them containing 100 wine making recipes; the other contains great insights to making homemade wine. A complete list of what’s in the wine making kit is on our website.
Coming up with an basic apple Cyser recipe is easy. Sense apple Cyser is basically an apple mead, essentially what you are doing is making an apple wine recipe, but instead of adding the sugar it will call for, you will be adding honey in its place. So basically, you can take any apple wine recipe and turn it into an apple Cyser recipe.
Because honey is not all sugar – it has some moisture or water in it – you will need to add more honey by weight than the wine recipe calls for in sugar – usually about 20% more. In the case of our apple wine recipe, you would want to take out the 5 pounds of sugar called for, and replace it with 6 pounds of honey. This is all that is needed to turn it into an apple Cyser recipe. Apple blossom spun honey would be idea but is usually cost prohibitive at 6 pounds. Barring this, clover or wild flower honey will work fine.
Apple Cyser Recipe
(Makes 5 Gallons)
- 5 gallons of apple juice
- 6 lbs. of honey
- 2 tbsp. Yeast Nutrient
- 1/2 tsp. Pectic Enzyme
- 2-1/2 tbsp. Acid Blend
- 1tsp. Tannin
- 1 Packet of Wine Yeast: EC-1118
- 10 Campden Tablets (5 prior to fermentation and 5 at bottling time)
You can follow the wine making directions on our website or the directions that come with the starter wine making kit.
And that’s how to make apple Cyser. Get the “Your Fruit!” Wine Making Kit; convert the apple recipe into a basic apple Cyser recipe and follow the wine making directions. Also realize that you will have some left over wine making ingredients for making future batches of wine. This could be use to make another apple Cyser recipe or some other fruit.
Best wishes, and happy wine making,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.
Mead?
I am in the process of making a 6 gallon batch of Blueberry Mead. At this point I have followed the recipe according to the Winemaker’s recipe handbook to the letter. It’s been about 30 days, since I reached the recommended S.G. 1.030 and racked the juice into a sanitized carboy. It seems that I’m stuck at this S.G. level.
I added both Yeast Energizer and Nutrient which has not increased the fermentation process. I’m getting about one bubble every 45 – 50 seconds, which seems very slow.
Should I just let it continue to ferment, or do something else?
John, this is a pretty typical thing that can happen when fermenting a mead. Adding the nutrients as you did was the right thing to do and is probably why you are seeing any activity at all. What is really needed at this point is the addition of magnesium sulfite (1/2 teaspoon to 5 gallons). Here is some information that will explain what’s going on in a little more detail:
"If You Struggle With Making Mead, The Read This…"
http://blog.eckraus.com/wine-making-tricks-and-tips/mead-fermentation-stopped
magnesium sulfate?
Jay, magnesium sulfate is often used when making Mead where the fermentation can sometimes be quite a challenge. See the below link to the product for more information.
Magnesium Sulfate
http://www.eckraus.com/4-oz-magnesium-sulfate.html
Will apple juice purchased at the store work for this recipe, or does it need to be fresh squeezed?
Thank You!
Kent, as long as the juice does not contain preservatives such as Sodium Benzoate or Potassium Sorbate that can prohibit fermentation, it is perfectly fine to use store bought juice to make wine.
Hello,
I’ve been making mead for about 2 years now and enjoy every step of the process. My question for you is in your directions above you said 6 pounds of honey. Is this 6 pounds for the entire 5 gallons? I understand the apple juice has sugar in it that will be consumed by the yeast, is this why you said 6 pounds of honey?
Usually I add 3-4 pounds of honey per gallon of mead, depending on my end goal. I just wanted to check with you.
Suzanna, yes it is 6 pounds of honey for the entire 5-gallon batch. You are correct that the sugar in the apple juice is taken into consideration.
I have a question. The directions are not clear as to how to get started. (apples) Do I take a bunch of apples, cut them up and press out 5 gallons of juice? Do I take a bunch of apples, cut them up, put them in the fermentation bag, add water, etc and go?
Joel, when making apple wine/cyser you normally start with the apple juice. You can purchase apple cider from the store or juice the apple yourself. Purchasing the juice will make the process much easier.
Hi Joel,
They make apple grinders to turn the apples into small pieces called “must”. Then you press the must to squeeze out the juice. In my experience a good press will squeeze out one gallon of juice to one 5 gallon bucket of whole apples ground into must. So it takes about 5-5 gallon buckets of apples to make 1 five gallon batch of juice. Happy grinding and pressing!
Hello
Can sugar be used instead of honey?
I would be using the apples off our tree for the juice.
Sugar can be used but then it would not be a Mead but a regular apple wine. The taste will be completely different. If you want to use sugar i recommend you find a different recipe since this recipe is measured specifically for honey.
Hi,
First timer here. I was advised that it is perfectly alright to use sliced apples (from my garden) as I don’t have a juicer. I’m wondering at what point I should strain them out of the mixture.
Thanks!
Nikoletta, normally, you will remove the fruit pulp and squeeze out the juice somewhere around 5-7 days. The following article will provide a link to the 7 steps of wine making that will walk you through the process.
Apple Wine
https://blog.eckraus.com/making-apple-wine-2
I want to use this recipe to make sparkling Cyser. To do this, would I leave out the last five Campden Tablets and then add a small drop of honey into each bottle prior to filling?
Also how long do you think the Cyser would have to sit in order for it to absorb the C02 and become sparkling?
Steph, I am sorry, due to the difficulty and danger involved in the process, we do not typically provide information about making sparkling wines. Below is the link to the only information we have about making sparkling wine.
Sparkling Wine
https://blog.eckraus.com/how-to-make-sweet-sparkling-wine
I am going to be making a small batch of cyber for my next brew project. My question is this: Should I cut the ingredients directly proportional to the amount of juice that is used? I am especially wondering about the campden at the beginning and end of the process.
Tom, the way to convert a five gallon recipe into smaller batches is to divide all ingredients except the yeast by five. This will turn it into a one gallon recipe. Then you can just multiply that amount by the number of gallons you wish to make. You will want to use the entire packet of yeast whether you are making one gallon or five gallons.