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Copyright www.petespintpot.co.uk 2008. First published 17 October 2008, last updated 1 September 2010.
Pete’s Pint Pot is dedicated to the home production & sensible drinking of beer, wine, cider & meads plus a little bit of china painting & a few bits of photograph tampering.
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Cider & Perry Proper Cider/Perry Making Piggy-Back Cider Recipes Meads
Honey Beer Braggot General Recipes
mportant Note:- Do not expect home made cider to look or taste like the mass produced, highly advertised stuff full of colouring, sweeteners & other additives & do not spoil it by chucking in buckets full of ice! Remember, unlike Magners, this drink is not something for male models to pose with.
First of all a few definitions:-
APPLE CIDER is an often sparkling alcoholic drink produced by fermenting both apple AND pear juices.
APPLE JUICE is the pure unfermented juice from apples.
CIDER is an often sparkling alcoholic drink made by fermenting apple juice & may include other items such as sugar & water.
CYDER is an often sparkling alcoholic drink made by fermenting apple juice only.
MEAD is an alcoholic drink, made from fermented honey, it can be dry or sweet & can be sub-divided into further categories, the main ones being:-
CYSER, a mead made using apple juice, usually served dry.
HIPPOCRAS or Hypocras, named after Hippocrates the Greek Philosopher who is regarded as the father of medicine, this is a mead made using grapes and spices (basically a spiced Pyment), it can be dry but may be better sweetened.
MELOMEL, a mead made using fruit(s) and/or flower(s), try medium to sweet.
METHEGLIN, a mead made using herbs & spices, usually best when sweetened & may be drunk at around 60°C.
PYMENT, a mead made using grapes/grape juice, usually dry to medium.
PEAR CIDER is an often sparkling alcoholic drink made from both apple AND pear juices.
PERRY is an often sparkling alcoholic drink produced by fermenting pear juice, special “perry” pears are available.
The above definitions are basically “British” & apply to this site, sorry in advance for any confusion this may cause.
To make the best drinks you will need a supply of good quality apples (cider apples are best, a mixture of eating, cooking & crab apples is considered by many as second best), a fruit press can save a lot of work when extracting the juice from apples, some home brew shops hire these out. I find that the 1 litre Tetra-Paks of apple juice etc. available in supermarkets & shops make acceptable ciders & wines. Dedicated cider yeasts are available but wine yeast is very good, especially the Champagne types. I generally produce ciders by my “Piggy-Back” method.
Cider (including cyder) & Perry recipes can be considered interchangeable, note that pear juice has approx. half the acidity of apple juice & so will probably be easier drinking.
Some piggy-back cider recipes.
Here is a typical cider/Perry recipe using fruit.
Ingredients for 4.5 litres:-
8Kg of fruit
5g (1tsp) Pectic enzyme
2.5g (1/2 tsp) yeast nutrient (probably not needed as the juice should contain sufficient)
Cider or any wine yeast (white Champagne is best but any will do, even red)
1) Scrub/wash the fruit & rinse in a solution made up of one Campden tablet dissolved in about 4.5 litres of water.
2) The juice from the extractor should be collected in a sterilized demijohn or fermenter containing the pectic enzyme & yeast nutrient (if used), add a crushed Campden tablet if using apples as this will help prevent the juice from oxidizing (turning a dark yellow). The yeast may be added now, as may some additional sugar or water.
3) When the fermentation stops the cider should now ideally be racked (siphoned off the rubbish or "lees" at the bottom of the demijohn) into a clean demijohn or, if you do not have a second demijohn, a sterile white plastic bucket can be used, the contents are then returned to the demijohn after it has been cleaned. Keep the demijohn in a cool dark place for about a fortnight to allow more sediment to settle out before bottling.
5) Bottle in plastic PET ("pop") bottles primed with about 4.75-6.3g (1 ½ - 2 level 5ml tsp) sugar per litre & keep warm for a few days for the bottles to get "fat" with the secondary fermentation. If GLASS bottles are used then reduce the priming sugar to a maximum of 4.75g (1½ level tsp) for safety reasons (this will produce a pressure of about 2.12Atm. in the bottle or over 30psi).
