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.

Taste, SO2, pH and SG Testing for everyone...

I bought a set of SO2 test titrets.  They are expensive!  $2 a pop in a pack of 10...

Here are the results and some commentary:

Tasty Tasty

Strawberry Banana Melomel
-pH = 3.7
-Free SO2 = 40ppm
-Molecular SO2 = 0.51
-Specific Graviyt = 1.008
The molecular SO2 is on the low side.  I would like to bump this up to 0.8ppm so I need to add 23ppm free SO2 (63ppm total).  I am going to assume that 20% of any added SO2 will get bound so that means a final addition of ~29ppm of SO2.  The batch size is ~19L so that means 551mg of SO2.  Since K-Meta is 52% so that means 1.059g of K-Meta all-in-all...

The taste of this batch is very nice.  In fact, I would say this was drinkable right now.  But age will do it better.  At this time the strawberry is not quite up front and lacks a lot of the berry flavor.  The banana is in the background at a very low level. But my wife, who hates bananas, says the banana is very strong and powerful. ???  Anyways, this one will be ready to bottle in a few months.  I plan on starting to sample a bottle here and there around Christmas.

You've got potential kid

Strawberry Melomel
-pH = 3.3
-Free SO2 = 50ppm
-Molecular SO2 = 1.57ppm
-Specific Gravity = 0.998
The molecular SO2 is a bit high for this dry mead.  It really doesn't need above 0.8ppm.  But, that's fine, I expect the level to drop over the aging period.  So I'll just take this as being protected for the long run.

Overall the taste of this one is BONE dry with a big acid bite.  Still showing some bitter/harsh flavors along with a harsh mouth feel.  However, the aroma is very nice strawberry and not a hint of the H2S I had before.  It looks like the copper/splash did the trick.  Overall, I would say this mead has a potential and should really shine in a year or so.  I think I will back sweeten this one to around 1.010-1.012 to offset that acid bite.

Wait and see

Pineapple Coconut Melomel
-pH = 3.9
-Free SO2 = 150ppm
-Molecular SO2 = 1.21ppm
-Specific Gravity - ????
Okay, first the pH... I guess that MOUNTAIN of coconut I added to this mead forced the pH upwards a good deal.  Last I checked this mead was in the 3.4 range.  And because of the higher pH I have missed my desired Molecular SO2 level of 1.8 by a good margin.  I wanted to get it to 1.8 to help keep down any nasty beasts that may have been riding on that dried coconut.  The big problem is that the test kits don't test above 150ppm of free SO2.  So I guess I'm stuck here.  I will go ahead and mix in some K-Sorbate to help stabilize this for the long haul.

The taste is quite unpleasant right now.  The mead is still way too young to event start taking a guess at what this will be like in the end.  I can say this: The Pineapple is present and bold.  The Coconut is already coming out big time.  The honey is lost but I think it may come back after some time.

Further observation is that the coconut oil has risen to the top of the carboy. There isn't a whole bunch of it but it is a very noticeable layer.  I'm going to leave it for now as it is a fully saturated oil and protect by an airlock from oxygen.  I hope this means it won't go rancid in the next few months while I age this on the coconut.

I didn't take a gravity reading because I haven't back sweetened it yet.  That will come after I rack this off of the coconut.

Poison?

Finally we have the Orange Zest Traditional:
-pH = 3.9
-Free SO2 = 28ppm
-Molecular SO2 = 0.23ppm
-Gravity = 1.006
The pH of this combined with the low SO2 is causing a very low Molecular SO2 level.  This isn't good.  I will have to do something about it.  At this pH I'll need almost 100ppm Free SO2 to get my desired Molecular level.  I just might have to add acid as well as SO2 to achieve my goal.  I'll think about it.

