Muscadine Pyment

Hey all!

It's muscadine picking time here in north Texas and it looks like I'll have about 10-12 lbs to freeze and use this year. I did want to make a wine from them, but it would be nice to see them go farther than 2 gallons max, as the recipies state on Jack Keller's website.

Has anyone made a muscadine pyment, or a mustang pyment for that matter, with fresh grapes before? How many pounds of grapes per pounds of honey would be recommended? I haven't ever tried muscadine wine, so I have no real reference point. I like dry wines, but I know muscadine is usually kept sweet, so I figured it go well in a semi-sweet mead. Thanks in advance guys.

I came upon this thread because I have almost the same exact question.
Surely, someone has an answer......anyone? :fro:

I have made a muscadine pyment, but I did not use fresh grapes. I was able to purchase muscadine juice from a winery in Florida (Dakotah Vineyards & Winery), and I used 1 gallon of juice added to a 5 gal batch of already fermenting mead. I did it this way b/c the juice does have some sulfites and citric acid, so I wanted to have an actively fermenting yeast just to make sure that the preservatives wouldn't affect the lag time. It came out really good, if I do say so myself.

If you have a press, I'd say you're golden. I do remember thinking that I might consider adding up to 2 gal of juice if I did it again, so I'd say anywhere between 1 and 2 gal of juice and water/honey up to a total volume of 6 gal would yield a great pyment. I used 15 lbs of honey for the 6 gal batch.