[bluefoxicy]

Excellent apple juice, decent orange blossom honey.

I'm thinking English Cider Yeast.  1 gallon, just an experiment, at 22oz ~= 1.5 lb/gallon.  The juice itself makes about 5% ABV IIRC.

If it turns out in 4 months, maybe I'll make a 5 gallon batch.  Thoughts?

[bluefoxicy]

Found a mason jar the same size as that jar of honey, removed that much juice.

Montrachet yeast.  A pinch of yeast nutrient.

Didn't add the honey yet!  I'm waiting on that.  I'll extrapolate the ABV from what I know about this juice and honey from experience, and give a rough calculation accurate to within 1/2 of 1% I'm sure.

Instead of accurate hygroing, I'm going to let the juice ferment for a day or three.  Yep, giant yeast starter.  Then in goes the honey; sanitize the cap and screw it back on; good shake-up; airlock and come back in a few months!

It seemed logical for a cyser.

[euge]

Sure. Looks like fun!

Better to see in advance instead of blindly using $50+ dollars on honey and apple-juice.

That yeast starter is for more cyser right? Might not like maltose after this ferment. LOL Good luck!

[bluefoxicy]

That yeast starter is for more cyser right? Might not like maltose after this ferment. LOL Good luck!

Well, rather than trying to pitch yeast into a honey-juice mixture that's got tons of sugar, I pitched the yeast into just plain juice.  Then when I add the honey, the juice will be like one giant starter.  Similar concept to making a light 5% ABV pale ale and then pitching a 14% ABV barleywine on the left over yeast without cleaning the carboy.

[euge]

Be careful with that. According to Jamil Zainashef yeast lose the ability to eat maltose in that sort of situation. True? I don't know, but most of what he's discussed has been accurate in my experience.

[bluefoxicy]

I dunno what maltose has to do with honey, but I just swirled the damn thing to degas it and the airlock exploded off!  It took 20 minutes to get it stable and it still emits tons of CO2 when I swirl it around....

Man there's like 200 pounds of CO2 in here ~_~

EDIT:  Damn, I keep shaking it up, and the honey keeps settling at the bottom!  What am I doing wrong... I need a stir plate...

[euge]

My bad I thought you were going to use it as a starter for a barleywine not a big cyser batch. 

[bluefoxicy]

Nope, used it for a big cyser batch.  I'm estimating 9% ABV based on 1.044 gravity juice and honey giving me 0.022 per pound per gallon.  22 ounces honey (minus mechanical loss), 112 fl ounces of juice, 1 gallon total volume.  Roughly 9.25% ABV (using abv == (gravity - 1) / .731)  and a little loss from the honey might drop it to 9.1% +/- 0.25%

And as of now it's bubbling away nicely, so I'd say it took to the honey well (I stirred it with one of those Better Bottle porting canes...could have used a racking cane I guess).  I guess ferment and 4 months of aging should do it.

[euge]

The most visibly vigorous ferment I ever saw was a ginger-cider. It looked like it was boiling!

The yeast will stir that honey up real good...