Cyser Recipe (Apple Mead)

Cyser is what you get when honey and apples ferment together: part mead, part cider, and closer to a crisp white wine than to either. It is also one of the easiest meads to start with, because apple juice already supplies sugar, acid and a little tannin, the three things plain honey and water lack. This cyser recipe makes 1 gallon (about five 750 ml bottles) from store-bought apple juice, honey and a packet of wine yeast, and it scales up to 5 gallons.

The one thing to check before you buy anything is the juice label. It must be 100% apple juice with no preservatives, because potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate are added to stop yeast, and they will stop yours too.

What Is Cyser?

The Beer Judge Certification Program's 2015 mead guidelines define cyser as a melomel (fruit mead) made with apples, generally cider. The same guidelines say cysers are traditionally made by adding honey to apple juice without extra water, and that the best strong examples can taste like aged Calvados (apple brandy), while dry, subtle ones can resemble many fine white wines.

That wine-like quality is why cyser sits between categories. If you want the full picture of how mead, wine and the drinks in between compare, our mead vs wine guide has a section on pyment and cyser.

Why Apples and Honey Work Together

The BJCP notes that the natural acidity and tannin in apples give some tartness and astringency to balance the sweetness, honey flavor and alcohol, and that tannin can make a cyser seem drier than its residual sugar suggests. Plain mead has none of that built in, which is why a first cyser tends to taste more finished than a first plain mead.

Cyser vs Spiced Cyser

A cyser is honey and apples only. Once you add cinnamon, cloves or other spices, the BJCP says it should be entered as a Fruit and Spice Mead instead, so keep that in mind if you ever enter a competition. For drinking at home, the spiced version is covered further down.

Cyser vs Hard Cider vs Apple Wine

All three start with apples, but the sugar that drives the fermentation is different, and so is the result. The ABV figures below are worked out with the standard formula, ABV = (OG - FG) x 131.25, using example gravities. Your own readings will differ, so treat them as illustrations.

The 1.085 to 1.090 starting gravity for apple wine comes from the NDSU Extension formula that our apple wine recipe follows. If you want juice fermented on its own, see how to make hard cider. Cyser is the one where honey is the main added sugar.

For reference, the BJCP puts a standard-strength mead at an original gravity of 1.080 to 1.120, which is 7.5 to 14% ABV. A cyser aimed at the middle of that range is a sensible first target.

How Much Honey per Gallon of Juice

This is the question that trips people up, because apple juice is not water. It already carries sugar, so you need less honey than a plain mead recipe would call for. A common plain-mead starting point is 2.5 to 3 lb of honey per gallon (our how to make mead guide uses that range); with juice as the base, start lower, around 1 lb, and work up from there.

Measure the Juice First

Juice brands differ, so pour a sample into your test jar and take an original gravity reading before any honey goes in. Write the number down. Our guide on how to use a hydrometer covers the reading itself.

Add Honey Until You Hit Your Target

Decide the strength you want from the BJCP table: 1.080 to 1.120 is standard. Stir honey in a little at a time and re-read until you land in range. Undissolved honey sinks and gives a false low reading, so mix until the liquid is uniform. The mead calculator shows how much honey a target gravity needs in a gallon, and the wine ABV calculator turns your before and after readings into a final alcohol figure.

About the Honey

Any pure honey ferments. Wildflower and clover are mild and easy to find, while single-flower honeys carry more of their own aroma into the glass. Read the label and buy pure honey, because blends with added syrup change both flavor and gravity.

Best Yeast for Cyser

Bread yeast will ferment honey and juice, but a wine yeast gives cleaner flavor and more predictable results. These are the choices most cyser makers reach for:

Lallemand's own pages are the source for the 71B and D47 figures. Lallemand's D47 page does not mention mead, so these are wine-yeast properties applied to cyser, not manufacturer cyser advice.

If You Want Some Sweetness Left

EC-1118 will take a cyser to dryness. For a semi-sweet result, either pick a lower-tolerance yeast and start with a gravity above what it can finish, or ferment dry, stabilize the cyser, and stir honey back in at the end. The second route is easier to control. The BJCP gives semi-sweet as a final gravity of 1.010 to 1.025.

Rehydrate Before Pitching

Whichever strain you choose, follow the packet for rehydrating: the American Homebrewers Association recommends following the manufacturer's directions.

How to Make Cyser, Step by Step

The recipe card above is the short version. Here is what each stage does and where first batches usually go wrong.

1. Read the Juice Label and Sanitize

Look for the words "potassium sorbate" or "sodium benzoate" in the ingredients. If either is there, choose another juice. Then clean and sanitize every tool. The American Homebrewers Association recommends cleaning with an unscented cleanser first and then using a no-rinse sanitizer.

2. Mix Without Boiling

Boiling is unnecessary and drives off apple aroma. Warm the honey jar in a bowl of warm water rather than heating the juice, and stir the honey into a small amount of juice first if it is stubborn. Then top up the jug and take your reading.

3. Pitch Yeast and Nutrient

The American Homebrewers Association suggests cooling the must to 65 to 75°F before adding yeast. Shake the jug well first, because yeast needs oxygen at the start, then add the nutrient. For a gallon, 1 teaspoon matches the Fermax label.

4. Primary Fermentation

Fit the airlock and keep the jug at 60 to 70°F, where the American Homebrewers Association says cooler is better. Foam and a bubbling airlock usually appear within a day or so. Expect the bubbling to slow after 2 to 3 weeks.

5. Rack, Age and Bottle

Siphon the cyser off the yeast sediment into a clean jug and fit the airlock again. The American Homebrewers Association suggests "a few weeks to a few months" of aging as a place to start. Bottle only when a hydrometer gives the same reading over 1 to 2 weeks: the association calls that "the only surefire way" to know fermentation is complete. See how to bottle and cork wine for the rest.

Spiced Cyser

Cinnamon and cloves are the classic additions, and they suit apple and honey well. Add them to the secondary jug, not the primary, so the spice does not get scrubbed out by the active fermentation.

Start Small

For a gallon, begin with one cinnamon stick and two or three whole cloves, tied in a sanitized bag or dropped in loose and siphoned off later. Taste after a few days. Spices keep extracting, so it is far easier to add more later than to take flavor out.

Other Ideas

A strip of orange peel (no white pith) or a split vanilla bean also works. Keep it to one or two additions at a time so the apple and honey still lead.

Scaling to 5 Gallons

Multiply everything by five: 5 gallons of juice, about 5 lb of honey as a starting point, and about 5 tsp of nutrient. Check the yeast packet for how many gallons one sachet is rated to start, and use more than one if it asks. A 6 to 7.9 gallon bucket for primary fermentation leaves room for foam, then move the cyser into a 5 or 6 gallon carboy for aging. Mix the honey in a few gallons of juice first so it dissolves, then combine it all and take your gravity reading before pitching.

If you are making the full batch, keep the first gallon as your test: ferment the 1-gallon version of this cyser first, and change one thing at a time on the larger run.