# carrot wine???



## soflavino

Im curious if anyone has ever tried to make carrot wine and if you have , would you be so kind to share a recipe?


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## deboard

yes, I have made carrot wine. It tasted like...carrots. Unfortunately that is not generally what people expect in wine. I'm guessing there are recipes where you obliterate the carrot taste with a bunch of spices that people might use, but really, carrots make bad wine.


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## Minnesotamaker

I made a carrot wheat once. Very early in my winemaking career. The recipe came from CJJ Berry's book and if I remember right, there was some citrus added in there too which gave it a nice flavor. It ended up cloudy and too high in alcohol due to my inexperience in wine making, so I can't really say it would be good if made properly.


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## LoneTreeFarms

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques27.asp

straight off of jack keller's site. i have yet to try it but it's definitely on my to do list.


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## UBB

1 gallon recipe

6 lbs carrots, scrubbed and sliced
12oz orange juice concentrate
8oz golden raisins chopped
2lbs white sugar
1 lb clover honey
1 campden tablet (optional)
1 pkg Montrachet yeast
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 1/2 cups orange juice for yeast starter


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## italianwine

Carrots can never surpass the taste of grapes when it comes to wine making!


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## bein_bein

deboard said:


> yes, I have made carrot wine. It tasted like...carrots. Unfortunately that is not generally what people expect in wine. I'm guessing there are recipes where you obliterate the carrot taste with a bunch of spices that people might use, but really, carrots make bad wine.



I wholeheartedly disagree!! My carrot wine tastes nothing like carrots at all, it reminds me a little of a chardonnay/cream sherry cross.. I am terrible at describing flavors....but I have yet to have ANYBODY guess my "Dobbin's Day Off" is a carrot wine. In fact, I just took a bronze with my carrot wine at Cellarmaster's wine competition. I think carrot is some of the best wine I make. I put mine on toasted red oak (which may shock some people) but it comes out great! and it ages well too. I pretty much just used the 'Winemaker's Handbook' recipe;

4 gal batch;
Ingredients 
(1cup red grape concentrate ) recipe calls for this, but i have never used it..
13lb lbs carrots 
4 lb raisins 
4 gal water 
8 lb sugar 
1tbls acid blend 
3/4 tsp tannin 
3 tsp nutrient 
1 campden , crushed 
1 pkg wine yeast/kv1116 
2 tsp pectic enzyme


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## deboard

Good to hear it. I'm guessing you backsweeten it as well? How much? The 4 pounds of raisins probably help out quite a bit as well to give it body and help the taste. Mine was a straight carrot. I just balanced the acid and adjusted the specific gravity, no recipe otherwise. 

Oddly, I borrowed the juicer I used from a friend of mine who said all he wanted in return was 3 bottles of the finished wine. I gave them to him, and he ended up giving them to some friends who happened to be chinese (friends of his wife, who is chinese), and they absolutely loved it, and asked him to have me make some more. I politely declined, but offered to show him how.


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## bein_bein

No backsweetening with the carrot. Almost all of my wines are left dry when bottled. I can see where using strictly carrots could lead to a thin bodied wine with a strong carrot flavor. I cook the carrots, then run the carrots through a juicer and use the combined liquids (from cooking and juicing) for the wine.
One thing I have learned with wine making is to take people's opinions as generalities, unless it is for procedural or sequencing matter (and even those vary sometimes). I have had people tell me that using red oak will make my wine taste like cat pee, well I have used red oak with great results. It not something I would use with every wine, but the flavor profile I get with my toasting methods works perfect for some wines, carrot among them.
That's what is some much fun about this hobby, there are no hard and fast rules....make em' up as you go!!


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## deboard

bein_bein said:


> One thing I have learned with wine making is to take people's opinions as generalities, unless it is for procedural or sequencing matter (and even those vary sometimes).



That's the key, my opinion on carrot wine is just my opinion. Also, I think everyone should remember people have different tastes as well. I didn't like my carrot wine, but I found someone who did. I did find more that didn't like it, but at least someone did. I also don't care for most sweet wines either, but other people hate dry wines. Sometimes if you're that far apart it's hard to even discuss wine. My wife thinks dry reds taste terrible, but I love them. So we don't talk about wine much! I make her a super sugar bomb every now and then, and she's happy.

I've never heard anything about red oak, good or bad actually. But I did see one of the sponsors carried it.


