Brewing with Wine

[4Bentley]

The other day I had a Brut IPA that contained Pinot Noir juice. It was quite nice and I was wondering about the process. Does anyone have experience in doing this? Do you use juice and/or must? What about portions? I presume it would go in the secondary, but you never know.

 

[Yooper]

The other day I had a Brut IPA that contained Pinot Noir juice. It was quite nice and I was wondering about the process. Does anyone have experience in doing this? Do you use juice and/or must? What about portions? I presume it would go in the secondary, but you never know.

It depends on what you want in the way of flavor and prominence. One guy I know uses a white (maybe reisling?) juice in primary, and that's really a nice beer with those fruity notes but not overpoweringly "wine". He uses quite a bit, something like 40%, of fresh pressed (and sulfited) juice.

The grape juice will ferment out completely, or nearly so, with ale yeast so you'll want to make sure that your OG once diluted with the juice (which can have a very high OG) is in the range where you want it, and you will want to increase the hopping to make up for the dilution of the grape juice (which of course would be unhopped).

 

[4Bentley]

Thank you. That gives me a good place to start. Looking for a nice bubbly summer drink with a hint of sweetness along with a good hop presence.