Cyser

I suppose if I'm going to have a blog I'd better blog about something. So, here is a recipe for a cyser that I made yesterday with a friend.

12 lbs. raspberry blossom honey from Swans up in Albion
4.5 gallons of cider from Randall Orchards in Standish
5 tsp. of Fermax yeast nutrient and
1 "smack-pack" of Wyeast Vinter's Activator.

We heated the honey with 1.5 gallons of cider and held it just below boiling for about 20 minutes to pasturize it. We cooled that by putting in it a tub of cold water and then added it to the rest of the cider in a 6 gallon plastic fermenting bucket and added the yeast. I note that the cider came pasturized. You can't get unpasturized cider anymore because some folks out west got sick from a batch contaminated with e-coli. If you want it unpasturized, you have to make it yourself. At any rate, pasturized is what I wanted for the cyser.

I pitched the yeast and put on the airlock. This morning I realized I had forgotten to add the yeast nutrient and boiled some up in 3/4 cup of water and tossed that in. Its very actively fermenting now.

I drank a glass of last year's rhodomel out on the porch this afternoon while having a pipe. Very nice.