Cabernet Sauvignon Grapes

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simcoe4life

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Major move forward in the sour carboys this week. I ordered some cabernet sav must at http://midwestsupplies.com/ and added it to some beer.

Some history: In May 09 I made the Wild Brews recipes for Flanders Red and Flanders Pale. Primaried with Roselare in each for 3 weeks then moved to secondary and has been in the basement all year. Tasted them in February 10...not too exciting so I added Drie Fonteinen Kriek dregs to the Flanders Red and Cantillon Vigneronne and Ithaca Brute dregs to the Flanders Pale.

And just last week I added the cab grapes and juice to each one. I plan on adding some Merlot wine to the lighter one to give it a slightly different grape variety than the red that will only have the cabernet flavor. Maybe a cup or two of wine.

When I originally made my Merlot Lambic two years ago I primaried for one month at 70F with both WY3278 AND WY3763 together. That beer turned out incredibly awesome, as I opened one yesterday. It has Hanssen's Kriek and Ithaca Brute critters living in it.

I'll have an update sometime late summer or mid fall.
 
which cab grapes did you buy from them?

For a long time Ive wanted to use pink muscadines in a lambic, the problem is sourcing them, luckily Im now growing them to use, and I got a hold of the two types of lambic from cantillon that use grapes, yet to try them though

How does the flavor come through?

How many #'s did you use per gal?
 
which cab grapes did you buy from them?

For a long time Ive wanted to use pink muscadines in a lambic, the problem is sourcing them, luckily Im now growing them to use, and I got a hold of the two types of lambic from cantillon that use grapes, yet to try them though

How does the flavor come through?

How many #'s did you use per gal?
"07 Napa. http://www.midwestsupplies.com/2007-napa-river-ranch-cabernet-sauvignon.html

Wow using those muscadines sounds awesome. Let me know how that turns out!

Not sure about the flavor yet as its still too early to tell. I did however taste some of the juice on its own and it was extremely sweet. The bugs are going to have a field day with all of that sugar.

It's hard to say how much I used. I believe somewhere around 2 pounds of a fruit and juice combined were used per gallon, perhaps slightly less.
 
Sounds excellent! I'm interested to hear how the grapes work, I've been considering those ordering them from Midwest for a couple months, but I don't have anything ready for them at the moment.
 
Sounds excellent! I'm interested to hear how the grapes work, I've been considering those ordering them from Midwest for a couple months, but I don't have anything ready for them at the moment.

Have you tried vigneronne or st lamvinus? Im curious to hear what someone else who brews a lot of sours thinks of either beer
 
Have you tried vigneronne or st lamvinus? Im curious to hear what someone else who brews a lot of sours thinks of either beer

Yeah, although I haven't had Lamvinus in years (I just remember it being really sour). I like Vigneronne, but it isn't one of my favorites (not sure white wine grapes have the soul to stand up to a sour beer).

I’ve also had Cuvee de Castelton from Captain Lawrence (similar thoughts to the Vigneronne, too champagne-y), as well as a fantastic homebrewed Cabernet Sauvignon Lambic from the guy who just started Stillwater Artisinal Ales.

I used some cheap “First Blush” Cabernet juice in a Berliner Weisse, tasty but not much grape/wine character. I’ve had good luck just adding wine to sour beers, but I think using grapes would be more interesting.
 
I've had Vigeronne a few times and it's been spot on every time. It's really nice. I've only had Lamvinus once, and a sample at that. It's clearly my favorite between the two of them. The only commercial offering that I've had that I can compare to it at a distance would be Hanssen's Experimental Cassis.

To be honest I have never been impressed with Captain Lawrence sours. I really tried to get into that Cuvee de Castelton back in the fall but it had a level of sour and funk that just did not do it for me. Maybe it was just bottled too early.

Oldsock - I contacted you a month or two ago about the grapes. Small world!

Quick update about the cab carboys: man oh man are they active. The beer is chewin' on the fruit nicely. I had purple airlocks this morning - had to siphon off some of it or I would have had a mess. Watching them closely from here on out.
 
Carboy #2 had a purple airlock tonight. Siphoned some off of this one too. Tasted it. It's only been a week and a half...very sweet. I'm hoping that after 4 to 6 months the sweetness will fade and the sourness will take over.

To any wine makers: does the early stages of your wine fermentation taste extremely sweet?
 
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