Hard Honey Cider

I'm going to call this one a Honey Cider instead of a mead, just because it's not going to have all that much honey in the mix. I'm planning on using about 2 3/4 gallon of fresh apple cider, about 2 1/2 pounds of honey, a cup of strong tea, and Lalvin K1V-1116 yeast. I'm going to let it go clear dry, rack and let it clear. Then, last thing will be to add another 6 oz. of honey and bottle.

I've never had a dry apple cider, so I'm not sure if this will suit my taste or not. I may decide to bottle part of it, and keep the rest under airlock, feeding more honey until it hits the limit and is slightly sweet. It will all depend on my mood with it gets to the first finished stage.

Ingredients:

3 Gal Ryan's Apple Cider, (Hood River Juice Co., Hood River, Oregon)
2 lbs Blackberry Honey
1/2 lb Texas Generic Wildflower Honey
1 cup Twinings "Prince of Wales Tea"
1/4 tsp Fermax
Lalvin K1V-1116

Directions:

Date:	SG	Comments
Nov 2, 2004	N/A	I've finally found and purchased a good Apple Cider. I've been absolutely amazed how hard it is to find fresh apple cider in Texas. I know of one local orchard, and per their web site, their apple crop this year was dismal, so that may account for it. I found the cider at Costco, of all places. They have a fresh, refrigeration required, cider from Oregon that tastes wonderful! I've got 3 gallon setting at home in the Fridge. Time permitting, I hope to get the batch started this evening.
Nov 4, 2004	1.076	I finally got the batch started. I've currently got 2 1/2 gallons of cider and 2 1/2 lbs of honey in the carboy with a packet of Lalvin K1V-1116. The SG was 1.076, which give a potential alcohol yield of ~10%. I plan to give it a few days for the fermentation to settle down than I'll add the tea and top up with the remaining 1/2 gallon of juice.
Nov 5, 2004		Note: The juice was straight from the fridge, so I expected this to be a little slow on the start, and it is. There are signs of fermentation this morning, but the bubbles are widely spaced. The carboy was still cool to the touch (~60 deg). I imagine the temp will have stabilized by this evening and fermentation will kick into high gear.
Nov 7, 2004		Fermentation definitely went into high gear. It's doing about 1 1/2 bubbles a second out the airlock. Really vigorous! The foaming appears to be over, so tomorrow night I'll probably top it up with the last jug of cider and let it run to completion. On a personal note, I absolutely LOVE the smell of fermenting apple juice and honey! The entire house smells fantastic!
Nov 25, 2004	0.995	Racked off the lees to a clean carboy.
Nov 26, 2004		Note: You can already see the must starting to clear. As of this afternoon, there is about 1 inch at the top is crystal clear and the clear belt seems to be working it's way down!
Dec 2, 2004		The cider looks clear the me! I'm going to give it until the 11th to make sure it's as clear as it can get before I add the remaining 6oz of honey and bottle. (I also have to get by the HBS and get some more bottles!)
Dec 18, 2004		Finally got the cider in the bottle. I racked to a clean carboy, added 6oz of honey to prime the mixture, and bottled it!
Dec 24, 2004		All of the bottles now have some lees in the bottom, so in bottle carbonation is happening. I had one flip top bottle that was only half full, so I cracked the seal on the bottle and it was definitely under pressure. I plan to sample some of this New Years Eve.

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