[Drewch]

We recently discovered that one of the random vines in our back yard is actually a white muscadine vine.  It's not big enough to make enough juice for a pure muscadine wine.  Does anyone have any experience blending muscadines with other fermentables?  A melomel / pyment, perhaps?  Would a muscadine pale ale be any good? 🤔

[erockrph]

I have not used muscadines specifically, but a while back I took a Gewurztraminer wine kit and split the must between a saison and a pyment. The pyment was good, but the saison was phenomenal - easily one of the top 3 beers I've ever brewed. I used Nelson Sauvin with Motueka at flameout, and that winy character and bright citrus went really well with the Gewurz (and I'd imagine they'd go just as well with muscadines). If I were using muscadines, I'd pick a dry-finishing beer style and Southern Hemisphere hops.

[Drewch]

What yeast did you use in the saison?

[erockrph]

What yeast did you use in the saison?

I used 3711. It finishes tart and dry, similar to a dry white wine, so it was a perfect fit for what I was shooting for.

[IUTitan]

We recently discovered that one of the random vines in our back yard is actually a white muscadine vine.  It's not big enough to make enough juice for a pure muscadine wine.  Does anyone have any experience blending muscadines with other fermentables?  A melomel / pyment, perhaps?  Would a muscadine pale ale be any good? 🤔

Did you end up using muscadines in a recipe?

I actually have a 3 gallon batch of saison bottle conditioning right now (loosely following the Birra Corina recipe on AHA) that I added 6 lbs of muscadines to in the secondary. I tasted one a week ago to see where the carbonation level was at and the muscadine flavor/aroma was fantastic. The saison esters may have been a bit overwhelmed with that amount of muscadines but it still came out better than expected. It also turned a beautiful light pink to ruby color. I used WL Belgian Saison II yeast so I don't know if using a different yeast would allow more of the belgian/saison qualities to come through. Either way, I strongly recommend trying muscadines in a recipe.

[Steve Ruch]

Personally I'd go with a pyment.
I made one with plain white grape juice that turned out good so I'd bet one made with your grapes would be really good.

[majorvices]

I brewed an awesome Belgian Tripel aged ion muscadines a few years back. Really turned out nice

[Drewch]

Did you end up using muscadines in a recipe?

I actually have a 3 gallon batch of saison bottle conditioning right now (loosely following the Birra Corina recipe on AHA) that I added 6 lbs of muscadines to in the secondary. I tasted one a week ago to see where the carbonation level was at and the muscadine flavor/aroma was fantastic. The saison esters may have been a bit overwhelmed with that amount of muscadines but it still came out better than expected. It also turned a beautiful light pink to ruby color. I used WL Belgian Saison II yeast so I don't know if using a different yeast would allow more of the belgian/saison qualities to come through. Either way, I strongly recommend trying muscadines in a recipe.

No, the season passed before I was ever able to gather enough at once to use. This year I'll have to freeze them as they ripen so that I can build up enough to use.

I like the idea of combining them with a Belgian-y yeast. What did you use for hops?

A pyment would be really interesting, too. But I don't know if my crop would be but enough to use them as more than just an accent.

[pete b]

Did you end up using muscadines in a recipe?

I actually have a 3 gallon batch of saison bottle conditioning right now (loosely following the Birra Corina recipe on AHA) that I added 6 lbs of muscadines to in the secondary. I tasted one a week ago to see where the carbonation level was at and the muscadine flavor/aroma was fantastic. The saison esters may have been a bit overwhelmed with that amount of muscadines but it still came out better than expected. It also turned a beautiful light pink to ruby color. I used WL Belgian Saison II yeast so I don't know if using a different yeast would allow more of the belgian/saison qualities to come through. Either way, I strongly recommend trying muscadines in a recipe.

No, the season passed before I was ever able to gather enough at once to use. This year I'll have to freeze them as they ripen so that I can build up enough to use.

I like the idea of combining them with a Belgian-y yeast. What did you use for hops?

A pyment would be really interesting, too. But I don't know if my crop would be but enough to use them as more than just an accent.

An easy way to make a pyment is to freeze and thaw the grapes and put them in a mesh bag in the fermenter. This method adds plenty of grape flavor with wild grapes. The freezing and thawing along with the fermentation does all the work and then you just have a bag of seeds and skins to compost.

[majorvices]

I froze mine, cracked the partially defrosted muscadines in a freezer bag as much as I could with a meat mallet and just racked the beer onto them in a secondary. Muscadine skins are thick so puree wasn't an option.

Worked great!

[Drewch]

Do you need to do anything else for sanitization? Or is the combination of freezing and alcohol enough?

[pete b]

I have never sanitized fruit for beer or mead. The billions of yeast cells that I pitch take over and the wild yeast and bacteria in the fruit don’t stand a chance.

[majorvices]

Just wash it is all I've ever done. If you are concerned you can blanch it.