Pyment Ideas

Hi all,

Long time reader, first time poster.

For my next project I'd like to make a pyment but I am having a hard time finding a recipe and method I feel confident in. I also admit, I don't know much about what a good pyment should look like or taste like.

On hand, I have a very large supply of wildflower honey and equipment to make a 5 gallon batch.

Here are some questions I have:

What type of grape juice should I use?
I am not sure if I want to use red or white yet. I could go either way. I want the pyment to be semi-sweet but I still want to be able to taste the honey flavor without it being overpowered by the wine. I have seen recipes using a Reisling juice but I am not sold on any of them.

What should the ratio of honey to juice be?
There seems to be very little consistency among the Pyment recipes I've found online with regards to the amount of honey to grape juice that should be used. I have seen 2:1 juice to honey as well as even amounts and 2:1 honey to juice. Some recipes use only honey and grape juice and others use honey dissolved in water.

What type of yeast should I use?
I have Lavin K1-L1116 and Lavin D-47. I also read that RC-212 is good for red pyments and M61 works for lights but I have never used either of these strains myself.

Thank you all in advance for your responses, this is a great forum!

I'd just use the D47. I've heard RC212 can be a little tricky.

Are you going to be using varietal grape juice concentrate?

I am pretty sure it will be a concentrate.

PsychicOctopus said:

What type of grape juice should I use?
I am not sure if I want to use red or white yet. I could go either way. I want the pyment to be semi-sweet but I still want to be able to taste the honey flavor without it being overpowered by the wine. I have seen recipes using a Reisling juice but I am not sold on any of them.

Click to expand...

I'm partial to muscadine and muscat wines, both are fine examples of the vinter's art.

PsychicOctopus said:

What should the ratio of honey to juice be?

Click to expand...

I'd go with a ratio of 1.5 lb of honey for each gallon of juice if you want a sweet pyment and 1 lb/gallon for dry.

PsychicOctopus said:

What type of yeast should I use?

Click to expand...

Any reason not to use a Sweet Mead or Champagne yeast?

Any reason not to use a Sweet Mead or Champagne yeast?

Click to expand...

Well, wyeasts sweet mead and dry mead have reports of being finicky but also have reports of turning out awesome. Both K1V-1116 and EC-1118 are good bets for champagne yeast, almost always reliable though need high nutrition to achieve full potential. K1V-1116 reccomended for dry whites, aged reds, and late harvest wines, while EC-1118 needs more nutrition than the other one and imparts more neutral taste. Reccomended for Champagne and late harvest wine. EC-1118 seems more reputable among the mead making community though I've seen next to none bad about K1V-1116. Since it's a pyment could be either that goes over better.