For the rest of 2025, BYO+ Gift Subscriptions are 50% off! Click here to order.

recipe

Ancient Fire Mead & Cider’s 60% Of The Time clone

Ancient Fire Mead & Cider’s 60% Of The Time clone

(5 gallons/19 L, bottled under cork)
OG = 1.152  FG = 1.028
ABV = 16%

Ingredients
16 lbs. (7.3 kg) wildflower honey
2.5 gallons (9.5 L) 24 °Brix Black Muscat grapes
2 Tbsp. pectic enzyme
Water to 5 gallons (19 L)
20 g Lalvin KV1116 yeast
10 g Fermaid-K
2.5 g di-ammonium phosphate (DAP)
1.67 g potassium metabisulfite
4 g potassium sorbate

Step by step
Prepare the pectic enzyme by mixing with a small amount of 65 °F (18 °C) tap water. Crush the grapes, mix the pectic enzyme mixture with them and perform a two-hour cold soak prior to pressing off the juice. The grape pomace can be discarded.

Combine grape juice, honey, and water to 5 gallons (19 L). Re-hydrate and pitch the yeast. Degas and feed nutrients at 24, 48 and 72 hours. Ferment to target final gravity and stabilize with sorbate and metabisulfite. Rack off sediment. Bottle under cork. 

Tips for Success:
The above directions results in an “orange” pyment due to the skins not being part of the ferment. This was a creative choice. Fermenting with the skins will produce a much darker color, but even more of the specific grape character as well. 

You might also like…

recipe

Redhook Ale Brewery’s Winterhook clone

This is a clone of one of the Winterhook Dark Ale batches, but according to their website Winterhook is “Crafted with an evolving mix of mal

recipe

Firestone Walker Brewing Company: Union Jack clone

According to Firestone Walker’s Brewing Co.’s website “This aggressively hopped West Coast IPA showcases stunning pineapple, citrus and pine

recipe

Russian River Brewing Co.’s Pliny the Elder Clone

We first made Pliny the Elder in 1999, initially for a Double IPA festival at The Bistro in beautiful downtown Hayward, California. Previous

recipe

Alem Bier’s Muscat Brett Saison clone