Grape Wine

Pedro_PT · Aug 17, 2015

Hi!
I'm from Portugal, and i work at winemaking for a few years, and i went back to school and i would like to make a school project on a beer made of grapes!
As anyone tryed it?
Is there some advice?
Over here wine grapes usualy have over 12º of probable alcool, how far can i dilute whithout lossing flavor?
At what temperature should the must be fermented so that fermentation CO2 is not lost?
Should i fermente only the juice or the skins to?
Recomended yeast?
How to obtain a good, tasty, creamy, foam?

I think this can be a good topic and a nice discution, for wine makers who love beer and beer brewers! professional and mainly amateurs, passionate amateur brewers and beer lovers!

Traditional beer made out from cereals as a lot of procedures, and technics that are very similar to wine making, after all its an acoholic fermentation, but there are a lot of tecnical details, very important ones, that are very diferent!

As i said in the begening, im portuguese, sory for my english.

alane1 · Aug 17, 2015

Hi Pedro, welcome. You have an interesting idea but does present some difficulties. perhaps the simplest solution would be a dry hopped wine or make a beer and blend it with wine similar to the way graf is made, cheers and good luck!!!

Qhrumphf · Aug 17, 2015

Welcome to the forum.

Beers using grape must are not unheard of. They're not particularly common as far as I know, but they're certainly not unheard of. I know Dogfish Head uses grapes in at least one or two beers, and there have been some excellent grape Lambics out there too. And probably plenty more.

However, I think what you're asking is how to get beer-like character out of only grapes? Frankly, I don't think that's possible. The compostion of barley-based (or cereal-based in general) beer wort and grape (or other fruit) must are very different, and ferment differently. There are lots of unfermentable compounds and proteins that comprise beer that simply aren't present in grapes. I don't think you'd be able to get the same kind of body that you'd find in beer without an oppressive, cloying sweetness.

Pedro_PT · Aug 18, 2015

So 2 questions!!
At what temperature should the fermentaion

Pedro_PT · Aug 18, 2015

So 2 questions!!
At what temperature should the fermentation go?
How can i clear a very gasified , recently fermented beer?

Qhrumphf · Aug 18, 2015

That'll depend on your yeast. Some yeasts like it warmer or cooler than others.

Pedro_PT · Aug 18, 2015

I wanna keep the grape flavour, not realy obtain fermentation flavours, i don wanna lose the grape, or grape juice flavour, i don want it to taste laki wine! But i want it to be very fresh, fruity, light and easy to drink. My wine experience tells me to do it at a temp as low as possible, but i dont wanna make wine, beer is what i want!

alane1 · Aug 18, 2015

so maybe adding must to the fermenter? If you choose an ale yeast, most ferment best in the 16-20c range.

Qhrumphf · Aug 18, 2015

I would suggest a Belgian ale of some form, but instead of using sugar, get 20% of your fermentables from grape must. Will take some math, but by figuring out the Brix of the must you can determine the appropriate ratio of must to wort (likely not as simple as 80% wort 20% must)