Do you mead it or do you want it?

We were patiently waiting for our first mead to age and to satiate our excitement about how it was blossoming in the bottle we decided to brew up another batch. Only this time we spiced things up! With cinnomen, cloves and nutmeg! We also diluted the honey with apple juice, so technically we brewed up a cyser instead of a mead.

Ingredients

• 3 liters of President's Choice unfiltered apple cider
• 1 Kilogram of honey (Local Bee from Puslinch Ontario)
• 1 Teaspoon yeast nutrient
• 1/2 teaspoon pectin enzyme
• 1 packet yeast (Lalvin K1-V1116) 5 grams

Directions

1. Place the honey into a hot water bath so that it will be easier to pour.
2. Add about 2 liters of the apple cider to a pot and heat it up. Do not let it come to a boil.

3. Add 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient and 1/2 teaspoon pectin enzyme to the pot of hot apple cider.


4. Pour the 1 Kilogram of honey into the apple cider and mix everything thoroughly together.

5. Cool the must using a cold water bath.
6. Take a sample of the must and perform a hydrometer test.
7. Once the must has cooled to around 25 degrees Celsius add it to the primary fermenter. 

8. Pitch the yeast and top off the fermenter with the remaining apple cider.


9. Seal the fermneter with a stopper and airlock.

Notes

• Original gravity: 1.128
• We did not add any spices initially but plan to add them when we rack the mead into the secondary fermenter in about a month.
• The initial fermentation was very vigorous and we had to remove the stopper and airlock. About an hour after pitching the yeast it was bubbling over the top of the fermenter. We left it open for a couple of hours for things to settle down before placing the stopper and airlock back.