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.

Wild Appley

Release date fall 2024

16% 

Mead Details-

Wild fermented Apple Cyser. 

Made with a variety of apples from Northern Michigan.  

This batch was made using Organic Brazilian Wildflower honey and Alfalfa honey. No yeast was added to this batch. 

This mead was almost a year old before bottling. 

Tasting notes from Karl- 

Long term regulars of Maniacal Mead’s Tasting Room rejoice! A staple of our in-house menu arrives; the Wild Appley, or “Wappley” for those that know. This take on our Appley is a special version where we let the wild world ferment our lovely northern Michigan apples. That’s right, the only yeast in this version is from what the world naturally provided, a testament to the oldest ways of mead-making

The nose hits with the common and expected apple and honey notes from our Appley, with just a hint of “funk”. That’s right, not a very scientific term, but there is an unmistakable scent, like a sweet floral, that is wild – pun intended!

Tasting this mead and I’m getting that delicious sweet apple profile and delicate honey undertone, but with just an extra layer of “oddness”. This time around I’m almost getting a semi-dry and tart note under the sweet apple-honey. You see, the past iterations of this previous in-house special always shifted and changed its profile. This, like its predecessors, has seemingly random wild notes of tartness, dryness and extra sweetness at times. The Wild Appley makes its debut again, pulling off being “different every time” as a featured flavor experience, one to try for sure.