Beet Wine - My First Attempt

[gratus_fermentatio]

Hey Tasunka, imagine seeing you here!
Regards, GF.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Cheers! Good to see you, too!

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Follow-up - 17 January 2017:

Between being busy and procrastinating, I was not able to rack this wine over until 17 January. I added 1 crushed campden tablet and topped the gallon off with some extra wine that I had from racking over into secondary. There was a surprisingly-low amount of lees, but fermentation had definitely taken place, and I am definitely ending up with wine, here.

There was enough left over for a small sample, so of course I tried it. This wine is very interesting and surprisingly good. The colour is simply beautiful, a jewel-like hue somewhere between magenta and burgundy, similar to yet slightly lighter than the “bucket” photo above. It is hard to describe, so I will get a photo next time. There is a definite flavour of beets, but not in a bad way - it is very slightly earthy and finishes with a nice “beet-ness.” Its over-all character has a slight alcohol harshness, as it is still a young wine, but if it does any maturing at all, I think I am going to have something really special here.

I’ll rack it one more time in a month or two, then bottle it a month or two later. By mid-summer or autumn, we’ll see what we end up with.

That is all for now - more as it happens, etc. &c....

Ron

 

[PhilDarby]

The very first time I got extremely drunk was in 1977 at a new years eve party, I was 14, it was organised by my then sister of my mother, I was placed serving beer on the bar (although I was taking sly sips) it was through drinking beet root wine which my then uncle had made, that I got totally wasted and made an absolute show of myself, looking back it was a good time, although I regretted it for a few days (hangover time) looking back it was a very dry wine, and around ten years later I began brewing my own, even though my uncle had left the scene (divorced) but, this incident ultimately led me to making my own home made wines and 32 years after I made my first home brew wine I still make the odd wine, Im now 54, so this incident was 40 years ago now, in all honesty, when I haven't been tied down by children and family stuff, for thirty odd years now ive enjoyed making my own wines.

Im very much in the country wine blending and making, mind set, also.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Well, a late update on this -

Since my last posting, I put it away to bulk-age. For a month or so, I told myself to forget about it, and after a while, I did! Somewhere in that time, I re-filled the air-lock a couple of times, but that's about it.

Last night, I took a look at this wine. I noticed that the colour wasn't quite the same, but that was to be expected, as the particulates that made up the colour would eventually drop out, I figured. I noticed a lot of those particulates floating around, so I put the fermenter into the refrigerator, hoping that they will fall over the course of the next couple of weeks. If this does not work, then I will attempt to use some fining agent to achieve the same goal.

The wine smelled great; mildy of beets, but with some other quality that I liked -

 

[AkTom]

I almost hate to ask... What quality would that be?

 

[TasunkaWitko]

I'm honestly not sure, Tom - probably nostalgia.... Smelling that wine brought me right back to my grandpa's garden in rural North Dakota when I was a kid - even though I don't specifically remember him growing any beets.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how this turns out; I've heard of people making wine from almost everything, and compared to some things out there, beets sound downright normal.

 

[AkTom]

Nice. I love those memory smells.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

I bottled this wine on Monday evening, 2 October 2017.

I was able to get 4 full bottles and just a few tablespoons shy of a fifth bottle; that one will be a "sampler" over the next couple-three weeks, I guess.

The particulates in the wine had settled and it was very clear, very beautiful, and had a nice, hue between ruby red and burgundy. The first four bottles - held up to the light - were so clear that I could read fine print on a newspaper through them. The fifth picked up a tiny bit of lees that settled out afterwards.

I took a small taste, and was impressed. You definitely get the flavor of the beets, with only a hint of earthiness - just enough to make it interesting, and not obnoxious in any way at all; at least, to me. Having said that, I could see where some folks would want to add a cinnamon stick, a couple of cloves and a few allspice berries - I think it would be an interesting (and very good) variation.

The only thing I would change the next time I make this would be to add some acid blend, just to liven it up a bit and bring it onto focus. I am not sure exactly how much I would add, but when the time comes I can consult the various recipes posted earlier in this thread and go with a reasonable amount.

All-in-all, I am fairly confident that I can report success! I hope that my efforts reflected well on my grandfather - and on my heritage - and I will make this wine again, with all certainty.

