Cyser - improved

Cysers have become a favorite of those who enjoy the efforts of the Teacher’s Brewing Coop. As a reminder, a cyser is a specific type of Mead. Mead being a fermented honey beverage. Mead is considered by some to be mankind's oldest fermented beverage. Mead is simply honey and water that has fermented. Early examples were fermented by wild yeast. Mead is independently multicultural. It is known from many sources of ancient history throughout Europe, Africa and Asia, although archaeological evidence of it is ambiguous. Its origins are lost in prehistory; "it can be regarded as the ancestor of all fermented drinks," Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat has observed, "antedating the cultivation of the soil." Claude Lévi-Strauss makes a case for the invention of mead as a marker of the passage "from nature to culture."

When honey is mixed with fruit juice the resulting fermentation is a type of mead known as metheglin. When the fruit juice used in making metheglin is apple juice - the resulting fermentation is known as cyser.

The road side honey stand on Venable Street in Crystal River that I pass every day, sells natural Citrus County wild flower and orange blossom honey depending on the season. This with my standard base stock of WD brand Apple Cider and some tinkering with the recipe, has resulted in a repeatable sweet beverage containing around 15% alcohol, that because of it’s popularity, has precluded most of the regular cider this spring.

Improved Cyser Recipe

4.5 gallons Apple juice (bottle says cider)

5 lb. Citrus County natural honey (you may substitute a substandard honey from you local area, but it won’t come out as good as Citrus County Honey)

2.5 lb table sugar

½ oz green apple extract

1 pkg. Safale US-05 Dry Ale Yeast

Heat the honey by placing the honey container in a large pot of water on the stove and boiling the water. This will allow the honey to flow and dissolve. To your fermenting container add 1 gallon of the apple cider, then add the honey and stir it well. Add another 2 gallons of apple cider and the sugar and stir this well; add another gallon of apple cider and the yeast package and stir this well; top off with cider to 5 gallons and ½ oz of green apple extract. If you’re using a glass or plastic carboy and not a brewing bucket, cover it so that it isn’t exposed to light, or put it in a dark closet. A standard grocery store paper bag with a hole cut in the bottom makes a great cover for your carboy, and costs almost nothing. The fermentation should start in a day or so. Allow it to ferment 8 to 12 days depending on temperature. In my air conditioned house it’s done at about 9 days. Add 1/2 tsp of potassium sorbate to stop the fermentation and bottled the next day. The product is not clear but is delicious and drinkable right on bottling day. It will clarify over time, and after 6 months this brew is truly the nectar of the gods.