6) Store somewhere cool & darkish for at least a month before sampling.
If you measured the original (OG) & final (FG) gravities then
alcohol % ABV = (OG-FG) / 7.45 (approximately)
Here is a typical cider/Perry recipe using fruit juice.
Ingredients for 4.5 litres:-
4.5 litres apple/pear juice (Supermarket juices with no added chemicals or sugar may be used)
5g (1tsp) Pectic enzyme
2.5g (1/2 tsp) yeast nutrient (probably not needed as the juice should contain sufficient)
Cider or any wine yeast (white Champagne is best but any will do, even red)
1) Pour the apple juice into a demijohn, add the sugar after dissolving in a small amount of warmed water (250ml or less), add the pectic enzyme, yeast, & nutrient (if used).
2) When the fermentation slows down, make up to about 4.7l (this allows for wastage).
3) When the fermentation stops the cider should now ideally be racked (siphoned off the rubbish or "lees" at the bottom of the demijohn) into a clean demijohn or, if you do not have a second demijohn, a sterile white plastic bucket can be used, the contents are then returned to the demijohn after it has been cleaned. Keep the demijohn in a cool dark place for about a fortnight to allow more sediment to settle out before bottling.
5) Bottle in plastic PET ("pop") bottles primed with about 4.75-6.3g (1 ½ - 2 level 5ml tsp) sugar per litre & keep warm for a few days for the bottles to get "fat" with the secondary fermentation. If GLASS bottles are used then reduce the priming sugar to a maximum of 4.75g (1½ level tsp) for safety reasons (this will produce a pressure of about 2.12Atm. in the bottle or over 30psi).
6) Store somewhere cool & darkish for at least a month before sampling.
Meads are very versatile, just changing the type of honey from say clover to acacia produces entirely different results & if we combine different blends, the possibilities are infinite.
Because honey is widely available in 454g (1 lb - only in Britain!) jars, the recipes below will tend to reflect this. I have made the assumption that honey is 74% sugar & that a level teaspoon holds 5ml. Quantities are not critical, liquid & set honeys are interchangeable.
Dissolve the honey in water at about 60°C, leave for about 15 min & skim off any scum that forms. Add all the other ingredients (apart from the yeast), make up to about 4.7 litres and when at or near room temp. add the yeast. Ferment & bottle as a wine. These drinks normally require a long maturation time before sampling, some are reputedly best after several years so plan ahead!
If fermented out completely all the recipes will give “dry” results. Sweeter drinks can be made by halting the fermentation prematurely with potassium sorbate or by sweetening a dry, mead that has been stabilized with potassium sorbate. To convert a “dry” recipe to a “sweet” one just add a extra jar (454g or 1 lb) of honey to the mix, ferment as normal but stop & stabilize when the gravity gets to about 1015.
Sparkling versions are also possible. Six good quality, un-damaged 750ml Champagne bottles are require for each 4.5 litres of dry mead that has been bulk matured for at least six months. Add 50g of sugar or 70g honey into a sterilized demijohn. Siphon the mead into the demijohn add a re-hydrated Champagne yeast, keep in a fairly warm place. When fermentation is well under way the mead can be bottled & wired corks fitted. Keep in the warm for a week or so to allow the secondary fermentation to complete before storing somewhere cool & dim. After 6 months or so you may wish to disgorge the sediment, there again you may adopt the “Sodit” method.
WARNING:- The priming sugar will produce about 4.5 atmospheres (68 psi) pressure in the bottles, this is potentially very dangerous so if in doubt, don’t bother. DO NOT MAKE SWEET MEADS INTO SPARKLING MEADS.
Like many wines the ideal drinking temperature range for white meads is generally around 9-10°C, for reds it is 18-20°C, with rosés somewhere in the middle.
