We've had this one-gallon chardonnay kit sitting around for a while, vaguely intending to make a pyment or an oenobeer with it. Since my sister just dropped off a bunch of honey when she came out from California, I'm using it to make a pyment with orange-blossom honey. I'm going to call it Witch of Inysca, after a character in Samantha Shannon's novel Priory of the Orange Tree.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 8 lb., 1 oz. orange-blossom honey from Bennett's Honey Farm.
  • 1.65L concentrated Australian Chardonnay juice, from a Winexpert kit.
  • St. Paul tap water to ~3 gallons.
  • 1 pouch Lalvin QA23 yeast, rehydrated in ½ cup tap water at 94℉.
  • Nutrient addition of 18 Oct 2022:
    • ¾ tsp. Fermaid O.
  • Nutrient addition of 19 Oct 2022:
    • ¾ tsp. Fermaid O.
  • Nutrient addition of 20 Oct 2022:
    • ¾ tsp. Fermaid O.

Procedure

Poured the concentrated grape juice into the three-gallon carboy. Mixed honey into one-gallon carboys of warm water, then poured that water into the carboy. Allowed the carboy to cool, neck covered, until it was safe to pitch the yeast. Rehydrated a pouch of Lalvin QA23 in ½ cup of tap water at 94℉ for twenty minutes. Pitched the yeast.

Brew date: 16 October 2022.
Original gravity: 1.131.
Bottling date: 3 November 2023
Final gravity: 1.008
Estimated ABV: Approx. 18½%.

Yield:

  • 9 x 7 oz. soda bottles
  • 1 x 750mL swing-top mead bottles
  • 2 x 500mL swing-top IKEA wine bottles
  • 4 x 12 oz. beer bottles
  • 7 x 500mL wine bottles
  • 5 x 375mL wine bottles

Total: About 352 fluid ounces, or just about 2¾ gallons.

Observations

  • 2022-10-18: Added Fermaid O.
  • 2022-10-19: Added Fermaid O.
  • 2022-10-20: Added Fermaid O.
  • 2023-11-03: Bottled, yielding 2¾ gallons of 18½% pyment.