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## damdaman

I made a carrot wine this year from homegrown carrots and loved it. I grew orange and purple carrots so the color is amazing. It does taste a little like carrots, but not in a bad way. I also left it dry an was quite happy. Recipe was from the book "Making Wild Wines and Meads" and included orange juice, raisins and honey.


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## fabrictodyefor

bein_bein said:


> but the flavor profile I get with my toasting methods works perfect for some wines, carrot among them.



I pulled my carrots from outside yesterday as it was to get down to 5 and I didn't want frozen carrots....so....I am going to follow your recipe bein_bein. I was also planning on using the red oak.....and was wondering what "your toasting method" is! I have never used oak yet, but this seems like a good time to start!


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## iVivid

Carrot and Tangelo; because I think they go together. It's only a month old; almost clear, no finings and I'll age this one. Smells lovely, tastes good, and beaut colour!


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## fabrictodyefor

*help, anyone?*

So, got my must going.....let it sit overnight with the raisins, carrots and pectin enzyme. Squeezed the carrots, added up to 4 gallons and took an SG reading....it is already at 1.050, without added sugar. Doing the math....that would mean I would only add 54 more ounces to get to 1.080. This falls way short of the 8 lbs suggested in the recipe. I have an errand to run in a few minutes, I'm going to add the 54 ounces, stir well, then check the sg when I get back.....before I add the yeast. Any advice will be greatly appreciated as I'm pretty new at this wine making adventure!


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## jensmith

Go by the sg readings. Add what your math said to add then recheck the sg. Don't just add as much suger as the recipie calls for. It is a guide. Suger content in fruit and veggies is never the same twice so your extra suger will also be different. 
You can always add extra suger after fermentation has started if you decide you want a higher abv in your finished wine.


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## fabrictodyefor

So I used the calculations in a book I have written by C.J.J. Berry, and the starting sg ended up being 1.092, that was on 11/23. It has been working great so far, has slowed down, but not sure if it is done, 2 days in a row now the sg is at .998. But the two days before that it was at 1.000. I did take the mesh bag of raisins out yesterday, figured all was squeezed out of those raisins and carrots! So will give it a few more days, then rack to a car boy...


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## jensmith

fabrictodyefor said:


> So I used the calculations in a book I have written by C.J.J. Berry, and the starting sg ended up being 1.092, that was on 11/23. It has been working great so far, has slowed down, but not sure if it is done, 2 days in a row now the sg is at .998. But the two days before that it was at 1.000. I did take the mesh bag of raisins out yesterday, figured all was squeezed out of those raisins and carrots! So will give it a few more days, then rack to a car boy...



You can rack it now. No need to wait any longer!


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## fabrictodyefor

Thanks, jensmith, I did so this morning. Racked it to a carboy and added a stick of "American Red Oak Medium"! The recipe I was following used oak, so am trying that. The first time with anything oak! I kept a sip back and will test it out tonight! Now it will be a while before I can talk about any progress. Thanks for the help and advice.


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## jensmith

You're welcome. Enjoy! 
I have not used much oak but beleive taste testing often is recemended. I guess the oak flavor gets kinda strong if left in too long. Good luck!


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## fabrictodyefor

OH! Thanks for the heads up on that one! We taste tested it last night, it is very dry, I can taste a hint of the raisins, but you certainly can not tell it has carrots in it! My neighbor said he couldn't taste either one, but he did like the flavor! So I guess I'll have to *force* myself to taste it often to make sure the oak does not overwhelm!!


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## jensmith

Yeah, the "worse" part of wine making, taste testing!!!  I think I need to go do some taste testing myself....


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## BernardSmith

fabrictodyefor said:


> So I used the calculations in a book I have written by C.J.J. Berry, and the starting sg ended up being 1.092, that was on 11/23. It has been working great so far, has slowed down, but not sure if it is done, 2 days in a row now the sg is at .998. But the two days before that it was at 1.000. I did take the mesh bag of raisins out yesterday, figured all was squeezed out of those raisins and carrots! So will give it a few more days, then rack to a car boy...



In my opinion, Berry's book is a lot better in terms of thinking about principles than in following his recipes in any literal way. I am currently making a gallon of carrot wine but using store bought carrot juice. The SG of the juice was about 1.030 and I added about 1.5 lbs of sugar which brought the gravity up to 1.090. I added 1 t of pectic enzyme
I checked the pH and added about 3 T of acid blend which brought the acid level down to about 4.00 (so no need to add oranges and lemons)
Rather than use raisins I added 1 t of nutrient and 1/2 t of energizer. The yeast I used is 71B and I added 1/2 t of tannin. I also added 6 gms of oak chips to the primary (and so will rack off the oak in about a week or so when the gravity drops to about 1.010.


