Just trying to get some activity in the mead forum. I saw that a few were asking about this.
First, Cyser is apples, pyment is grapes/wine.
Regarding small amounts of honey, I've made cyser with ~5lbs in a 5 gallon batch. It's on the low end in terms of honey expression but definitely there. Consider the varietal of honey, how it smells and tastes raw to get a ballpark for what to expect. If it is a more delicate honey, you'll probably want to add more.
As to fruit cysers, they're a great idea and way cheaper than buying them. Here's my recipe for a sparkling cherry cyser:
4 gallons of unfiltered apple juice (I used Trader Joe's but fresh cider would be even better)
3 quarts of tart cherry juice (also trader joes)
5lbs of Starthistle Honey
Wyeast Sweet Mead yeast (used it due to it's more lazy nature)
No heating, I added pectic enzyme and first nutrients at this time.
Followed SNA protocol, along with degassing.
When it reached ~6Plato, cold crashed it and added sorbate & sulfite to inhibit additional fermentation. Racked to a keg after a few weeks and put under pressure, again to prevent additional fermentation. This came out to roughly 8%abv but has body due to residual sugars. Didn't even need to touch the acid balance on this at all either.
