Throwback: Cyser with commercial clover honey (Cam's batch)

Batch Number: Pre-historic - Cider with commerical (clover) honey
Batch Type: Cyser (mead with apple cider)
Date into Primary: 2010???
Yeast Type:???
Ingredients: If we recorded it at the time, it is lost now. At a minimum we had apple cider, commercial clover honey, and yeast (most likely Red Star). Probably yeast nutrient, maybe pectic enzyme....
Date into Secondary: ??? (probably 4 weeks after primary)
Date Racked: ???
Date Racked: ???
Date Filled: June 2011
Date Reworked:  6/26/12
Date Racked:  1/12/13, 6/25/13
Date Filled (again):  11/2/13
Comments:

This batch came out a bit harsh. I don't know if it was the anaerobic primary fermentation of just that it is so darn dry. This was a very early batch, maybe our second mead? Jim made a pre-historic cyser with honey from his own bees and claims it is not as harsh.

Cameron had about 4 gallons bottled up that he wasn't drinking due to the harshness. On 6/26/12 we decided to rework it, Roy Adkins style, in order to backsweeten it and hopefully end up with something tasty:

1) Sanitized and CO2 purged a 5 gal glass carboy
2) Uncapped and poured out about 24 22oz bottles of cyser into the carboy
3) Added 1.5 tsp potassium sorbate and 2 campden tabs (and sparkaliod?)
4) Added stirbar and airlock and stirred it up

While we had it open, we did some testing:

Specific Gravity (hydrometer) = 0.996
% ABV (vinometer) = 15%
% mas sach (refractomer) = 9%
Degrees Oeschele (refractometer) = 36

Next steps are to figure out what to add to make it tastier and do it up, then bottle.

July 26th, 2012 update:

Turned off stir-plate to allow settling so samples can be pulled. Noted that the batch looked darker (dirty brown color like strong iced tea; not amber).

July 30th, 2012 update:

In preparation for our back-sweetening tutorial with Carl a 12oz. sample was drawn into a bottle, capped, and refrigerated.

1/12/13:
Racked and added sparkeloid.  Very dry and high alcohol, as with almost every mead.  No new data captured.  Considering an entry into the mazer cup after adjusting.  Shortly after this Cam added 3 lbs. of star thistle honey to backsweeten.

2/2/13:  Prepared two entries to the mazer cup.  First was neat (unadjusted) and titled "The Virgin Apple".  This was 14-15% alcohol by vinometer.  Charles and Cam liked this best, Jim thought the alcohol taste was a bit strong and favored an adjustment with malic acid and cider.  The ratio was 15mL of batch + 4mL of batch 1 (cider saturated with malic acid) + 5mL of sweet cider.  The result was closer to 10% ABV via vinometer and the samples were titled "Phluff-cyser".  Phluff-cyser had a pH of 3.4, 13% mas sach, 54 degrees Oeschele and 13.33 degress Brix.  It also settled out and looked nasty after mixing.  We did not realize at the time the fresh cider adjustment should really be racked, sparkeloid added, and racked again for clarity.  Oops.

6/25/13:

Beautiful dark amber (a la Spencer) and good flavor.  Thick, sweet honey, and a bit of alcohol.  Clearing nicely.

11/2/13:  This was filtered with a new filtration rig which is basically a whole house water filter for sediment removal.  The filter was placed inline between two corny kegs and sanitized with CO2 pressure transfer of sanitizer through the filter.  The batch was then pressure transferred.  We then pressurized the receiving keg at 60psi and quick chilled the batch (keg in a bucket of ice water with some dry ice added to the batch and some dry ice added to the ice water bath) to force carbonate.  The batch was filled with a spigot style dispenser into sanitized and dry-ice chilled bottles.  There was virtually no outgassing upon the liquid hitting the bottles.  This was a four person filling operation with one person dispensing, two chilling and handing off bottles, and one capping.  There was some yield loss due to overfilling as there was not always a chilled empty ready and the dispenser would not fully shut-off due to pressure from the keg.  This is the first full strength mead we have carbonated.  From approximately 4 gallons we yielded 1 22oz bomber and ~32 12 oz bottles (3.17gal).

12/5/13:
Tastes great, though the final product is very lightly carbonated.  You can taste a bit of dissolved CO2, but it does not fizz when opened and poured.