 

[wildhair]

TasunkaWitko - great read and write up. THANKS! I have a lot of extra beets in the ground still, already canned a doz. qts. to eat. So I was looking for info on Beet Wine - perfect timing. I have a read over a few beet wine recipes - Jack Keller has 3 on his website - but all cooked the beets and didn't soak them in the primary. It appears you DID allow the beets to soak and did NOT boil them first. Several recipes call for cloves - not a spice I like. I fear it may over-power the beets. I may try a little fresh grated ginger in the secondary or some citrus zest.

As an aside - Mr. Keller also mentioned that beet wine should age at least 18 months for the "earthy" taste to dissipate. And to bulk age and bottle in dark glass to prevent the color fading.

Thanks again for taking the time.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Hi, WildHair; and thank you for the mind words.

Yes, to be clear: I did not cool the beets, and I did leave them in primary. I have no idea if this is the best way or not; however, it is how my grandfather did it, so I did it the same way. The results, in my opinion, were good; but I have nothing else to compare this to.

I'll definitely keep an eye on how this changes as it ages. I bulk-aged it for about a year, and will probably open the first bottle (other than the "sampler" in 3 or 5 months.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Here is the label that I created for this wine:

 

[wildhair]

Very nice!

 

[FXibley]

I like that label.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Thanks, folks!

 

[franc1969]

TasunkaWitko, wondering how the beet wine turned out? I am kicking around ideas for country wines, and this sounds like my sort of thing. I don't want to stick with recipes that cook/use extracted liquid only, so was really interested in how you prepped the beets for this wine.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Hello, Franc - I hope you are well!

Please forgive my dereliction in keeping up with this thread. I've been a little distracted by other things the past couple of years, including a very grand trip to Australia that my wife and I took last fall.

In short, the wine turned out much better than I could have hoped for, especially given my very limited resources and experience. The beet flavor came through nicely with only a bare hint of "earthiness" which I found to actually be pleasant rather than off-putting. When I make this again, I believe I would definitely add a little acid blend - I'm not sure exactly how much, but just enough to bring it into focus.

I have some notes from 3 January 2018, and will post them here:

I was able to try some of this on New Year's Day. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is aging quite well, and in many ways it is exceeding my expectations.

The colour is not what I expected, but since I haven't done this before, I wasn't sure what I should be expecting. It could be just a little clearer (more clear?), but that is my fault, not the wine's, as I think I should have racked it one more time before bottling.

The taste, however, was truly unique and in many ways quite good. The earthiness that I was expecting has dialed back quite a bit, but is still there enough to remind you that this is indeed beetroot wine. Aside from that, there is a flavor in the wine that is definitely beet-like, and in a good way. As I said above I'm pretty impressed.

In all, I am calling this a success - I might be able to "refine" it a bit by adding acid blend next time; but to be honest, I am not convinced that is totally necessary. It might help with colour retention and balancing the flavor a bit - but then again, it's pretty darn good, just like this.

Subsequent tastings left me with the same impression...and now, it's all gone! I need to make some more, but have so many other projects lined up in front of it: crabapple-and-sweet-cherry, more chokecherry, prickley-pear fruit, buffaloberry....

I need to get busy!

 

[franc1969]

Thank you for the tasting notes, sounds like a good recipe. I didn't want to use cooked beets like most recipe sources start from. I think I will try this out next with some beets from our farmer's market. Then I'll know what I'd want to do when the beets are ready to harvest from my own crop. Seed starting this week for a lot of my garden, and time for truckloads of compost.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Sounds like a good plan - I think you will be happy with this! I'm starting my tomatoes and peppers on (or about) March 10th (indoors), and then starting other garden produce about a month later. Our growing season tends to be from "about? 15 May to "about" 15 September, but certain stuff can be started before and will continue to grow to harvest after those dates.

 

[wildhair]

Just started my first batch of beet wine (4 gallons) on Sunday, pitched the yeast yesterday. I used 16# of beets that had been peeled, vacuum sealed then frozen since last fall. I have no intention of doing as an exhaustive write up as the original post - but I will try and post the recipe I used a little later. Or maybe in another post. ??
The must tastes excellent, btw.