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Beet Wine - My First Attempt |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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Posted: 15 October 2016 at 15:06 |
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Beet Wine - My First Attempt No, i'm not crazy ~ On a recent thread, I discussed how my grandfather would make different wines: http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/crabapple-wine_topic4679.html 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
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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In my reading, I came across another recipe for beet wine that I will post here, for a couple of reasons. The first is to preserve it as a quasi-historic recipe; the second is because it is in all likelihood very, very close to the way my grandfather did it. Come to think of it, there is a third reason as well: it was reported as being very, very good; better, in fact, than beet wine made the "proper" way...and I think that I just might try it!
Anyway, here it is, from OHIOSTEVE at www.homebrewtalk.com. I made a few slight modifications for the sake of clarity, but the essentials are as he describes:
Yep - more and more, I think I will try the wine this way, at least the first time. I may add campden in order to ward off oxidation, but that will probably be it. We'll see.... |
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pitrow
Master Chef Joined: 22 November 2010 Location: Newberg, Oregon Status: Offline Points: 1078 |
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I'm not a wine drinker by any means, but I love seeing "oddball" or things that are not your normal run of the mill fare. Especially resurrecting things from the past that may soon be forgotten and/or lost to history. I've never seen, much less heard of beet wine, but stands to reason that it would have been made, since beets are fairly high in sugars to convert to alcohol. Thanks for doing stuff like this Tas, keep it coming. I'm interested to see how it turns out.
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Mike
Life in PitRow - My often neglected, somewhat eccentric, occasionally outstanding blog |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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Hey, Mike - I will be sure to keep everyone updated. With luck, I might actually get this started this week.
I'm not much of a "real" wine drinker either, but I am enjoying these home-made "country" wines more and more, made from the bounty of the land. True connoisseurs might shudder at them, but they taste great, they look wonderful, they are a tie to the land and - for me - have the added bonus of being a connection to my past and a continuation of a family tradition. I mean really, the more I think about it, what could be more "German-from-Russia" than beet wine? On that note, I was out at my parents' place a couple of nights ago, and talked with my dad about how Grandpa would make this beet wine. I wanted to compare it to the two methods that I have posted above, and while it is similar, there are a couple of differences. Grandpa's "method" (although he probably never would have referred to it that way) consisted of re-purposing a large glass battery case, which would have looked something like this: He would wash the beets, then pare them (like a potato), then cut them up into small chunks. He would then toss them into the battery case and add the sugar and water. As to the amounts of beets and sugar, Dad didn't know for sure, but he was certain that Grandpa made wine 5 gallons at a time, so the recipe in my opening post would be a good place to start (2.5 pounds of beets and a like amount - maybe a little less - of sugar per gallon). Grandpa would then pitch the yeast (bread yeast) and let the magic begin. When it was done working, he'd bottle it, and that was that. Doing it this way, the beets apparently released their juice with no trouble. Dad says that Grandpa absolutely did not boil the beets to extract the juice. I have a mechanical juicer, but I think that I might just pare the beets, pulse them a bit in my food processor, and then toss them in a mesh bag and into the fermenting bucket. If it was good enough for Grandpa, it's good enough for me. As noted above, I will use campden and employ other methods to ward off oxidation, but other than that, it's looking as though the old-school way might be the best path, especially for such an old-school wine. Hopefully, a 1-gallon batch of this will be started sometime this week. More as it happens, etc. &c.... Ron |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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To add to the "chronicle," here are three Beet Wine recipes from noted wine recipe guru, Jack Keller:
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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I started this on Saturday, pretty much as I described above.
After washing, paring and chopping, I had exactly 3 pounds of beets. I added 3 pounds of sugar, a crushed campden tablet and 1 gallon of spring water. I pitched the yeast (Montrachet) yesterday, and all seems to be going well. I also managed to get a few nice photos - will post them when I can, with more details. Ron |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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Alrighty - for all of the Doubting Thomases out there, this one's for you!