1) Wash & sterilise your apples, removing the bad bits, often a “good mix” of various sorts is recommended.
A decent press will produce approx. 4.5 litres from 6Kg apples, if do have a press, 8Kg will produce a similar yield. Campden tablets help prevent the apple juice from oxidizing (going brown), apply at the rate of 1 tablet per 4 or 5 litres, pear juice is not a problem.
2) Ferment in a covered (with a loose fitting lid), sterilised fermenting bin, add 1tsp of pectic enzyme per litre & use a wine yeast.
3) When fermentation is complete, rack into demijohns to clear.
4) Bottle using 2tsp of priming sugar (max) per litre. Allow one week to “condition” somewhere warm (not HOT).
5) Store somewhere cool & dim for a couple of months before sampling.
Typical recipes - all for 4.5 litres.
PYMENT 3 & 4
In the Cyser 1 & Cyser 2 recipes replace the apple juice with grape juice.
I’m not sure if this should really be called a metheglin, again its for 4.5 litres. The beer will only be about 2-3% alcohol & it’s flavour will depend on the honey, hops & yeast used.
454g (1 lb) Clear liquid honey
15g hops
Beer or lager yeast
Boil the hops in about 1.5 litres of water for 15 mins. Let the hops cool for 15 min then strain onto the honey. Stir to dissolve the honey, leave for another 15 mins & skim off any wax etc. from the honey. Pour into a fermenter, make up to about 4.7 litres with cold water & add yeast when the temperature approaches 20°C. Ferment & bottle as normal for a beer with about 5g priming sugar (or 10ml/2 x 5ml tsp liquid honey) per litre.
Bee Notes
The sweet fluid honey is possibly the only food eaten by mankind that is produced by insects, in this case the humble bumble bees. Actually the gentle, slow bumble bee is quite different from its’ cousin the honey bees whose female “worker” bees produce about 1/12 tsp (less than half a gram so it takes about a thousand bees to make a 454g jar) of honey in their lifetime of up to about 4 months. Queens can live for 2-5 years & the male “drones” for 6 or 7 weeks. Does our society emulate that of the bees?
Many ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans etc. loved honey, the Greeks’ called it the food of the Gods, some used honey and wax for embalming their prominent dead, the ancient Greeks are said to have used this on Alexander the Great. The Norse enjoyed drinking mead during the first (lunar) month of marriage, this lead to the term “Honeymoon”.
Honey really is a versatile substance, not just because it is a sweetener with a distinctive taste, depending on the which plants the pollen was collected from, but it is also used for treating sore throats & colds. Other medicinal purposes have included its use as a dressing for wounds - it is antiseptic & helps prevent dressings from sticking to the wound. “Alternative medicines” make much use of honey.
As the brilliant Albert Einstein famously never quoted "If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live." After all he was a physicist, philosopher & a humanitarian but not an apiarist! Well, the bee colonies around the World are in a very perilous decline, this is having seriously repercussions on many plant species & could (is) result(ing) in many animal species dying, “Man” is not immune. “Who Killed The Honey Bee?” BBC4 23 April 09 (available on iPlayer), presented by Martha Kearney explored reasons for the decline of bee colonies across the world, the general conclusions were the varroa parasite & a combination of other factors, mostly man-made. The program shewed how badly we can treat bees, because of mass production of food the bees there is a lack of diversity & availability of foods. Interestingly a hive next to a busy London railway yard had a thriving bee colony, because of the local parks & gardens there was virtually pollen to be collected all year round. The chemicals we use are all supposed to be harmless to the “friendly” wildlife like bees but when you consider the cocktails of stuff we liberally apply to our crops etc., it cannot be good to neither man nor beast. Some people think that contamination from GM crops is another possible cause of the bees decline. I don’t profess to know the truth, at present all I can do to help is to keep an open mind & plant lots of (native) species of bee-friendly flowers, fruit trees/bushes & vegetables. For more information see The Plight of the Bumblebee.
