# Beet Wine



## MedPretzel (Mar 1, 2005)

I've been toying around with the idea of making a beet wine. Yes, with red-beets. I would, of course, love to do this with fresh beets, but it's a little expensive.










So I was thinking of doing something with tinned beets. Does anyone perchance, have any experience with beet wine? I know, I've been on Jack Keller's site, and it's not giving the info that I want. Particularly if tinned ones are okay or not. 


Thanks!








Martina


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## Hippie (Mar 1, 2005)

I say try it and see for yourself. Read the can to see if there are any additives. Look at several brands, if possible. Mash the beets and use just the juice. You will only get bitterness out of the dry pulp.I say it is worth a try.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 1, 2005)

Okay, you've convinced me to try.


















My next question is, however: Does anyone know if Beets ever go on sale?


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## Hippie (Mar 1, 2005)

Be careful of added salt also.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 2, 2005)

Oh my, I never thought of that..... I guess it's a lot more difficult than I had imagined. 





I wonder what else I could make?


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## AAASTINKIE (Mar 3, 2005)

I'd like to try a beet wine, I buy all my cucumbers, tomatoes, beets and green beans from a little TOUGH old lady down the road, well 6 miles but nothing is close around here



I make dill, and bread and butter pickles, hot dilly beans (pickled green beans with dill, garlic, cayanne peper) canned tomatoes and of course pickled beets, I love to eat bowls of cooked beets during the season, I am sure the deep red color is like a health tonic, so beet wine would have to be good for you, I just wonder what it would taste like. I can see making a gallon to try I just don't know where I can put all this stuff, I don't have a basement, just a tall crawl space, I guess I could build a short room down there somehow, it would stay cool in the summer, but have to be super insulated and heated in the winter, or just have the wine out by december.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 4, 2005)

I'd say insulate the crawl space (they're usually useless spaces anyway) and make some wineracks for it. 





But if it doesn't get below 60 in the winter, you'd probably still be fine. My basement averages 62 in the winter (an old coal cellar - no heat, no insulated windows, no nuthin'), and my wines seem to do fine. 





Just my 2 cents,








martina


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## Hippie (Mar 4, 2005)

I would not give up on the idea of a beet wine, Martina. Surely you can find some somewhere without additives. I read it makes a thin wine and must be supplemented with grape concentrate. Welch's or generic white will work just fine. I also think some banana powder and dried elderberries would be good, in a 5 or 6 gallon batch, but not so much of anything else to mask out the beets. Maybe one can of concentrate, 4 oz. banana powder, and 4 oz. dried elderberries, and lots of mashed beets with juice. (3-4 pounds per gallon)


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## MedPretzel (Mar 4, 2005)

Thank you Glenvall! You have just rekindled that spark inside of me! 





I think I'll do the beet wine!









Thanks! I will let everyone know when I start, and then post the recipe here. That is, of course, if anyone wants it.


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## Hippie (Mar 4, 2005)

Oh, we all want it, that's for sure. I am glad I rekindled that spark.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 4, 2005)

hahhahaha!!!!!!!





Well, I'm trying to get the world to love mum wine, but it just doesn't seem to be flying.



Maybe the answer is in BEET wine!


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## Hippie (Mar 4, 2005)

Was it Jack Keller or someone else who was bragging on their beet wine a few days ago? Maybe it was last year.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 4, 2005)

Well, I think I've read that beet wine tastes "earthy"....





But I have no clue what theheck that means.


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## Hippie (Mar 4, 2005)

I also have no clue as to what is earthy wine, but have seen the description noted a few times.I might like earthy.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 5, 2005)

It's practically a done deal. I'm going to make 3 gallons. I even dreamed about the end result last night (isn't that just terribly sad?). I will probably go to the store today and look for the beets. Don't worry, I will make sure there are no sulphites in it before I get them.





I think I will make 3 gallons of it, so if it turns out great, there's enough to give away, etc... If it turns out, I haven't wasted 35 bottles on it.


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## AAASTINKIE (Mar 5, 2005)

medpretzel, why use canned beets? you have to work so long for your
wines, wait till August or whenever fresh beets are ready, go find a
farm or farm market to buy them at, they are allover here in Maine, the
farm is best cause they are freshest there, once they are canned they
are cooked if fresh would you cook them of use them raw


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## MedPretzel (Mar 5, 2005)

I don't know why. Impatience? That's probably it.





Perhaps I'll make one with tinned beets and one with fresh and let everyone know the difference.


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## Hippie (Mar 5, 2005)

For beets and other root crops, they must be cooked until soft to get the flavor and make some actual juice from them by mashing. You just pour eveything into a straining bag after cooked just until soft, then mash and squish with hands, or put through a juicer. I would discard all the pulp after 24 hours with the pectic enzyme. Squeeze the bag pretty good though.


The canned beets will have alot of the work already done for you.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 5, 2005)

Thanks once again, Glenvall, for your invaluable advice. I think I'm going to have a "beet run" tomorrow...


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## Hippie (Mar 6, 2005)

You said you were doing it today! Remember, no additives! If the can only lists sulphites, that's ok, but no salt or sorbate. If they have sulphites listed, save your K-Meta.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 7, 2005)

Well, sorry about my "lie." Although it's a bit off topic, but I've had an incredible headache for the past 5 days, and am not useful really for anything at all.










The beet wine is going to have to wait til I'm sure I won't make any mistakes.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 7, 2005)

Well, I reconsidered my last post and bought beets.





Note: Do not buy tinned beets for this. I had enough for 3 gallons in my cart and then triple-checked the label, and it turns out they put salt in it "for flavor". So, I felt like a stock-boy putting all those cans back on the shelf.