This is a pretty easy story to tell, so far: 3.4 pounds of beets, sugar and spring water; not pictured are a package of Montrachet wine yeast and a campden tablet (to protect the wine from infection and to ward off oxidation). You can read more about campden tablets and their purpose in winemaking here: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/purpose-of-campden-tablets Note: The recipes posted above contain several additives that probably "balance" and "improve" the wine to something a little more in line with modern practices. Pectic enzyme is presumably not necessary; however the biggest benefit that I can see would probably be some acid blend. I do not know for sure if this is the case, but I suspect that it might be. On the other hand, some reports stated that beet wine made the "right" way - that is, with the additives - has been lackluster and even inferior. I will most likely experiment with some of those additives at some point, but for this first attempt, I chose to stick with just the campden tablet, and called it good. Moving forward, I cut off the tops and roots of the beets, then pared them with a carrot peeler: Some recipes said that paring the beets is unnecessary, but my grandfather did this, so I did, too. The peelings, roots and tops of the beets were buried in the garden, to keep the land happy. This actually left me with exactly 3 pounds of beets: I was estimating that I would have anywhere from 2.5 to 3 pounds total, so this was just fine. My grandfather would then chop up the beets into small pieces with a knife; however, I am either too lazy or too busy to do that, so I cut them into medium-sized pieces, then pulsed them through my food processor: This seemed to work quite well. Some recipes call for cooking the beets at this point, in order to extract the juice. This seems unnecessary to me, and could, in my opinion, result in some sort of off-flavor. Would it? Won't it? I don't know. But the thing is, my grandfather did not cook the beets; my father insisted on that - so I didn't cook them, either. Meanwhile, I heated my gallon of spring water on the stovetop to the point where it would easily dissolve 3 pounds of sugar. This amount of sugar was arrived at after reading the recipes posted above, and should be a good amount. By this point, I was starting to wonder if I was the recipient of some family joke, but I kept with it anyway, and am glad that I did. The next step was to put the beets into a fine mesh bag, then pour the warm sugar water on top of the bag in the fermenting bucket, along with a crushed campden tablet. The water turned beet-red (no pun intended) immediately: Truly a beautiful colour! I loosely covered the bucket with a clean tea towel, then set it in a dark, temperature-stable place for 24 hours. After that, I stirred the mixture and pitched the wine yeast. Since then, I have been stirring the must periodically, and using the large spoon to squish down the bag in order to continue to extract juice from the beets. Fermentation seems to be starting up quite nicely, and I suspect that it will be in full swing by the time I get home from work today. I have managed to sneak a couple of very small samples clinging to the spoon after stirring the must; early impressions are that I am onto something really good here, and I am thinking that I will end up with some very interesting wine. It's too early to really describe it, but it is definitely good, and for the most part unexpected. That is all for now - more as it happens, etc. &c.... Ron |
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pitrow
Master Chef Joined: 22 November 2010 Location: Newberg, Oregon Status: Offline Points: 1078 |
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looking good Ron!
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Mike
Life in PitRow - My often neglected, somewhat eccentric, occasionally outstanding blog |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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Thanks, Mike!
Well, this project is cruising right along; we're definitely making wine, and that's a good start. The beet aroma and flavor are coming through nicely, without being over-bearing or obnoxious. The colour is simply beautiful - I can't say enough about that! Ambient temperatures have been a bit on the low side, in the mid 60s; I'm not too concerned about this, but it is something that should be noted. I try to keep temperatures around 69-71, but my "temperature control system" consists of a closet lined with clothes and a space heater, so it's not going to be an exact science. No worries, though, as I am pretty sure most farmhouses that made this stuff didn't have a laboratory nearby. We're past the halfway point for primary fermentation; this weekend, I'll most likely transfer the must over to secondary, unless I see a reason not to. |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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ADD moment - I live in Chinook, Montana. Sugarbeets as an industry and - surprisingly - as a culture have been a "thing" here for a very long time. We had a thriving sugarbeet production here up until the late 1970s or so; we still have a "Sugarbeet Festival" every year, and our high school mascot is...the SugarBeeters. Sugarbeet wine is on my list of things to try, but that will most likely have to wait until next year. These beets are just regular beets, grown wonderfully at a local Hutterite colony. Anyway - fermentation seemed a bit stalled with this, so when I got home from work last night, I added 1/2 dose of yeast nutrient. When I stirred the must this morning, I noticed a little more evidence of fermentation than in the past couple of days, so I think things are going well. I'll probably transfer this to secondary tomorrow; then, the wait begins....
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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I transferred my beet wine to my secondary fermenter last night, 31 October. The wine looked wonderful and smelled nice and "beety," in a good way. As far as I can tell, everything is going just fine.
I'll try to forget about it for a couple of weeks while it finishes fermenting and clears a bit. After that, we'll take a look and see what we have.
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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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 |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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Well, a late update on this -
Since my last posting, I racked this off the lees once or twice, then 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 - |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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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. |
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Margi Cintrano
Master Chef Joined: 03 February 2012 Location: Spain Status: Offline Points: 6357 |
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Ron, Fascinating !! I love beetroot and wines !!! Let us know how this turns out .. |
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Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina.
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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Here is the label that I created for this wine:
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Margi Cintrano
Master Chef Joined: 03 February 2012 Location: Spain Status: Offline Points: 6357 |
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WOW .. Amazing .. Cannot wait to see the final results ..
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Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina.
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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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. I'll try to get a photo the next time I have some of this. 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. |
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