At a glance
- Style
- Cyser
- Alcohol
- About 13.4% ABV
- Finish
- Off-dry
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Honey
- Clover, orange blossom or wildflower
- Yeast
- Lalvin EC-1118
- Ready in
- 3 to 4 months
- Batch
- 1 gallon, scalable
Ingredients
Quantities are for one US gallon (3.8 liters). Pick a batch size and every amount updates; one packet of yeast covers up to six gallons. Not sure how much honey your own twist needs? Use the mead calculator.
- 0.85 gallons Apple juice or fresh cider, 100% juice, no preservatives (no potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate; ascorbic acid is fine)
- 1.75 lb Honey, clover, orange blossom or wildflower
- 1 packet Lalvin EC-1118 yeast (5 g; one packet covers up to 6 gallons)
- 6 g Go-Ferm (yeast rehydration nutrient) (optional but recommended)
- 5 g Fermaid O yeast nutrient (split into 4 doses, see steps)
- 0.25 tsp Wine tannin powder (optional) (or 1/2 cup of strong black tea)
- 0.25 tsp Pectic enzyme (only for cloudy, unfiltered fresh cider)
- 0.5 tsp Potassium sorbate
- 1 Campden tablet (potassium metabisulfite)
Swapping the fruit or changing the amount? Adding fruit to mead covers how much to use per gallon, when to add it and how long to leave it. The dose and timing of the enzyme are explained in how much pectic enzyme per gallon of mead. This recipe ferments dry and is sweetened at the end: how to backsweeten mead has the stabilizing doses and a honey chart for any batch size.
Equipment
- 2-gallon bucket with lid for primary
- 1-gallon glass jug
- Airlock and drilled bung
- Hydrometer
- Auto-siphon and tubing
- No-rinse sanitizer (Star San)
New to this? Our mead making kit checklist covers what each piece does and what you can skip.
Step-by-step method
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Read the label
Check the ingredients for potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate. Either one will stop the yeast from multiplying, and the batch may never start. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is only an antioxidant and is fine. Pasteurized juice is fine; fresh orchard cider is fine too, and even better if it is unfiltered.
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Measure the juice
Take a gravity reading of the juice alone. Most US supermarket apple juice reads 1.045 to 1.050; fresh cider varies more with the apples and the season. This is your baseline for the honey math.
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Mix the must
Pour the juice into the sanitized bucket (from a 1-gallon jug, hold back about 2.5 cups and drink it). Warm the honey so it pours and stir it in until no streaks remain, adding the tannin and, for cloudy cider, the pectic enzyme. The reading should be near 1.102.
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Pitch the yeast
Rehydrate the EC-1118 with the Go-Ferm and pitch. EC-1118 will ferment from about 50 to 86°F, but hold it at 59 to 65°F (15 to 18°C): a cool ferment keeps the apple aroma instead of blowing it out the airlock.
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Feed the yeast
Apple juice is low in the nitrogen yeast need, which is why cysers are prone to rotten-egg smells. Add a quarter of the Fermaid O at 24, 48 and 72 hours and at the 1/3 sugar break (about 1.068) or on day 7, degassing gently first.
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Rack when dry
Cysers ferment fast. In 2 to 3 weeks the gravity should hold near 0.996 for three days. Rack into the glass jug and top up with a splash of the same apple juice; the yeast will simply ferment it.
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Clear
Leave it 4 to 6 weeks. Filtered juice clears quickly; unfiltered cider takes longer and may need a fining agent.
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Stabilize and sweeten
Add the crushed Campden tablet and sorbate and wait 48 hours. Sweeten with honey, about 5 oz to take it from 0.996 to 1.006, or use thawed frozen apple juice concentrate (no preservatives) a little at a time for more apple on the nose. Take a reading after either.
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Bottle
Bottle and give it at least a month. Cyser is one of the quickest meads to be drinkable, around 3 months, and it keeps well for two years.
Timeline
- Day 0Check label, mix, pitch yeast
- Days 1 to 7Four nutrient additions
- Weeks 2 to 3Fermentation finishes, rack
- Weeks 3 to 8Clear in the jug
- Week 8Stabilize, sweeten, bottle
- Month 3 and onDrink; good for about 2 years
Why this recipe works
Using juice instead of water means the apple provides a big share of the sugar. At about 1.048, 0.85 gal of juice brings roughly 41 points, so only 1.75 lb of honey (about 61 points) is needed to reach 1.102. That is roughly 60% honey sugar and 40% apple sugar: enough honey that it reads as mead with apple, not as a strong cider.
