Carrot wine is delicious!

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JeremyCT

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I just bottled, and holy crap. I was skeptical, but this came out tasty!

4 lbs carrots, (grated and boiled in one gallon of water. I just poured the carrot water through a strainer onto the raisins)
2 lbs brown sugar
a little cinnamon and nutmeg
1 lb thompson raisins
lalvin d47

No secondary
yield = 1 gallon

Ended up pretty dry. And strong. I'm on an empty stomach, but I poured myself a pint of this while bottling, and I feel it. yeayeah!


I'm glad this came out good, 'cause I started a five gallon batch a few days ago based on the smell of the one gallon batch. Ha!
I can't wait to see how it ages.
 
Cost about three bucks to make a gallon.
Why wouldn't you? ha!
 
I have a spare gallon jug laying around, so I might give this a shot. I thought yuck, the first time I heard about carrot soup; but, it is delicious. I imagine it will be the same with the wine. With that said, what was your OG, and how long did you age it for?
 
I don't own a hydrometer.

I haven't aged yet. I just took a pint for "research" as I was bottling.
I've read a few suggestions on aging ranging from a couple months to a couple years. I'm going to try and leave this for a year. I've got five gallons more going right now, so that shouldn't be toooo hard. ha.
 
And speaking of weird soup, my girl made some bell pepper soup that was freaking great. Very similar to tomato.
I wonder how bell peppers would fare as booze.
 
I'm glad this came out good, 'cause I started a five gallon batch a few days ago based on the smell of the one gallon batch. Ha!
I can't wait to see how it ages.

Interesting. I just tried fermenting carrot juice cut with apple cider a couple weeks back and man it was weird! I bottled it anyways to see how it ages..Its probably a better idea to boil like you did. How much of a carrot taste did it end up with? I imagine your OG was pretty high w/ 2lb of sugar in one gallon! Carrot Beer?
 
That's a neat idea. I juice carrots when I make health drinks but I've never fermented it. I thought it would be too soupy and strong. Boiling it sounds like a much better idea.
 
I never would have seen this thread had it not been bumped, and I gotta say, I love the idea so very very much.
 
I found on Google when I was looking for the recipe. this one is actually looking very tempting, but I'm running low on carboys at the moment and just wondering about how long I need to age it. I also bet it would taste better as a Mead
 
I made a carrot wine from homegrown carrots last fall, and it was delicious young. The carrot flavor is subtle and not overwhelming, the color is amazing (I used some purple carrots too). I drank half of it young and have the other half aging.

I used this recipe from the book Making Wild Wines and Meads:
(recipe for 1 gal)

6lbs carrots washed and sliced
12 oz orange juice concentrate
8 oz golden raisins, chopped
2 lbs white sugar
1 lb clover honey
montrachet yeast
pectic enzyme and nutrient

boil carrots, orange juice, raisins, sugar and honey for 10-20 minutes until the carrots are getting soft, skimming off any scum coming to the surface. Cool, strain out the carrots reserving 1 cup. Crush the 1 cup of carrots into a paste and add back to the liquid. sit for 24 hours then add your pectic, nutrient and yeast.

Recipe recommended minimum 6 months aging, but like I said, it was quite good young.
 
It should be no surprise that I put this together last night. Not sure how long I should let it age but it is fermenting like a monster!
 
JeremyCT's. I gave him credit on my homebrew chalkboard too :).

The recipe has a few holes in it though... how long do the raisins stay in play? How long do we age for? Is the OG REALLY 1.100 or am I going crazy??
 
If yours turns out I think this will be my next one. I kind of hope the finished product keeps the color
 
Well, I used dark brown sugar so it is more brown than orange currently... not sure how that will change as it ferments...
 
The O.G. Does make sense- isnt brown sugar a mix of molasses and white sugar? Should come out to about 13%. Do you plan on backsweetening? if you back sweetened with honey I think it would be a nice flavor addition, but that's easy for me to say having never seen or tasted it
 
Its all up in the air at this point, I think Ill cross that bridge a bit later. I will say this... using D-47 for the first time... those little suckers are monstrous!!
 
From "boil" to pitch this was an easy one. Now its all up to the yeasts and if I jump the gun for bottling...
 
It almost sounded too easy, like jaom, but if it turns out good it may become a regular. Sure would be cheap to make
 
@Goofy, my God bro, if I didnt have a blowoff on the first night my brew closet would have been toast! This is high octane bubbling we have going on here! I've NEVER seen the like. Even apfelwein on its first real day of fermenting looks subdued in comparison.

@Erroneous, I gave the carrots a good 10 minute boil not knowing what else to do (didnt want them to get sulphury as veggies can if overboiled). I think the answer to this would be obtained by doing a gravity on 2 lbs of dark brown sugar in a gallon of water and seeing if it differs from the 1.1 I got when I prepared my must. Another question I dont have an answer is while it seems likely I could get more sugar from the carrots... would I want to? 13%, as Goofy calculated, is pretty respectable ABV-wise. Would making this a higher gravity wine make it more difficult to drink? This is all speculation on my part, I dont have the answers and Im not even sure if I have the right questions.
 
FYI, it is STILL bubbling like mad. I think I am going to need to clean and replace the blowoff today rather than use an airlock!
 
Honestly I omitted this time. Everything I make seems to have cinnamon in it, I thought I would opt out and see if the carrot shines through...
 
So do I have this right?

1. Boil carrots and brown sugar.
2. Pour through a stainer onto raisins and spices.
3. Strain into fermenter

Why not boil everything together and then strain it? Am I even supposed to strain the raisins or put them on the fermenter too?
 
Leave raisons in fermentor. Just strain out most of the carrot chunks. No need to boil the shuger, but it will not hurt either. I prefure white suger over brown. Cleaner flavor. Brown suger leaves its own flavore. If you like it use it.
 
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