Anyway, so I went over to the produce department, and lo and behold, you could only buy organic beets (organic = expensive). So I bought enough to make 2 gallons for it. I then whizzed over to my WalMart and got beet-seeds. I will be planting beets this year.



88 cents for about 100 beets sounds a lot better than 1.69 for three large ones.



This will be one of my more pricey wines, I guess.












Martina


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## Hippie (Mar 9, 2005)

Sounds good to me! Wait until you see how easy it is to grow beets! Remember, the deeper you dig the soil, and the looser it is,the larger the beets will grow. Rake the dirt, sprinkle on the seeds, rake it again. That's it. They will be everywhere!


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## MedPretzel (Mar 9, 2005)

Very cool advice, thanks Glenvall. 





I also added a little bit of ginger, a little bit of anise, and 2 cloves. I hope it's okay.


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## Hippie (Mar 10, 2005)

Sure, that's OK, it's your wine, but now it's beetgingeraniseclove wine instead of beet wine.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 10, 2005)

So it could be BAGC Wine?CABG Wine?








*Edited by: MedPretzel *


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## Hippie (Mar 10, 2005)

Now, now, Martina, remember to list in order form most to least!


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## MedPretzel (Mar 10, 2005)

Darn! Why can't it be called Dinger?





Then I could name it Alphabet (ABCD) Wine!


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## Hippie (Mar 11, 2005)

Oh my God. i just could not get it until I scrolled up and then it hit me like a ton of bricks! DUH!


LMAO


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## MedPretzel (Mar 11, 2005)

you know me -- silly as always!


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## Hippie (Mar 14, 2005)

Yeah, I know. Have you started the beet wine yet?


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## MedPretzel (Mar 14, 2005)

Yes! I did!


Beginning SG was about 1.075.... A little on the low side, but I ran out of sugar and there was a snowstorm, so..... It's gonna have to do.





It smells like.......... beets..... I can't say that this fermentation smells good.


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## Hippie (Mar 14, 2005)

10%, or thereabouts. Nothing wrong with that. When can we have more information as to other ingredients, method, must taste, pics, etc.?


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## MedPretzel (Mar 15, 2005)

Sure... As soon as I get my lazy butt down in the basement, I'll take some pics. It's due for a transfer to the secondary soon anyway.









Patience, my sweeties.


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## Hippie (Mar 15, 2005)

Great! Looks good. How much beets did you use and other ingredients?


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## MedPretzel (Mar 15, 2005)

Yikes, y'all are gonna kill me on this one. 





I basically winged it.


To my knowledge I have made rougly 2 gallons:


5 lbs beets
5 lbs sugar
1 tsp anise
1 tsp ginger
2 cloves
pectic enzyme
nutrient
energizer
acid blend
1campden tablet


My trusty Montrachet was the yeast I chose.


Starting SG was somewhere around 1.075 or so. I usually add sugar to make it up to 1.080 or 1.090 but I only had 5 lb in the house, so that's all that went in.





Fermentation took off right away, looking okay. After about 7 days in the primary, I still have the beets in there. Tomorrow I will take it out, though.


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## Hippie (Mar 15, 2005)

Hhmmm...5 pounds in 2 gallons only got you to 1.075? OK. I see you didn't add grape tannin powder, or just forgot to put it down here? Looks good to me.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 16, 2005)

Yes, I added tannin powder. I forgot to add that to the post. I think I ended up putting 2 tsp of it in. 





Sorry, my note-taking wasn't too great on this one.


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## Hippie (Mar 18, 2005)

Do you add tannin to taste, or is it just me? Maybe it is the OCD. I usually add none at all if I think the fruit has plenty of it's own.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 19, 2005)

I add tannin to give it a little edge. It's in almost all fruit-wine recipes which might lack that zing that reds and whites (grape) have. So, it's just one of those things that become a given when I make my wines.





I'm not too sure which of the stuff I make has a lot of tannin in it or not. Since I try to stay away from Welch's when I make my wines, I usually just add it.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 19, 2005)

I racked the beet wine today.





It tastes sweet, SG is down to about 1.050, and it turned out that I had 2.5 gallons of it. So, I put it in the 3-gallon carboy, and topped off with a mixture of leftover pumpkin wine and sugar water. It shows promise. The color is beautiful ruby-red, with a hint of purple. I hope the color stays, because this looks very nice right now.


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## Hippie (Mar 19, 2005)

Pics? Why did you feel the need to top up with a very active fermentation still happening? Why did you rack so soon? Did you take SG readings before and after the addition? It sounds very nice.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 19, 2005)

No pics right now. maybe tomorrow.





I topped up because I cannot stand a carboy with too much (0.5 gallon) airspace. I racked because I wanted to. No, I didn't take SG readings afterwards. 





I dunno, it sounds like a weird wine. Just don't like the smell


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## Hippie (Mar 20, 2005)

I think the ullage would have been ok while still fermenting strongly at SG 1.050, and you could have topped up later. Since you did not check the SG after the addition,the abv will be a guess.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 20, 2005)

That's okay with me. I'm trying to keep this easy, and not stress myself out, which I tend to do in other areas of my life. 





Not knowing the abv is okay with me.


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## Hippie (Mar 20, 2005)

Are you saying making wine can stress you out? 


I think it is important to know the content of anything in the wine and to keep it all in your notes to refer back to later.


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## MedPretzel (Mar 20, 2005)

Making wine can stress me out. But lots of things stress me out. I'm a type A personality with OCD.....


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## Hippie (Mar 20, 2005)

Really? I thought you more of a type B. Oh well, I am not always right.


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