Hey guys.
Grapes are in the stores right now, only for a few more weeks. I've noticed some really good grapes this year, and they aren't expensive.

I bought 20 lbs of "midnight beauty" grapes grown in California for $0.99 / lb. I just bought about 25lbs more because they went down to $0.49/lb.

So what am I going to be doing with all these grapes?

I am making a pyment. If I was making wine, I would just add sugar to the must to boost the gravity. With a pyment, I am just replacing the sugar with honey.  Here's what I'll be doing for the next pyment:

djkest's table grape pyment

20 lbs table grapes- destemmed, washed, and frozen (optional on the freezing)
12 lbs wildflower honey (1 gallon)
2 gallons spring water
2 packets yeast (Ec-1118, D254, 71B, etc)

Dump water and honey into fermenter, mix well. Crush grapes and add to fermenter.
Add 1 gram potassium metabisulfite, 1 tsp pectic enzyme and mix well.

Store this mixture in a fermentation chamber at 50-55 degrees for 24-36 hours (cold soak).

Inject pure oxygen into the must, add 8 grams of fermaid K, rehydrate and pitch yeast. Dump in 30-50 grams of oak chips. Seal with a dry airlock.

Add 5-8* grams of Fermaid O at 1, 3, and 7 days post yeast pitch. After the 7-day nutrient addition, put sanitizer in your airlock.

-Yields ~4 gallons of pyment.

*depends on nutrient needs of your chosen yeast

Dang, I feel like I made this too complicated. Maybe I need to work on a simpler version.

The yield on this is probably 4 gallons for 20 lbs of grapes. 5 lbs of grapes per gallon seems to be a sweet spot for me. I just checked my batch, it's tasting great already but still fermenting obviously. I used BM 4x4 yeast which has high nutrient requirements.

The biggest pain is dealing with all the fruit pulp/sludge, I usually end up racking into secondary, letting that settle for 24 hours, and then rack again.

And honestly it depends on the flavor you are going for- you could do 2 lbs per gallon and have something that tastes very nice- fruity and maybe a little light. 3-4 lbs per gallon stronger flavor.

With my rates listed above, should be a strong grape flavor and a heavier mouthfeel.

The best way is to buy some of everything they have, take some time to eat some of each and determine which ones you like the best. But you don't have to.

Simpler Recipe:

2.5 gal spring water
10 lbs of honey (I suggest wildflower)
16 lbs grapes, crushed
Yeast nutrient, as directed
EC-1118 yeast (if cool ferm temps, otherwise use D47 or 71B)

Mix water and honey together. Add yeast nutrient and mix. Use a whip to whip air into the "must". Add crushed grapes to mix.
Rehydrate yeast and pitch.
After 2 and 5 days, add a dose of yeast nutrient, agitating the must before to prevent foaming.
After 2 weeks, when gravity is stable (should be around 1.000), rack to secondary, add sulfite and sorbate.  Back-sweeten as desired. Age 1-2 months before bottling.

I want to try one with some of the red grapes to make a Rose pyment.

I had really good results with EC-1118 with the following caveats:

1) grapes seem to have the nutrients it needs. It works best with grape fermentations. I've tried it in other applications and the results weren't as good.
2) temperature control- it like cool temps, I have been doing 60 degrees lately with EC-1118
3) nutrients- it doesn't need a lot, but it does need staggered nutrients

It was kind of complicated but I got a cotton candy grape pyment that was clear and free of off-flavors in 37 days using EC-1118. 37 days pitch to bottle.