Pyment Experiment #1

[brettprevans]

Pyment = honey and gape juice.

surprisingly very little is on AHB about this style of beverage. mostly smatterings in mead threads. So when I saw cheap grapes I had a impulse buy moment.

4kg white grapes crushed
500g red grapes crushed
juice from above grapes was about 2L (pretty poor)
15L water
2.5kg Orange Blossom honey
3kg Iron bark honey
2tsp DAP
4tsp DV10 (rehydrated)

Now because of the low sugar content of the grapes (much less than a winery) and the poor extraction from crushing the grapes Ive dumped all the skins and remaining pulp into the ferment or and the yeast can extract the remaining sugar

so method..
- crush grapes. tool fkn ages.
- add some hot water (not boiling as you don't want to drive off the honey flavours and aromas) and add your honey to dissolve.
- add grape juice and skins etc to honey creating the must (mead etc are called must not wort)
- add water to desired volume.
- OG is measuring 1090 but there is additional sugars in those skins and pulp and probably a bit of undissolved honey so its more like 1100.

- Im going to try and source some juice concentrate and add that to the must to boost alcohol. If I can only find grape juice ill d the old eis trick and freeze the juice then partially defrost and leave all the ice and use the concentrate.

The yeast kicked off by the next morning and is fermenting away nicely. the aroma has a lovely grape acidity with honey sweetness at the end. Will report back.


crush

 

[Airgead]

Sounds good.

What did you use to crush/juice the grapes? I would have expected more juice than that.

I'll have to run some through my screw press juicer and see what I can get. If the kids have left any that is. They can get through a few kilos of grapes in a single sitting.

Cheers
Dave

 

[brettprevans]

Sounds good.

What did you use to crush/juice the grapes? I would have expected more juice than that.

I'll have to run some through my screw press juicer and see what I can get. If the kids have left any that is. They can get through a few kilos of grapes in a single sitting.

Cheers
Dave

yeah I bought a small screw press a while ago but it doesnt seem to do the job as efficiently as I want it to. Oh well.

Now depending on hoe much colour the red skins give I might add a few dried cranberries after I pull it off the lees after a month or so.

 

[Airgead]

Cranberries give very little colour. I have had several goes at making a cranberry mead. Even with quite a high percentage of fruit they come out pale pink rather than red. They also give a lot of acid and astringency so use sparingly. My last batch is like drinking blotting paper. Will make a nice base for fortified though. Mix it with rum and honey I think. Or maybe vodka and honey... or maybe I'll try both and see what happens.

Cheers
Dave

 

[brettprevans]

Maybe I won't add them unless I need more acid and can't be bothered with tannin. Cheers for the info.

Re yours I recon rum and honey is the go. Still got to do a cider and mix it with brandy as u suggested.

Actually I guess if this pyment is lacking something I could do just that and fortify it with some brandy and cranberries. Backup plan is now in place.

 

[Airgead]

Always have a plan B....

 

[brettprevans]

Sounds good.

What did you use to crush/juice the grapes? I would have expected more juice than that.

I'll have to run some through my screw press juicer and see what I can get. If the kids have left any that is. They can get through a few kilos of grapes in a single sitting.

Cheers
Dave

Dave - link to press
my mother in law has a crab apple tree that id love to crush but im just thinking i might need a bigger press.

 

[Airgead]

Mine is a screw press juicer rather than a press. Its slow but it gets amazing extraction...

http://www.retsel.com.au/distillers/oscar_vital_max_juicer.htm

The pulp is almost dry when it comes out. But it does take me a full day to process 40kg of apples.

Crab apples have very little juice and they are hard as anything. You won't get much out of your press I suspect.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Yob]

beer traitor!!!

sorry, dont mind me, Im having one of those weeks... again.. save me a stubie to try mate?

 

[brettprevans]

beer traitor!!!

sorry, dont mind me, Im having one of those weeks... again.. save me a stubie to try mate?

cause ill save u some. Besides ia sample would make its way to a melbourne brewers mtg when its ready.
Ive already planned the next brew... on the lees of this chuck a pomagranite cider onto it, and add a bit more grape juice and honey. Should be tasty.

 

[brettprevans]

Well another refrac and taste test yesterday. Sg is about 1010. Thats a bit iffy as the OG wasnt exac with all that juice still lwft in the grapea. But estimating 1100 og gives about 1010. Not bad but that DV10 should chew it down bit more I woukd have thought. Will wait and see in another week.

Taste: still much the same. Dry acid grape/wine with the residual honey taste (not the sweetness but the actual flavour of the honey). The ironbark honey is overshawdowing the orange blossom I think.

Regardless of how this works out I think I might split the batch and fortify it with some brandy as I think it would compliment it beautifully.

 

[brettprevans]

Kegged last night. Alll those skins have made it a little astringent. Very dry also. Some conditioning wil help. Some brandy would go very well. Report back in a few months.

 

[brettprevans]

Well the nice thing about ageing in a keg is you can tap it and taste a little without opening a bottle.

Ageing will serve this well. Some off the sharp edges are rounding off. Nice tannin against the sweet honey flavour. Still in the desert or aperitif category and no where near ready. Will bottle and age soon. Very tempted to just fortify with brandy and drink it from the keg! Might fortify some bottled and leave some unadulterated.

Would have been bette to get more grape juice in this.