Ok, so I picked about 2-3 pounds of Muscadine yesterday. I have a 5 gallon keg of saison that’s been sitting in the keg for about a month since transferring from the fermenter. The yeast had Brett it in so I was going to let it sit awhile. My question is should I put the muscadines in now and let it sit for the remainder or wait until a month or so out of serving and pitch them then? They are currently in the freezer. I plan the thaw and freeze a couple times. I may even just press the juice out and pitch it instead of the skins and seeds with it.
Personally, I would thaw the grapes, toss them into a fermentor and transfer the saison onto them. Then let it rip for 2-3 months. You can pick up a ton of complexity from aging on the skins. If you’re not looking to move it around, I’d press and strain the juice and just add that to the keg and let it ferment out. Grapes are some of my favorite fruit to work with, but they typically take awhile to clean up after refermentation. Also, not sure the brix of muscadine but if it’s anything like wine grapes expect a jump in alc.
If they're purple muscadines you'll probably pick up some color from the skins. Memory might be failing me but I made about a half-gallon of wine years ago from a couple pounds of muscadines and it was a deep red/burgundy, but it wasn't diluted by 5-gallons of beer.
Thanks guys. Yes they are Purple @riptorn . @Davl22 thanks for the advice. I think I may transfer it to another keg in a month or so and have the muscadines in the empty keg before hand. I just cracked a bottle of this saison tonight. Testing one, I bottle several after filling the keg to see how the Brett is coming along. Check it out on WHBRYD.