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PYMENT 1 DRY | |||
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As usual this recipe lends it’s self to an almost limitless number of variations. Doubling the grape juice to 2 litres & halving the acid to 5g/2 tsp should give an O.G. of about 1079, an F.G. of 994, 11.4% ABV & 0.59% acidity. | |||
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Honey Grape juice (OR grape concentrate) (Red, white, rosé - any can be used) Pectic enzyme Tartaric acid Bentonite Yeast nutrient Maury, mead, wine or Champagne yeast. |
0.908Kg (2 lb) 1000ml (OR 250ml)
1 tsp 2 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp |
Calculations (4.7 litres original vol.):- O.G. F.G. Alc. % Final acidity % |
For the basic recipe. 1066 995 9.5 0.55 |
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METHEGLIN GENERAL
This style can be created by simply adding herbs & spices to any mead during fermentation. You could try ½ tsp each of ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, rosemary, mixed spices etc. | |||
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METHEGLIN SWEET | |||
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If fermented to dry, this recipe should have an O.G. of about 1107, an F.G. of 991, 15.8% ABV & 0.53% acidity. When the gravity gets to around 1015 the fermentation may be halted with potassium sorbate to produce a sweet mead with about 13.5% ABV. | |||
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Honey Brown sugar Bruised root ginger Cloves Cinnamon Tartaric acid Bentonite Yeast nutrient Maury, mead, wine or Champagne yeast. |
1.816Kg (4 lb) 150g 30g 6 1 stick 3 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp |
Calculations (4.7 litres original vol.):- O.G. F.G. Alc. % Final acidity % |
See the figures in the above row. |
MELOMEL 3 & 4
In the Cyser 1 & Cyser 2 recipes replace the apple juice with orange juice.
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MELOMEL 2 | |||
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Honey Bramble Jelly or similar Pectic enzyme Bentonite Yeast nutrient Maury, mead, wine or Champagne yeast. |
1.362Kg (3 lb) 454g (1 lb) 3 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp |
Calculations (4.7 litres original vol.):- O.G. F.G. Alc. % Final acidity % |
1088 993 12.8 0.51 |
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HIPPOCRAS 1 | |||
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Any pyment can be converted to a Hippocras by adding spices during fermentation. | |||
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Honey Red grape juice (OR red grape conc.) Ground ginger Ground Cinnamon Cloves Tartaric acid Pectic enzyme Bentonite Yeast nutrient Maury, mead, wine or Champagne yeast. |
908g (2 lb) 2000ml (OR 400ml) ½ tsp ½ tsp 6 2½ tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp |
Calculations (4.7 litres original vol.):- O.G. F.G. Alc. % Final acidity % |
1083 993 12 0.63 |
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MELOMEL 1 | |||
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Honey Blackberries Pectic enzyme Bentonite Yeast nutrient Maury, mead, wine or Champagne yeast. |
1.362Kg (3 lb) 1.4K 2 tsp 1 tsp ½ tsp |
Calculations (4.7 litres original vol.):- O.G. F.G. Alc. % Final acidity % |
1086 993 12.6 0.52 |
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CYSER 3 | |||
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Honey Apple juice Tartaric acid Pectic enzyme Bentonite Yeast nutrient Maury, mead, wine or Champagne yeast. |
1362g (3 lb) 1000ml 2 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp |
Calculations (4.7 litres original vol.):- O.G. F.G. Alc. % Final acidity % |
1089 993 13 0.55 |
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CYSER 2 | |||
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An extra level tsp (5ml or approx. 5g) of tartaric acid (any may be used) will increase the acidity to about 0.58%. | |||
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Blended Honey Apple juice Pectic enzyme Bentonite Yeast nutrient Maury, mead, wine or Champagne yeast. |
908g (2 lb) 2000ml 1 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp |
Calculations (4.7 litres original vol.):- O.G. F.G. Alc. % Final acidity % |
