Cyser

Name: Cyser
Yield: 5 gallons
Cuisine: Homebrew
Ingredients: Honey — 12 lbs; Apple juice — makes up the 5 gallons; Cinnamon sticks — To taste; Cardamom — To taste; Star anise — To taste; Yeast nutrient — Per the packet; Pectic enzyme — Per the packet; Brewer's yeast — A packet of whatever brewer's yeast you fancy.

Mead fermented with apple juice instead of water

What it is

A cyser replaces the water with apple juice, giving a drink that is both sweeter and tarter than a plain mead. Twelve pounds of honey across five gallons — under the usual three-per-gallon, because the juice brings sugar of its own. Barrel-aged six months.

The build

Makes. 5 gallons

Vessel. Open-top bucket, about 6.5 gallonsThe vessels hold about 6.5 gallons to the top and only ever get 5 gallons of brew, so there is an air gap above it. That gap is what stops a blowout.

Yeast. A packet of whatever brewer's yeast you fancy. Champagne yeast is the one used here, because it keeps going to around 15% — and your local homebrew store will happily point you at the right one for what you are making.

Fermentables

Honey — 12 lbs2.4 lbs per gallon, not 3 — the juice is a fermentable too. More or less depending how sweet you want it.
Apple juice — makes up the 5 gallonsIn place of the water — that is what makes it a cyser. He gave the batch as "12 lbs of honey for 5 gallons"; the volume poured is not separately recorded.

Flavorings

Cinnamon sticks — To taste
Cardamom — To taste
Star anise — To taste

Also goes in

Yeast nutrient — Per the packetNot required. Worth it anyway: underfed yeast gets stressed, and stressed yeast is where off flavors come from.
Pectic enzyme — Per the packetFor clarity. Pectin is what leaves a fruit mead hazy.

Scaling. All of these scale down. A single gallon bottle of fresh apple juice with some of it swapped out for honey will get you a small batch, no special kit required.

Aging

Six months in a 5 gallon barrel, level 3 char, and it tasted great. Old whiskey barrel or new, either is fine — his words on both the size and the char were "or whatever, it doesn't matter".

Before you brew this

Fermentation produces carbon dioxide, and a sealed or blocked vessel is a pressure vessel — the Valentine's Brew blocked its own blow-off tube. These worked for the brewer, which is not the same as working with a different vessel, yeast and kitchen.