TasunkaWitko
Well-Known Member
Beet Wine - My First Attempt
No, i'm not crazy ~
On a recent thread, I discussed how my grandfather would make different wines:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=591190
One of them, I found out last night when talking with my dad, was beet wine. This makes sense, since he was German and Swedish; beets are integral to the foodways of both cultures, not to mention Ukraine, where my German ancestors lived for a few generations before emigrating to North Dakota.
I figured to myself, why not? I am a food historian, I'm very keen to explore and preserve my "Germans from Russia" heritage, and it's a tie to one of the greatest men I've known in my life. I should give this a try....
So, I looked - and lo and behold, I found what looks to be a solid recipe in Massacessi's Winemaker's Recipe Handbook:
In addition to the above, Jack Keller recommends aging this wine for a year.
I'll try this when I get the chance; I have a gallon of rhubarb wine (watered-down, thanks to my #2 son) to bottle, then 2 gallons of apfelwein and a gallon of chokecherry wine to move along before I can start this, but it is at the top of my list.
More as it happens, etc. &c....
Ron
No, i'm not crazy ~
On a recent thread, I discussed how my grandfather would make different wines:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=591190
One of them, I found out last night when talking with my dad, was beet wine. This makes sense, since he was German and Swedish; beets are integral to the foodways of both cultures, not to mention Ukraine, where my German ancestors lived for a few generations before emigrating to North Dakota.
I figured to myself, why not? I am a food historian, I'm very keen to explore and preserve my "Germans from Russia" heritage, and it's a tie to one of the greatest men I've known in my life. I should give this a try....
So, I looked - and lo and behold, I found what looks to be a solid recipe in Massacessi's Winemaker's Recipe Handbook:
Beet Wine
2.5 pounds beets
1 gallon water
2.25 pounds granulated sugar
2 teaspoons acid blend
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
1/4 teaspoon grape tannin
1 crushed Campden tablet
1 package wine yeast (I have Montrachet)
Wash beets, skin the beets and cut into small pieces. Place in nylon straining bag, tie top, and gently boil in 2 quarts of the water until tender. Pour hot liquor over sugar in primary fermentor and mix thoroughly. Put bag with pulp in fermentor, stir in remainder of water (cold) and all other ingredients except yeast. Cover primary. After 24 hours, add yeast. Cover primary. Stir daily, check SG and press pulp lightly to help extraction. When fermenter reaches SG 1.040 (3 to 5 days) strain juice lightly from bag. Syphon wine off sediment into glass jug secondary. Attach airlock. When ferment is complete (SG has dropped to 1.000 - about 3 weeks) syphon off sediment into clean secondary. Re-attach airlock. To aid in clearing syphon again in 2 months and again if necessary before bottling.
This wine may be more to your liking slightly sweetened. At bottling add 1/2 teaspoon of stabilizer, then 1/4 cup dissolved sugar per gallon.
In addition to the above, Jack Keller recommends aging this wine for a year.
I'll try this when I get the chance; I have a gallon of rhubarb wine (watered-down, thanks to my #2 son) to bottle, then 2 gallons of apfelwein and a gallon of chokecherry wine to move along before I can start this, but it is at the top of my list.
More as it happens, etc. &c....
Ron