The taste of this batch has turned ugly.  It is slightly sweet and there is a lot of honey essence. With the qualities it is a nice mead, but there is this BRUTAL bitterness to it.  I don't think it is the orange zest, I was careful not to add the pith.  Whatever the cause of this flavor, I would only drink a glass if you paid me to.  Perhaps a bit of acid would help to balance the sweetness.  But the bitter flavor is the killer.  I'll add some acid here in the next few weeks and bottle it in a few months.  I don't have much hope but who knows.

Pineapple Coconut Melomel (Mead) - Let there be COCONUT!

Cool.  So that addition of Super-Kleer K.C. worked pretty well I would say.  The picture below doesn't really look it but once I shone a flashlight into it I could clearly see the compacted lees on the bottom.  Since most of the major crap fell out I decided to pull the trigger on racking and also add the coconut to the mix.

I found some bulk shredded died coconut at a local Smith's Grocery and bought 5 pounds of it.  It looked like a lot of Coconut in the bags, but in a 6 gallon carboy it looks like a LOT of coconut...

The racking went smooth.  My total volume of mead was just right.  As you can see in the photo below it came right up to the neck just as the racking cane started sucking air.  After this photo I ended up adding a touch of water to bring it up just a bit more...

Along with the mead itself I also added 6g of K-Meta (Potassium Metabisulfite) which works out to the addition of total SO2 = 150ppm.  Considering the rule of thumb that ~50% of added Sulfite gets bound immediately that results in 75ppm of Free SO2.  This mead's pH is 3.4 so that mean the molecular SO2 is 1.84ppm.  For normal bulk aging a molecular SO2 level of 0.8ppm is the target.  But since I put a bunch of very non-sanitized coconut into the mix I wanted to bump it up a good notch.  The nominal sensory threshold for Sulfites lies at a molecular SO2 level of 2ppm.  So my addition of 1.83ppm molecular SO2 should be just fine at this point.  Once I rack off of the coconut into a 5 gallon carboy I'll maintain a 0.8ppm Molecular SO2 level.

Here is what was left in the primary fermenter... YUMMY!

Well, that's it for the next few months.  I'll pop a few pictures here and there to show off its progress but at this point I'm going to be hands off...

Time to think of my next batch.


UPDATE: 5/21/12 12:30PM
After slapping the carboy around a bit along with some swirling and shaking I got most of the coconut to drop.  On further though I'll probably stick a racking cane down there and stir it up a bit once a week for 3-5 months....

Pineapple Coconut Melomel (Mead) - Fermentation is complete

I took a sample Wednesday night and subjected it to quantitative analysis.... I measured it.  At this point the gravity is down at right about 1.002.  But, that is a subject of some debate.  Here's the deal.  Hydrometers aren't exactly precision pieces of measurement equipment. I own three hydrometers and they are all off from each other by around two points.  I have been using the same hydrometer for every measurement for this batch.  That way the relative gravity readings are correct.

This becomes an issue however when trying to see if this is completely dry or not.  For this particular hydrometer, pure water measures at a gravity of about 1.004.  Based on that assumption I need to subtract 4 points from the measured value to get the real gravity.

By that logic, the mead is currently running at a gravity of 0.998.  Leading me to call this dry and finished.  The airlock is producing one blip every minute or so.  I am assuming this is just dissolved CO2 coming out and perhaps a final kicking of the yeast.

SG = 1.002 (Corrected to 0.998)

I also measured the pH @ 3.4.   With this pH it means I won't have to add too much total SO2 to protect this mead.

Update: 5/19/2012 5:00PM
I am trying something different.  I added some SuperKleer K.C. to promote a faster clarification of the mead before I rack onto the coconut.  I just don't want to carry over a lot of yeast and crap as I plan on leaving it on the coconut for a good while...  I didn't take a photo at the time I mixed it all in but here is one that I took about 4 hours after I mixed it up.  From my perspective this looks like it has already clear up quite a bit.  Let's see what happens.

Triple Mead Racking Day

I got off my lazy ass this last weekend and racked the three Meads that were needing it.  The Strawberry Banana Melomel,  Orange Zest Traditional Mead, and the straight Strawberry Melomel.