1071 994 10.3 0.47 |
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CYSER 1 | |||
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A very basic recipe that may be somewhat bland. | |||
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Blended Honey Apple juice Sugar, Demerara may be used Tartaric acid Pectic enzyme Bentonite Yeast nutrient Maury, mead, wine or Champagne yeast. |
454g (1 lb) 1000ml 400g 1 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp |
Calculations (4.7 litres original vol.):- O.G. F.G. Alc. % Final acidity % |
1068 995 9.7 0.42 |
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MEAD 2 (SWEET) | |||
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If fermented to dry, this recipe should have an O.G. of about 1107, an F.G. f 992, 15.8% ABV & 0.53% acidity. When the gravity gets to around 1015 the fermentation may be halted with potassium sorbate to produce a sweet mead with about 12.6% ABV. | |||
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Acacia Honey Tartaric acid Bentonite Yeast nutrient Maury, mead, wine or Champagne yeast. |
1816g (4 lb) 3 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp |
Calculations (4.7 litres original vol.):- O.G. F.G. Alc. % Final acidity % |
See the figures in the above row. |
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MEAD 1 | |||
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Acacia Honey Tartaric acid Bentonite Yeast nutrient Maury, mead, wine or Champagne yeast. |
1362g (3 lb) 3 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp |
Calculations (4.7 litres original vol.):- O.G. F.G. Alc. % Final acidity % |
1080 994 11.7 0.51 |
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PYMENT 2 SWEET | |||
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If fermented to dry, this recipe should have an O.G. of about 1093, an F.G. of 993, 13.6% ABV & 0.56% acidity. When the gravity gets to around 1015 the fermentation may be halted with potassium sorbate to produce a sweet mead with about 10.5% ABV. As with the above recipe we could double the grape juice to 2 litres & halve the acid. | |||
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Honey Grape juice (OR grape concentrate) Pectic enzyme Tartaric acid Bentonite Yeast nutrient Maury, mead, wine or Champagne yeast. |
1.362Kg (3 lb) 1000ml (OR 250ml) 1 tsp 2 tsp 1 tsp 1 tsp |
Calculations (4.7 litres original vol.):- O.G. F.G. Alc. % Final acidity % |
See the figures in the above row. |
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Dry light malt extract Crystal malt Honey Priming sugar g/litre Fuggles (4.5%) Yeast nutrient (optional) A good ale yeast. |
2.5Kg 300g 4.082Kg (6 lbs) 3.15 (1 level 5ml tsp) 51g
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O.G. (Excluding primer) F.G. Alc. % (Including primer) Initial volume litres Bitterness EBU Colour EBC |
Calc. 1085.5 1017.5 9.2 23 20 20 |
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RECIPE NOTES:- Braggots are typically made of approximately equal quantities of grain & honey, I have substituted malt extract for malted barley. The hops are optional. Boil extract & the hops for 90 min in 11.5 litres of water. Carefully sieve in to a mash tun (to remove the spent crystal malt & hops) containing the honey & the rinsed out containers. This is done whilst the liquor is quite hot to sterilize the honey (NOT BOILING!). When cool enough add the yeast. Braggot needs at least 6 months in the bottle, a year is much better. ALTERNATIVELY Boil the crystal malt & hops for 35 min in 4 litres of water. Carefully sieve in to a mash tun containing the malt extract & the honey. | |||
ELDERFLOWER MEAD
This recipe is actually a metheglin, a mead flavoured with elderflowers. No additional yeast is used as the florets naturally contain wild yeast.
Ingredients:
3 large heads of elderflowers (make sure that they do not smell of cats pee & are fully open & not starting to turn brown)
908g (2lb) honey
3 tbs cider vinegar (or 2 tbs white wine vinegar)
2 lemons (or 3tsp citric acid)
5l cold water.
To make “ELDERFLOWER CHAMPAGNE” substitute 500g sugar for the honey.
The wonderful “Bonnie B” was sung & the piano played by the Killer himself, Jerry Lee Lewis,
in 1961 & written by C. Underwood.
