Coastal Red Pyment

I have a Vintners Reserve Coastal Red kit that I want to use to honey to make it more full-bodied. The Coastal Red is described as medium-light body with cherry notes. I've read that the gravity on VR kits can range from 1.080 to 1.097. I plan on adding 3 to 6 pounds of cranberry blossom honey to achieve a total of 6 gallons and 1.120 starting gravity. I'll start by adding the juice and water to achieve 5 gallons and checking gravity at this volume to determine how much honey to use.

Thoughts? Ideas? Will there be honey character?

Yes it will have honey character, in the taste. Mead can often be thin bodied though, so maybe not the solution you are looking for.

Well if the base kit is 5 gallons to hit 6, you'd need to add a gallon of honey which is about 12lb.

Without knowing the sugar content of the honey it'd be hard to work out the gravity of the kit must with the added honey.

I would suggest that if you took 100mls of the kit must and then added 20mls of honey, mix it well then measure its gravity as its the same ratio of 5 parts juice/kit must to 1 part honey so you'd know the likely starting gravity.

What will increase the batch to a full bodied brew would be if you could get some grape skins to ferment with the batch. Your best bet would be if you could get the same variety of skins as the juice/concentrate in the kit......

This sounds really good...I've thought about using some of the 10-12L wine kits as a mix. I wish I could find a Pyment somewhere to taste!!