Acerglyn 1.0

The finished acerglyn

I've never encountered an acerglyn at local bars, beer stores, or anywhere else.  After reading about this style of mead, I decided I would like to try making some.  I looked at a few recipes and built my own based on them.

Ingredients

7 ounces of Grade B Dark Maple Syrup
2 pounds of Wildflower Honey
1 packet of Lalvin 1116 yeast
1/2 tsp. Fermaid K
Enough bottled spring water to reach 1.75 gallons of volume

Original Gravity: 1.082 SG actual
Final Gravity: 0.995 SG estimated (0.994 actual)
ABV: 12% estimated (12.1% actual)
Bottling Wand:  Stainless #1

Combined some water, the honey, the maple syrup, and Fermaid into a 2-gallon fermenter. Using a drill and a wine degasser, combined the ingredients and aerated the wort. Dropped in a sanitized Tilt Hydrometer which read the gravity at 1.082 SG.  Pitched the yeast, sealed the fermenter, and added a sanitized airlock. Placed the fermenter in the coolest corner of the basement.

Notes and Observations

10/05/2019:  The must went together easily enough and there were no real issues.  It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.

10/06/2019:  Gravity is down to 1.076 SG today, with the temperature at 71F.  That's 6% apparent attenuation and 0.7% ABV in around 24 hours.

10/07/2019:  Gravity is 1.065 today.  Temperature is 70F.  That's 20.7% attenuation and 2.5% ABV.

10/08/2019:  Gravity is 1.060 today, temperature 68F, 26.8% attenuation, and 3.22% ABV.   I'll probably dose the must with some nutrients today to help the yeast along, as it seems to be moving a bit slowly - slower than the Cyser I created a few minutes before it.

10/09/2019:  Gravity is 1.054 today, temperature 68F, 34.2% attenuation, and 4.1% ABV.

10/13/2019:  Gravity is down to 1.021 today, temperature 67F, 74.4% attenuation, and 8.6% ABV.

10/14/2019:  Gravity is down to 1.013 today, temperature 68F, 84,2% attenuation, and 9.7% ABV.

11/03/2019:  The acerglyn was bottled today.  Most of the bottles were not primed for carbonation, but I did prime a few of them with 2-4 carbonation drops to see if the carbonation improves the acerglyn or not. If it's a big improvement, I could uncap, prime, and re-cap the remaining bottles if I wanted to, at some point in the future.

11/24/2019:  Today I chilled a bottle of the acerglyn, and tonight I opened it.  It reminds me of a sweet Riesling. Despite its 12.1% ABV, it's incredibly easy to drink and has only a slight warming note. I am really happy with how this turned out.

02/07/2020:  I opened another bottle today to take the photo at the top of this post.  It looks like it's carbonated in the photo, but that's because I shot the picture very shortly after pouring it.  The aroma reminds me of a white wine, with what can easily be mistaken for a white grape aroma with a kind of caramelly, woody note to it.  The flavor starts with a mostly-dry white wine note and a hint of warming from the 12.1% ABV.  It's still easy to drink.  I'm happy with how it turned out, but curious how it would change with a bit more maple syrup in the mix.