Beetroot wine recipe.

I made my first Beetroot wine today. When I heard of this I really fancied trying it. So here’s what I did.



Recipe

Ingredients

2 Kg Beetroot
5 Litres of Spring/Mineral Water
1.5 Kg sugar
1 tsp citric acid
1 tsp pectolase
Wine yeast
Yeast Nutrient- 1.5 tsp
Tannin- 1 cup of STRONG black tea (three bags)

1) Peel and slice beetroots (wearing some latex gloves here made clean up a lot easier)


2) Place into a pan and add 2.5 litres of the water and bring to boil.


3) Boil until the beetroot is cooked - tender but not mushy

4) Allow to cool

5) While beetroot and it's water is cooling in the pan, add three teabags into a mug and add boiling water to make a strong cup of tea. Set to one side to cool (leave the bags in the mug as it cools).


6) When the beetroot is cooled add the liquid from the pan into a demijohn using a sieve and funnel (you do not add the beetroot to the demijohn, just the juice)

7) In a sanitised jam jar quarter filled with tepid water add the yeast, yeast nutrient and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Put the lid on the jar and shake it to mix the yeast. Leave to one side for 15 minutes in a warm spot.

8) Add the sugar to the demi john and shake really well until the sugar is completely dissolved into the beetroot juice.

9) Add the cold tea, citric acid and pectolase to the demijohn and fill with water to the three quarter mark. I’ve heard this stuff really can bubble up so I will top up the water once I am confident any bubbling up has ceased.

10) Check Original Gravity. (When checked mine it was off the scale so I'm calling it 1120 - potential final alcohol content of 14.5 - 15%+ - although all the water is not yet in of course)

11) Add the yeast solution from the jam jar into the demijohn.

12) Once all the ingredients are in the demijohn give it a final quick shake then add a bung and an airlock.


That’s it.

I’m expecting to rack it a few times once the bubbles stop in the airlock to clear the wine before bottling.

I have heard that too much light can make this wine turn a nasty brown colour so I am going to be fermenting it inside a cupboard ( or you could wrap the demijohn in cardboard to keep out the light). I plan to bottle wine in green wine bottles once it is done clearing just in case.

As a side note: I am pretty sure I could have used the left over beetroot for pickling if I had some spare jars and vinegar. I’m going to look into this for next time. Shame to waste the lovely beetroot if it still has some goodness in it.

Hi.
Sounds good. One thing I do with veg wines
is take precautions against starch causing a
haze by either adding amylase or fermenting
a week with only half the sugar, then adding
the rest dissolved in a pint of water.

goodolpete said:

Hi.
Sounds good. One thing I do with veg wines
is take precautions against starch causing a
haze by either adding amylase or fermenting
a week with only half the sugar, then adding
the rest dissolved in a pint of water.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that, I'll see how this one clears.

Almost 12 hours on and not a bubble in the airlock yet. After making fruit punches maybe I am being a little too impatient.

Excellent post, looking forward to the review, how long are you planning to age it?

Chippy_Tea said:

Excellent post, looking forward to the review, how long are you planning to age it?

Click to expand...

I plan to crack open first bottle Christmas 2016 along with first bottle of my first mead which is almost ready to rack for first time now. That's the plan anyway, as long as temptation is not too great before then.

Beetroot wine now bottled and sealed. Came out at 10.5% but I suspect it may be a little bit more. Quite sweet already so should age pretty nicely. Clear as a bell and a nice colour too.



For anyone worried about starch haze, this was as as bright and as clear as a bell with no need to clearing of any kind.

Roll on Christmas 2016..

Didn't this cost you a set of curtains too? :-(

brumbrew said:

Didn't this cost you a set of curtains too? :-(

Click to expand...

SSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH! Who knows what will happen if the wife finds out!

This sounds good - did it age well ?


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