Spiced Cyser - Brewlog and Recipe

Spiced Cyser

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Initial SG: 1.106

Initial Volume: 5.33 Gallons

Yeast: K1v-1116 (10g)

Fermaid-O: 82.4g (160ppm YAN)

Go-Ferm: 13g (19ppm YAN)

H2O: 250ml Bottled Drinking Water

Ferm-Cap: 1 Dropper plus 2 drops in Yeast Starter

Honey: ~9 lbs Winco Clover

Juice: 4.5 Gallons of Kroger Brand Apple Juice (SG = 1.050)

Procedure:

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Heat honey to warm and whip it into the apple juice in a plastic bucket fermenter.

Aerate for 15 minutes using an air stone.

Rehydrate yeast in Go-Ferm per directions.

Pitch yeast and place into a temperature controlled water batch set for 15C.

Day 0 - 9:20PM

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pH: 4.0

Temperature: 78F

Initial SG: 1.106

Initial Volume: 5.33 Gallons

Yeast: K1v-1116 (10g)

Fermaid-O: 82.4g (160ppm YAN)

Go-Ferm: 13g (19ppm YAN)

H2O: 250ml Bottled Drinking Water

Ferm-Cap: 1 Dropper plus 2 drops in Yeast Starter

Honey: ~9 lbs Winco Clover

Juice: 4.5 Gallons of Kroger Brand Apple Juice (SG = 1.050)

Must Temperature @ Pitch: 76F

Yeast Temperature @ Pitch: 80F

Pitched: 7/7/12 9:20PM

Corrected SG @ 60F = 1.108

Day 0 - 11:20 AM (14 Hours)

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Calibrated pH meter - It was off by -0.1 point

Sanitary Aeration for 5 minutes through air stone

SG = 1.104

Temperature = 60F

pH = 4.0

Day 2 - 12:00 AM (27 Hours)

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Sanitary Aeration for 5 minutes through air stone

SG = 1.098

Temperature = 60F

pH = 4.0

Added 3.25g Fermaid-K  - (16ppm YAN) Total YAN = 195ppm 

Day 2 - 12:20PM (39 Hours)

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Sanitary Aeration for 5 minutes through air stone

SG = 1.083

Temperature = 62F

pH = 4.0

Added 4g DAP  - (42ppm YAN) Total YAN = 236ppm 

Day 3 - 9:20 AM (48 Hours)

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H2S Detected - Very Slight

Sanitary Aeration for 5 minutes through air stone

SG = 1.060

Temperature = 64F  (Coolant off for last 6 hours. It is back online now)

pH = 3.9

Added 6.5g Fermaid-K  - (42ppm YAN) Total YAN = 278ppm 

Added 9g Fermaid-O - (18ppm) Total YAN = 296 ppm

Added 1 more dropper of Ferm-Cap to knock down foam...

Day 3 - 10:20 PM (48 Hours)

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H2S Detected - Stronger

SG = 1.042

Temperature = 62F

pH = 3.9

Added 15g Boiled Baker's Yeast  - (30ppm YAN) Total YAN = 327ppm 

Slight Stir

7/11/12 8:20AM

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H2S Detected - Very very slight

SG = 1.032

Temperature = 62F

pH = 3.9

Slight Stir

7/11/12 8:00PM

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SG 1.023

pH 4.1

62F

Slight Stir

7/12/12 9:30AM

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SG 1.016

pH 4.0

62F

Slight Stir

7/12/12 10:30PM

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SG 1.011

pH 4.0

64F

Slight Stir

Turned Off Cooling

7/13/12 10:20PM

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SG 1.008

pH 4.1

66F

Swirled

Moved to Shelf

7/14/12 11:59PM

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SG 1.008

pH 4.1

74F

Swirled

7/23/12 9:18PM

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Racked into 5 gallon BB

pH = 4.1

SG = 1.005

Appearance - Cloudy

Smell - Very much like wine.  Clean. No SO2 odours. Promising

Taste - 

Added 5.3g of K-Meta. The targets are (160ppm Free) (0.80 Molecular)

I am going to wait 3-4 days then check free SO2 using a titret. Based on the ratio that was bound I will calculate the addition to bring the Free SO2 to the target range...

   

Pineapple Coconut Melomel Racking - NOT FUN

So, it was time to rack the melomel off of the coconut as I needed to 6 gallon carboy to brew a Strawberry Wit Beer.

Initially I thought that a section of pantyhose would work well as a filter.  Nope.  The small mesh size just clogged up.  So I abandoned that idea and just went for the racking cane tip.... Nope. That clogged up as well.

By then I was getting a little pissed and decided to sanitize a fruit bag and stuff it down the neck of the destination carboy.  I also sanitized a big funnel and performed what I think may have  been a mistake.  I ended up just pouring the melomel into the funnel and letting the fruit bag filter out the coconut that made it into the pour.

Needless to say, this was quite a rough way to handle the mead and I hope I don't pay for it later.  There was a good deal of SO2 in the mead but I'm not sure what impact today will have.

Also, I ended up not being able to get the bag out of the carboy.  Too much coconut made it in.  I ended up tying off the bad and I'm going to let it sit in there until the mead drops clear and I rack it for the last time.  At least it is in a bag so I shouldn't have any problem with the racking later.

****NOTE***** The next time I do coconut (And I will because my sample taste was AWESOME) I must put the coconut in a bag.  DO NOT ADD COCONUT WITHOUT A FRUIT BAG!!!!

Adjusted acid on the Strawberry Banana Melomel

I've been lazy about the mead but today something got done...

The melomel is crystal clear and looking good.  I tasted it and found it to be quite flat.  It really needs some twang to it.  So I drew a 200ml sample and added a 10% w/w solution of acid blend (citric, malic, and tartaric) to it in measured amounts.  I ended up adding 8ml of the solution (8g) and though it was a bit heavy on the acid.

I also didn't want to add THAT much acid all in one go.  My calculation said to add 80g!

0.8g Acid/200ml Wine=0.004g/ml of acid
0.004g/ml=4g/Liter
5g/Liter * 20Liters = 80g Acid Blend

Too much for me to add at once, so I ended up adding 30g of Acid blend.

Here are the rest of the stats:

pH = 3.6
Free SO2 = 50ppm
Molecular SO2 = 0.8 ppm (RIGHT on the money!)
Gravity = 1.014


Taste Observations:  Now I can taste that banana!  Woo its really in front.  The Strawberry flavor is lacking as of yet.  Otherwise it is a nice drink.  The alcohol is fairly strong on the nose and somewhat on the tongue.  Overall this is good and should be a lot better in a few more months.  I'm going to let this acid addition blend for a month and then re-taste.