This past weekend I pitched a new cyzer. The last one was an abject failure as it developed a pellicle and then turned horrible in taste. But it had been made with real apples that I had neglected to wash and sanitize properly so I guess it's not surprising it got infected.
This time I went with an all-juice recipe. Since the juice already has preservatives in it, it should inhibit any wild yeast from taking hold.
I made the cyzer just as I would a regular mead, but I used my new juice-only kettle to heat up the nice. It's a different design than the other (the other is better), but it did the job. I added a cup of heated juice to the fermenter along with a 1/2 tsp of Bentonite and shook vigorously. Then I added some more juice and added 1 lb. of the liquefied honey and mixed it well.
The rest was as it normally is, filling up the fermenter with the rest of the reserved juice and adding the adjuncts to it. Gravity readings, temperature readings, and pH were all taken. An airlock was added and then it was placed in the new fermentation chamber.
A converted upright freezer, the fermentation chamber has been laid on its back (the compressor was rotated to remain upright) and a new digital thermostat was added to regulate the temperature. It fluctuates between 19.5C (67.1F) and around 17C (62.6F). I'd like to dial it in a little more to narrow the range, but once the compressor kicks on it drops the temp a certain amount, and if I lowered the upper level it would dip down into the 50F range, which would be too cold I think.
The fermentations of the cyzer (and of the orange creamsicle I also have in the chamber) and going well, however, so I'll leave it as is.
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