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## fabrictodyefor

BernardSmith said:


> In my opinion, Berry's book is a lot better in terms of thinking about principles than in following his recipes in any literal way.



I didn't use his recipe for carrot wine, just his "formula" on raising the sg. I did learn with my first ever batch of wine...never follow the recipe verbatim! Always better off testing the sugar level. The recipe I used is from page one of this thread; from bein_bein. Being new, I didn't realize maybe I should have fermented with the oak....too late for that now. It is in a car boy now with the "stick" of oak, and the top part of the wine is definitely turning a darker color. I racked it and added the oak on 12/2, but will probably thief a touch later today to taste. As always I so appreciate the help and suggestions from this forum, I so often feel lost in this new venture!


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## BernardSmith

fabrictodyefor said:


> I didn't use his recipe for carrot wine, just his "formula" on raising the sg. I did learn with my first ever batch of wine...never follow the recipe verbatim! Always better off testing the sugar level. The recipe I used is from page one of this thread; from bein_bein. Being new, I didn't realize maybe I should have fermented with the oak....too late for that now. It is in a car boy now with the "stick" of oak, and the top part of the wine is definitely turning a darker color. I racked it and added the oak on 12/2, but will probably thief a touch later today to taste. As always I so appreciate the help and suggestions from this forum, I so often feel lost in this new venture!


 
I don't know that you "need" to ferment with oak. I added the oak to my primary because I intended only to ferment with the oak for about a week or so. When I rack the caarot wine to the secondary then I rack it off the oak and there is no chance that I will forget it's in there and over-oak the wine. But I am pretty certain that you could add oak even just before you intend to bottle. Adding oak to wine is simply turning on its head the idea that you age wine in oak casks. I guess the one big difference is that if you use a cask to age the wine the cask breathes and allows for some very small amounts of oxygen to enter. If you add oak to the wine and age the wine in a carboy there is no infusion of oxygen.


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## fabrictodyefor

BernardSmith said:


> I don't know that you "need" to ferment with oak. I added the oak to my primary because I intended only to ferment with the oak for about a week or so. When I rack the caarot wine to the secondary then I rack it off the oak and there is no chance that I will forget it's in there and over-oak the wine. But I am pretty certain that you could add oak even just before you intend to bottle. Adding oak to wine is simply turning on its head the idea that you age wine in oak casks. I guess the one big difference is that if you use a cask to age the wine the cask breathes and allows for some very small amounts of oxygen to enter. If you add oak to the wine and age the wine in a carboy there is no infusion of oxygen.



 I'm so new at this I gaze at my carboys everyday!!! That is why I did notice that after only 2 days the top part of the wine is already a darker color than the lower part.....so I did "thief" some out of the carboy...and was astonished that there is already a difference. But I did "thief" off the top. I will probably leave the oak in a few more days, then rack it off. So much to learn.....


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## Winorick

A year ago, I saw a recipe in "Mary's Recipes" from Purple Foot in Milwaukee, for Hoppy Carrot Wine. It turned out great - very faint carrot taste, refreshing and it was left dry. For one gallon:
3 lbs	Shredded Carrots	
1/2 oz	Hops	
2 lbs	Brown Sugar	
1/2 lb	White Sugar	
2 tsp	Acid	
1 tsp	Yeast Nutrient	
1	Camden Tab	
1/2 tsp	Yeast Energizer	
1/2 tsp	Pectic Enzyme	
1 pkt	Premier Cuvee Yeast	
I think that next time I'll increase the hops a bit.


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## BernardSmith

What hops did you use? Were these dry hops or did you boil them? and if dry , how long did you keep them with the carrots and if boiled , for how long did you boil them?


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## LoneTreeFarms

I'm with Bernard, can we get a few more details on this one? it sounds good and I've been wanting to do a carrot wine for a while now, this sounds right up my alley.


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## Winorick

When I went to the Beer supply store and started to look at all of the hops that they had, I sort of short circuited. So I just bought a 1oz package of dried hops, and i never bothered to even write down what kind, just that they were a "General Purpose" hops.
I peeled the carrots and shredded them, and along with the hops, added them to a straining bag. They were then boiled in about 3/4 gallon of water until the carrots were tender. I did not note the time that the cooking took, probably an hour. The liquid was then strained off, and the hot liquid was then poured over the sugar and allowed to cool before the other ingredients were added. Some of the cooked carrots were added to a soup and some just went to the compost pile. My starting SG was 1.10 and final was .990, so I got about a final ABV of 14%. I use Premier Cuvee yeast, mainly because by cellar is on the cool side. I think that the key to the subtle flavor is removing the carrots prior to fermentation. 

