Brewing 1 Gallon of Mead with Apple/Peach/Stawberry Cider (in place of water)?

[brewinginct]

Right now I'm in the process of brewing my first beverage (a cider), and it's going pretty well. So well that it has inspired me to try brewing a batch of mead. I've tasted mead before and thought it was great, especially the meads that are more medium/dry with slight carbonation.

Since this is second attempt at brewing anything, and I've never tried mead before, I'm going to brew just one gallon. Looking around online, I found this website, Brewing a 1 gallon batch of mead, with this recipe for one gallon:

* 1 gallon of spring water
* 3 pounds of honey
* 1 package of yeast (Lalvin D47 recommended)
* Yeast energizer
* Yeast nutrient

Simple enough. The website also states that if I'm going for a dryer mead, I can go with just 2 pounds of honey.

Here's my question. I want to juice some apples (or peaches or strawberrys, i'm not sure yet), pasteurize them with campden tablets, and substitute that fresh juice/cider for the spring water.

Obviously fresh juice is going to be full of sugars, so for that reason I'd likely use less than the 3 pounds stated in the ingredients. And also because of the sugary nature of fresh pressed cider/juice, I'm probably going to have to do a one gallon mixture of water and juice, to dilute everything so that isn't overwhelmingly sweet.

How would people suggest I go about doing this? Keeping in mind that I prefer a mead that isn't extremely sweet and that is more medium/medium-dry, what mixture of cider to water would you reccomend (if the recipe originally calls for one gallon of water)?


And how much honey would should I add, considering I'll be using juice (which is naturally sweet), and that the recipe says to use 3 pounds for a medium sweet mead, and 2 pounds for a more dry mead.

Thanks in advance!

[Ó Flannagáin]

As long as the alc level doesn't kill the yeast. Honey and fruit sugars are nearly 100 percent fermentable so it won't be sweet and is going to be dry no matter. Soundas delicious though.

[nobble]

Isn't Cider with honey in it a cyser perhaps this is just a honey heavy cyser?

Okay I looked it up Cyser is a mead which uses cider as its liquid exactly as you descibed. If you use juice its metheglin. Sweet idea I have made a cider with 1# honey and some raisens(forget how many) and it was beautiful. Give it a try.

[Ó Flannagáin]

Isn't Cider with honey in it a cyser perhaps this is just a honey heavy cyser?

Okay I looked it up Cyser is a mead which uses cider as its liquid exactly as you descibed. If you use juice its metheglin. Sweet idea I have made a cider with 1# honey and some raisens(forget how many) and it was beautiful. Give it a try.

Nice, I'd heard of Cyser but never knew what it was.

[nobble]

Just realized I goofed a bit as i cruised my favorite mead site.

Cyser - Cider based mead
Metheglin - Spice mead (not fruit)
Melomel - Fruit based mead

and for those curious

Pyment - Grape based mead
Braggot - Ale based mead

There are many other varieties but most are based on specific spices, herbs, or specific combinations of ingredients.

[fireballmatt]

I've got a 1 gallon batch of Cyser that I made a 13 months ago that's still aging. I pretty much did the same thing, subbed 1 gallon of cider for the water, did everything else normally.

It came out way strong, still has a bit to go, I'm thinking another 11 months and it'll be perfect. I'm planning on making a 5 gallon batch each year and letting it age for 3 years. It's that good :)

[nobble]

Yea I have a light batch that I'm drinking now that was cider 1# honey 1/2# raisens. Its stronger then beer but way weaker then wine. Very dry but crisp great for those hot summer days ice cold. Nice thing is it finishes alot faster too. My suggestion if you got lots of gallon jugs is do a 1# 2# and 3# honey experiment to see what you like I like the higher ones in winter and the lighter ones in summer myself. The more honey the longer you will need to let em age tho.