carrot wine???

[jensmith]

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

 

[BernardSmith]

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.

 

[fabrictodyefor]

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!

 

[BernardSmith]

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.

 

[fabrictodyefor]

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.....

 

[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.

 

[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?

 

[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.

 

[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!

 

[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!

 

[bein_bein]

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

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...

I was really surprised how dark they got

. Next step will be to try these in my carrot wine when it clears a little more.

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

 

[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.

 

[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!

 

[Prewno]

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

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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