Group Brew: Oaked White Pyment

Myself and some of my friends are brewing a white grape concentrate pyment and oaking it. We are shooting for something similar to a Chardonnay. Will you guys look over this recipe and give me your impressions/critiques before we start this? The yeast we are using will be Premier Cuvee or Pasteur Champagne. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Recipe Scan

Fayetteville????? Arkansas?!

Also I cannot access it because not premium member

Yes, Fayetteville, AR. I don't know if it really qualifies as a Group Brew, there are at least three people doing this recipe soon, some in Fayetteville, some near Little Rock.

Basic Recipe:
uses 14 cans of white grape concentrate and 4 lbs of honey along with some toasted oak put in at the start of fermentation. 4 cans of concentrate and 2 lbs of honey are held until secondary to add more flavor. 2 bananas are added in secondary for body.
Racked into secondary and off of the oak at about 3 weeks. Goal is a chardonnay like pyment. Shooting for an FG of about 1.005.

Makes 5 gallons.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=145075072214143

if anyone wants to join, here is where some of the coordination is taking place.

Are you part of the homebrew club there in Fayetteville? I am down in Fort Smith but have not made it up there yet. We can take this to pm if you prefer so I do not hijack your thread.

For my concord grape pyment I have made a couple of times I used 10 lbs of honey and 84oz of conc grape juice. The amount of honey was to hit my SG of 1.095 for a ~5.5 gallon batch. I have never had problems with it no having enough flavor when adding it all in the primary.

Oh also I would worry about adding the oak during primary to give too much flavor if you are not careful. It is easier to taste and check in secondary after fermentation has completed.

I have been trying to go to one of their meetings, but through some odd coincidences I am always too busy to go. I guess my "project" will be more of a wine with honey instead of sugar, and not a mead. All I really did was take a concentrate wine recipe and remove the sugar and add honey and a banana.
I thought by controlling the time to 3 weeks and using only 2.5 oz of toasted french oak in 5 gallons I would avoid over oaking it. Is it that big of a risk?
I don't really have a target SG, since I will only have 4 gallons of must at the beginning and then top it to 5 in secondary with the extra honey, concentrate, and some more water.

jrbaugh said:

I have been trying to go to one of their meetings, but through some odd coincidences I am always too busy to go. I guess my "project" will be more of a wine with honey instead of sugar, and not a mead. All I really did was take a concentrate wine recipe and remove the sugar and add honey and a banana.
I thought by controlling the time to 3 weeks and using only 2.5 oz of toasted french oak in 5 gallons I would avoid over oaking it. Is it that big of a risk?
I don't really have a target SG, since I will only have 4 gallons of must at the beginning and then top it to 5 in secondary with the extra honey, concentrate, and some more water.

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Oh ok, as long as you adhere to your times you should be fine, I have never used oak chips before but I heed the warnings.

Btw where are you getting your honey from? Just store bought or are there local bee keepers up that way? Me and a guy from work bought a wine barrel to age mead in recently and we need to find a source for a bunch of honey.

[email protected] is a guy from Mountainberg that sells the best honey I've ever had...it was from some beehives near the strawberry and blueberry farms there. Pricey, but good. I paid 12.50 for every three lbs of honey. And he cut me a deal to get that price. The honey I will be using will be from Sam's. Nothing special, just something a bit more complex than dumping sugar in there.

jrbaugh said:

[email protected] is a guy from Mountainberg that sells the best honey I've ever had...it was from some beehives near the strawberry and blueberry farms there. Pricey, but good. I paid 12.50 for every three lbs of honey. And he cut me a deal to get that price. The honey I will be using will be from Sam's. Nothing special, just something a bit more complex than dumping sugar in there.

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Ouch, 4 bucks a pound is steep. Maybe he would be more reasonable in bulk buy may not have the supply on hand given the season.

I would use a different yeast. The two you mentioned will bring the F.G. to less than 1, and start fermenting the late additions as well.

I meant to take it bone dry and backsweeten. I chose those for flavor. Thanks though.