I really wanted to make a 5 gallon batch last week because Aldi's had carrots on sale for .25 per pound, but...... Maybe next time!


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## fabrictodyefor

*update*

On 11/20/13 I picked carrots and using bien_bien's recipe from this thread I made carrot wine. I also set mine on medium American Oak, but only for 10 days. Over the past 7 months I have racked a few times and just let it sit and bulk age. I had company over the 4th and pulled a few glasses of the carrot for us to taste...Success! It is already very clear, if I can figure out the picture thing, I'll get a picture on here. But the flavor is great! Definitely a class all it's own! We did not like it chilled, but at room temp. mmm, wonder if there is time to plant more carrots in my garden!


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## bein_bein

fabrictodyefor said:


> I pulled my carrots from outside yesterday as it was to get down to 5 and I didn't want frozen carrots....so....I am going to follow your recipe bein_bein. I was also planning on using the red oak.....and was wondering what "your toasting method" is! I have never used oak yet, but this seems like a good time to start!




Sincere apologies for not seeing this (much) sooner 
Somehow this one slipped through the crack...to address your question, I actually posted this on another (un-named) wine forum 



> I posed a question earlier on Red oak (here on that 'other' forum)to see if it was feasible to even try red oak. I got some dissenting opinions ,which is fine... and not at all uncommon......Well, since I had at least one favorable response I decided to go ahead an do an experiment with some red oak. I grabbed it out of the garbage (it was a new bag and the oak was the only thing in there, so there wasn't any contamination in that regard). I washed them in some sanitizer them rinsed them well. Then I did some research on toasting oak and found a this site that was pretty helpful.There was a nice little graph that showed toasting results
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> I tossed the wood right onto the rack in the oven and started out at about 320-325deg. I left them there for about 90min then turned it up to 375 for another 35min. Here's my result...the two diagonal sticks are a couple I kept out for before and after comparison...
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> I was really surprised how dark they got
> 
> 
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> . Next step will be to try these in my carrot wine when it clears a little more.


The rest, as they say...is history..


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## fabrictodyefor

LOL, I did put the carrot wine on oak. It is ok, but I haven't made it again! But I haven't tried it for a while. Maybe it is time to break out another bottle! Thanks for the info on toasting your own oak. I may try that sometime. I've used oak since, but just bought from the wine supply store.


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## chasemandingo

I'm thinking that perhaps one should up the carrots to 5 or 6 lbs per gallon....coin them.....get out the boil kettle and boil in 6 1/2 gallons of water for an hour then drain into bucket....add 2 cans welches white.....1 lbs golden raisins a few bananas and sugar to 1.084......then adjust acid post ferment and see what happens!


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## Prewno

Terry Garey had a recipe for carrot wine. She mentioned that the flavor gets better with age


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## wildhair

I know this post is a few years old, and likely no one will reply - BUT - I like to do a search before I ask Q's since the Q may already have been answered. And I was looking for info on carrot wines when I found this post.

How did this wine turn out? It is likely consumed by now - was it any good? Any recommendations, suggested additions? Mistakes to avoid?

One thing I may add about carrots - having been a gardener much longer than a vintner. Some varieties are sweeter than others and fall carrots always seem to taste better than ones pulled in the summer. And MUCH better than store bought ones. Also - I would use them as soon as possible after pulling them as the sugar (and flavor) in fresh garden carrots starts to break down after pulling them.

I plan to shred about 6# and freeze them for a bit - too much on my plate to start the must right away. And the recipe from bien_bien looks pretty good. I'll compare that with Terry Garrey's & Jack Keller's recipe and improvise from there. But I am anxious to hear how this wine turned out.


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## newBendOrfanatic

During the early part of my winemaking of a few years back, I made several white wines that were terrible including a carrot wine. A few weeks ago, in a clutter clearing move, I taste tested those wines again before dumping and they were still terrible--except the carrot wine. It was very good. Even my snobby testers, all who thumbs-downed my carrot wine initially, liked the aged carrot wine which was made from those late season, sweet carrots.


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## wildhair

Every thing I've read said root based wines (carrot, beet, turnip, etc.) should age *at least* 18 months. I think I'll take a whack at it. On the plus side -none of my friends are snobby testers - most just like the free wine. LOL


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