Hi to all, this is my first post. My name is Agustín from Argentina.
I wanted to share my first experience brewing a Grape Ale, fementing only with the yeast of the fruit skin, it is now a wild beer.
I live in Buenos Aires and bring grapes from my parents house in a little town, the grape tree is about 100 years old, it was planted by my great grandparent, who came from italy.
Let´s begin with the process, I used 5 kg of pilsen malt, and mash at 65°C, a very little addition of hops, just to achieve 14 iBus.
After pouring the wort in the fermentator, I added 2 kg of red grapes, previously crushed, the skin was also there. The original gravity was 1064, after the fruit.
The yeast was a bit lazy at first, I leave the fermentator at room temperature, from 18 to 24°C, depends on the moment of the day. A couple of days later, it started to ferment very powerfuly, at day seven, final gravity was 1004, so we bottled it and add some sugar for bottle conditioning.
Two weeks more and it was ready, and it is great, flavor is like a Belgian Saison, very spicy, and you can notice the winy flavor from the grapes. I can´t tell you how great the beer is. I can´t wait next year to make more.
After bottling all teh beer we add new basic wort in the fermentator, so we can use the yeast again, and we bottled it again, the is no more grapes in flavor, but a great beer, we look the yeast at the microscope and we noticed some bacteria too, but 99% was wild yeast. I put a lit in the fridge because I want to continue making this wild beer, it is really grate.
I attach some pictures of the process.
Thanks for reading, I hope you can do the same, it is very fun. If anyone need more information or detail, don´t hesitate in asking.
I wanted to share my first experience brewing a Grape Ale, fementing only with the yeast of the fruit skin, it is now a wild beer.
I live in Buenos Aires and bring grapes from my parents house in a little town, the grape tree is about 100 years old, it was planted by my great grandparent, who came from italy.
Let´s begin with the process, I used 5 kg of pilsen malt, and mash at 65°C, a very little addition of hops, just to achieve 14 iBus.
After pouring the wort in the fermentator, I added 2 kg of red grapes, previously crushed, the skin was also there. The original gravity was 1064, after the fruit.
The yeast was a bit lazy at first, I leave the fermentator at room temperature, from 18 to 24°C, depends on the moment of the day. A couple of days later, it started to ferment very powerfuly, at day seven, final gravity was 1004, so we bottled it and add some sugar for bottle conditioning.
Two weeks more and it was ready, and it is great, flavor is like a Belgian Saison, very spicy, and you can notice the winy flavor from the grapes. I can´t tell you how great the beer is. I can´t wait next year to make more.
After bottling all teh beer we add new basic wort in the fermentator, so we can use the yeast again, and we bottled it again, the is no more grapes in flavor, but a great beer, we look the yeast at the microscope and we noticed some bacteria too, but 99% was wild yeast. I put a lit in the fridge because I want to continue making this wild beer, it is really grate.
I attach some pictures of the process.
Thanks for reading, I hope you can do the same, it is very fun. If anyone need more information or detail, don´t hesitate in asking.