The Appley line is a series of cysers, which are meads made from apple cider and honey. Maniacal is proud to source its cider from an Emmet County, MI orchard. The apple trees of this orchard were planted in 1942 by Stanley Vorce and include some familiar varieties as well as some that have been phased out over the last century, including Northern Spy, Kirby Delicious, Russet, Baldwin, and Red Delicious. 

Patrick has been working on bringing back the apple trees from some decades of being left to the wild, including pruning a few that were over 70 feet tall. Each year we have gotten more cider from these trees, which has enabled Maniacal to increase Appley production. 2023 was an excellent apple crop year across Michigan, so you’ll see at least 8 Appley cysers in our 2024 releases.

Appley Brazilian Wildflower Honey

Summer 2024

Mead Details-

This was the initial cider pressing, which happened mid October 2023. Using a variety of apples from Cross Village in Northern Michigan. It was made using Organic Brazilian Wildflower honey. This was a 55gal batch.

The yeast used in this recipe was DV10.

This mead was approximately 10 months old before bottling. 

Tasting Notes from Karl-

Another new honey for another new variant of Appley! This is certainly a special wildflower honey, all the way from Brazil. Surely containing all sorts of unusual flavors not common in our local honey!

Starting off with the nose, from here the sweet scents of apple overlap with an expected honey richness with a note of something more. Akin to a leafy “green” plant, similar to a flowering succulent perhaps?

The first sip hits with that, again, sweet apple-honey, but with an entourage of an off-sweetness like that of a warm-weather tropical plant. Further dives clarify that off-sweet flavor as a pseudo tequila, without any sort of alcoholic sharpness. This agave note mixes with a steady semi-sweet apple and a note of green banana peel. Wholly unique to the rest of the Appley’s, to be sure.