Let's talk about blending wine

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

burninator

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2014
Messages
992
Reaction score
351
For a while I've been keenly interested in using wine as a blending component, but I haven't seen much online about the practice. I know it's legally touchy for commercial brewers, but for homebrewers, I'd think this would be a great way to add special flavor components to sour beer.

So what's everyone's experience or practice when doing this?

I'm contemplating adding 2 or 3 cups of something red and dry (Cabernet? Malbec?) to a carboy of a sour red that's been in primary for 9 months.

I've also thought that German white wine in a pale saison would play well, like @oldsock's Alsatian Saison.
 
Yeah I love wine in saisons and sours. I've currently got a sour saison aging with a bottle of Grenache in and 1,5kg of blackberries, il let you know how it turns out.
My other experiments have been saisons with kiwi sauv in, I used about 2/3 of a bottle in a 3 gallon batch and found the flavour pretty subtle.
I think the amount you add will really vary on your palette and the intensity of the wine.
Would be keen to hear how your batch goes!
 
I do love wine though so I may want more of a flavour impact than others
 
I do love wine though so I may want more of a flavour impact than others

That's why I was thinking about going with maybe just half a bottle, especially since I'm looking at something that I expect to impart a good bit of flavor, like a cab.
 
I added a whole bottle of wine (minus one glass!) to 5 gallons of a sour saison and it was perfect! Granted, I love a wine barrel aged sour, and it was a bottle of Sauvignon blanc which is a very mild white wine.
 
I did a bottle of homemade raspberry wine into 3 1/3 gallons of a barrel-aged imperial stout. This was a very strong beer, admittedly, but I struggle to detect much flavor from the wine amidst all the oak and bourbon and roast.
 
I've been wanting to incorporate wine to a saison for a while. Have any of you that have done so experienced any issues bottle conditioning after incorporating the wine as a result of sulfites used in the wine?
 
I figure there's no time like to present to start working on this, so yesterday, after reading around, I picked up a bottle of 14 Hands Cabernet Sauvignon. I was looking for a wine that features berries and cherries, with space taking a back seat, and I'm hoping this will fit the bill.
 
There are a couple of commercial beer wine hybrids. I think Flying Dog uses the lees from the wine to flavor the wort, so as to get the flavor from the grapes.
 
Jester king do quite a few but I'm starting to see them more and more.
I would love to get my hands on some wine quality grapes and co ferment some day too.
The sulfites are far too diluted to effect yeast carbing as I understand it.
The cab sauv sounds lovely.
An idea I have is to add raisenated white wine grapes (probs be muscat raisins) like the Italian wine style: http://winefolly.com/review/amarone-wine-turns-raisins-into-gold/
Apparently the flavours can be incredible.
 
There are a couple of commercial beer wine hybrids. I think Flying Dog uses the lees from the wine to flavor the wort, so as to get the flavor from the grapes.

Yep, some pro brewers are aging beer on wine must or grapes. I've heard @oldsock address this practice, and it's my understanding that they are not legally allowed to blend finished wine into their beers, so they have to find creative ways to get it in there.

For us homebrewers, we have a leg up on the pros, finally, in that we can select the flavors that we want in our wine and add them directly.

I haven't tried the cab yet, but if it fits what I want in my red ale, I might add it as soon as this weekend.
 
I brewed a kitchen sink lager and messed up on my hops conversion. Ended up with 10 gallons of a unbalanced and under hoped, nice clean lager. Started mixing 1/3 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2/3 of this lager and have a real winner. I just leave the box'o'wine right next to the tap. Have to say I'd highly recommend it.
 
I did a sort of RR Consecration clone, and went very heavy on the cab soaked oak. On tasting after 1 year of fermentation and 3 months of the oak, I initially thought the wine was too strong. But it grew on me; friends and brew club members seem to like it.

So go ahead and add the wine, wi n(e)ot (pardon that last bit, could not resist :) )
 
The sulfites are far too diluted to effect yeast carbing as I understand it.

the chemical pasteurization is what has stopped me from blending bottles of wine in to one of my sours. I have a kegging set up with 4 taps but I don't keg funky/sour beers so I have always been concerned about the sulfites inhibiting the refermentation in the bottle. I make wine from kits for my wife I've thinking about taking a 1 gallon of the must after diluting it and fermenting with a golden sour. She likes Moscato so the kits are generally sweet whites.
 
the chemical pasteurization is what has stopped me from blending bottles of wine in to one of my sours. I have a kegging set up with 4 taps but I don't keg funky/sour beers so I have always been concerned about the sulfites inhibiting the refermentation in the bottle. I make wine from kits for my wife I've thinking about taking a 1 gallon of the must after diluting it and fermenting with a golden sour. She likes Moscato so the kits are generally sweet whites.

I'd think that at around 16 oz in 5 gallons, sulfites are going to be minimal, though, right?

I do think that following this will be a pale saison blended with some sort of white wine, like a Gewurtztraminer or Riesling.
 
I'd think that at around 16 oz in 5 gallons, sulfites are going to be minimal, though, right?

I do think that following this will be a pale saison blended with some sort of white wine, like a Gewurtztraminer or Riesling.

I'm not a big wine drinker but Dry rieslings are my favorite type of wine. I have some Hallertau Blanc hops and Wyeast Saison Brett blend to use I think I may give blending wine and funky saison a go. Do you intend to blend at bottling or add to secondary?
 
I brewed a low gravity IPA and overhopped it with the intention of adding Cabernet grape must to the beer.

In summary, the base beer was a 5.5% IPA with about 9 oz of hops in the boil for a 5 gallon batch. Two weeks into primary I dumped in .5 gallons of Cabernet juice and pitched a packet of wine yeast (best way to get these ingredients is to buy a 1 gallon wine kit). This addition bumped the beer up to 7.1%. Sample out of the hydrometer was good. What stood out to me was how 'winelike' the beer finished. It was extremely dry as well at 1.008.

I'll be tasting it this weekend, I'll give some tasting notes and post a picture, as the color is pretty unique.
 
Sounds like a mad beer, looking forward to the tasting notes.
I've had a Viognier(peachy white wine) Shiraz blend wine before and that was really nice.
So I can see the dark fruit cab taste working with tropical/peachy hops
 
No pic yet but

Color: deep red/purple. Brilliant clarity
Smell: tropical fruit from hops slight alcohol.
Mouth feel: medium to low body.
Taste: initially slight acidity followed by tropical fruit hops. Finishes very dry. Wine character apparent in finish. Very warming and makes you want another sip.

Overall impression. I'm actually pleased with how this turned out. I was very unsure how the wine would play off the base beer, but it works. The Cabernet juice and wine yeast really dry out the beer which really let the hops shine through and keeps you wanting to take that next sip. I think the wine is additive to the experience and isn't "disjointed".
 
Can't believe I never came back to update this. I tasted the cab, and it's just what I wanted. Strong berries and stone fruit, with some leather in the background. So, I added about 2/3 of a bottle a few weeks ago. I'll let that age until January or February (still need to top off and give it some time to reach terminal gravity), and then I'll bottle. I haven't tasted it since adding the wine, but I'll get a chance in the next couple of weeks to sample and report back.
 
Back
Top