The preservative check matters more in cyser than anywhere else. Potassium sorbate does not kill yeast but stops it from reproducing, so a fresh packet pitched into sorbated juice can sit there and do nothing. Many shelf-stable ciders and some juices contain it. Ascorbic acid, which is in most apple juice, is harmless.
EC-1118 is a clean, neutral, very reliable finisher that tolerates about 18% alcohol and ferments well cool. The important part is what it leaves alone: it is not known for reducing malic acid, and malic acid is what makes apple taste like apple. 71B, which softens malic, tends to turn a cyser round but dull.
Modern dessert-apple juice has very little tannin compared with traditional cider apples, which is why a supermarket cyser can taste soft and a bit simple. A quarter teaspoon of wine tannin, or half a cup of strong black tea, gives it some grip. Skip it if you are using a fresh cider made with crab or cider apples.
Variations
- Spiced cyser: add a cinnamon stick and two cloves in a bag during clearing for 5 to 10 days, tasting every couple of days (see our spiced mead recipe).
- Lighter, more cider-like: use a full gallon of juice and just 1 lb of honey for a starting gravity around 1.080 and about 10 to 11% ABV.
- Sparkling cyser: finish dry, skip the sorbate, prime with 1 oz of honey per gallon and bottle in pressure-rated bottles (see our sparkling guide).
Troubleshooting
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| Nothing happened after 48 hours | Almost always preservatives in the juice. Recheck the label; if it contains sorbate or benzoate, start again with different juice, because re-pitching rarely works. |
| It smells like rotten eggs | Hydrogen sulfide from nitrogen-starved yeast, common with apple juice. Degas, confirm every nutrient addition went in, and stir in 1 g of extra Fermaid O if it is before the 1/3 break. |
| It tastes thin and hot | Young, dry cyser does. Sweeten to at least 1.004 and give it another month or two in the bottle. |
More mead recipes to try
- Spiced mead (metheglin) recipe: Cinnamon, clove, orange and vanilla added by taste in secondary. The holiday mead.
- Pyment (grape mead) recipe: White grape juice and honey fermented crisp and off-dry, like an aromatic white wine.
- Bochet (caramelized honey mead) recipe: Honey cooked to dark caramel before it ferments. Toffee, marshmallow and dark fruit.
More fruit mead recipes: Strawberry mead, Raspberry mead, Blueberry mead, Blackberry mead, Cherry mead, Peach mead, Mango mead (and pineapple mead), Joe's Ancient Orange Mead (JAOM), Elderberry mead, Banana mead, Pomegranate mead, Pumpkin mead, Cranberry mead, Apple pie mead.
Or browse all our mead recipes. If this is your first batch, start with the traditional mead recipe or the step-by-step guide to making honey wine.
Frequently asked questions
What is a cyser?
A cyser is mead made with apple juice or cider instead of water, or with a large share of it. It is a type of melomel (fruit mead) with its own name because it is so common.
What is the difference between cyser and hard cider?
Hard cider is fermented apple juice, usually around 5 to 8% ABV. Cyser adds honey, so it is stronger (about 10 to 14%), fuller-bodied and has a floral honey note alongside the apple.
Can I make cyser with store-bought apple juice?
Yes, as long as it is 100% juice with no potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) on the label is fine.
How much honey per gallon of cyser?
1.5 to 2.5 lb per gallon of juice, depending on how strong you want it. This recipe uses 1.75 lb with 0.85 gal of juice to start near 1.102.
Is cyser the same as apple mead?
Yes. Apple mead, apple honey wine and mead cider are all everyday names for cyser: honey fermented with apple juice or cider.
How do I make apple cinnamon mead?
Make the cyser as written, then add one cinnamon stick in a bag during clearing for 5 to 10 days, tasting every couple of days. Pull it while the cinnamon is still slightly weaker than you want; it grows after sweetening.
Can I use whole apples or crab apples instead of juice?
Yes, but press or juice them first: chopped apples give up little juice in the fermenter. Crab apples are very tart and tannic, so blend their juice at about one part to three or four parts of sweeter apple juice, skip the added tannin and use the full 1/2 tsp of pectic enzyme per gallon, because fresh-pressed juice is high in pectin.
How long does cyser take to make?
About 2 months to bottle and 3 months to drink. It is one of the fastest meads, and it is noticeably smoother at 6 months.
How strong is this apple mead?
About 13.4% ABV, like a strong white wine.