Bloody Mary Wine

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B0whunt3r

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My Wife loves Bloody Marys so I was thinking why not make a inspired wine. My plan is to make a one gallon sample. I'm going to start with a gallon of tomato juice enough sugar to bring the gravity up to about 1.090 so it will ferment down to about 12-13% Here is where my questions begin. To that I want to add some crushed pepper corns. I'm not really sure how much to add any suggestions? Also for any good Bloody Mary you need tobacco sauce. When should I add it? I was thinking either when I transfer it to the secondary or instead of back sweetening I would back spice it. Same thing with the splash of Worcestershire sauce. When and How much of these ingredients to add? I'm still very new at wine making but this sounds like a cool idea any suggestions would be helpful.
 
I love inspired wines. Mine are tropical fruit inspired for the most part so I feel where you are coming from. If you are making it for you wife, then she needs to be the one to come up with an ingredient list. I would put her glass on a scale when she makes it and jot down the readings every time she adds something. With a little math, you will know exactly what everything is. My concern is if all the ingredients are soluble or will they just settle to the bottom of the fermenter. Take an ingredient and mix it in a glass of water. Let it sit overnight and then poor the top off and check the bottom for non soluble ingredients. If they settle out then you would not want to add that until serving.

You may be ahead to just make tomato-celery-onion wine and let her spice it with the rest.
 
I've made tomato wine (recipe is posted) but it really isn't all that "tomato-y". When you ferment the sugar out of a fruit, it doesn't really taste like that fruit anymore. Like, merlot made out of grapes. Merlot doesn't really taste like grapes, and dandelion wine doesn't really taste like dandelions. I think making a bloody mary wine would be very difficult if the expectation would be that it would actually taste like a bloody mary.
 
I don't expect it to tast like a bloody mary, but I know the ingedints go well together outside of cocktails. So I figure What the heck i'm only doing a gallon. Worst case I loose maybe 10 bucks worth of ingredients.

I think I'm gonna nix the Worcherstershire sauce. Just use the tabascco and pepper to flavor the juice and hope for the best. see how it turns out and adjust fire from there.

Thanks for the advice, I'll update the thread on how it's going and if it turns out good i"ll post the recipe.
 
If you want to brew cocktails, you can try the Twisted Mist brew kits (scroll to the bottom). This manufacturer's kits are pretty good from my experience.

Those are fantastic! I didn't know anybody made a kit like that. I have been getting apple or white-grape juice for a base and processing Chilean fruit from Kroger as a secondary flavor. It was the local alternative for me.
 
The problem with experimenting in winemaking is that it takes a year or two to get your results. That's why experts recommend taking an established recipe and modifying it, rather than going out on a limb yourself.

You're right, it's only a year and only a gallon... have fun!
 
My Wife loves Bloody Marys so I was thinking why not make a inspired wine. My plan is to make a one gallon sample. I'm going to start with a gallon of tomato juice enough sugar to bring the gravity up to about 1.090 so it will ferment down to about 12-13% Here is where my questions begin. To that I want to add some crushed pepper corns. I'm not really sure how much to add any suggestions? Also for any good Bloody Mary you need tobacco sauce. When should I add it? I was thinking either when I transfer it to the secondary or instead of back sweetening I would back spice it. Same thing with the splash of Worcestershire sauce. When and How much of these ingredients to add? I'm still very new at wine making but this sounds like a cool idea any suggestions would be helpful.

Cool idea. I made/am making tomato wine, but I should note; I don't really like bloody marys at all.
The tomato flavor mellows out to the point where it's almost like grape wine, but with a slight flavor of tomato, so slight you may not recognize it if not told what it was. But this mellowing is a product of aging, if you where to drink it "green" it would be much more like a bloody mary.
So I would think you would do best if you fermented it, racked it, and stuck it in the fridge in as little time as the fermentation permits. I would also suggest not corking it, as it may explode due to incomplete fermentation.
Speaking of which, I had two carlo jugs full of tomato wine explode in my kitchen over the summer. I'm still finding glass. I was fermenting them with the caps just on loose, and i tightened them to move them, and forgot to loosen them up, next day I came home to glass and wine everywhere.
I would suggest you make your 1 gal and split it into 750ml batches (fermented in 1L or 1.5L bottles). This way you can try a few variations on the spices/sauces. Just keep good records, and you'll know which mixture to work from next time, assuming one is really good.

Edit: I wouldn't recommend using anything that has vinegar in it, unless you know it's distilled. You could also add such products to your glass on tasting day with out any fear.
 
The problem with experimenting in winemaking is that it takes a year or two to get your results. That's why experts recommend taking an established recipe and modifying it, rather than going out on a limb yourself.

You're right, it's only a year and only a gallon... have fun!

I am 5 to 7 days in primary and 5 to 7 days in secondary then bottle and drink. From start to finish in 2 weeks. I have only dumped 1 batch out of the dozen or so i have made so far. I couldn't in no way wait a year.
 
I am 5 to 7 days in primary and 5 to 7 days in secondary then bottle and drink. From start to finish in 2 weeks. I have only dumped 1 batch out of the dozen or so i have made so far. I couldn't in no way wait a year.

That's surprising- do you have a problem with sediment in your bottles? My wines aren't always clear even after 4-6 months. I can't even imagine thinking about bottling them in 2 weeks, let alone two months!

I have a beautiful crabapple wine that I racked today that can be bottled soon. It's not dropping lees anymore, and it's been completely clear for a while. I made it on March 7 of this year, and I hope to bottle it by the end of this year.
 
That's surprising- do you have a problem with sediment in your bottles? My wines aren't always clear even after 4-6 months. I can't even imagine thinking about bottling them in 2 weeks, let alone two months!

I have a beautiful crabapple wine that I racked today that can be bottled soon. It's not dropping lees anymore, and it's been completely clear for a while. I made it on March 7 of this year, and I hope to bottle it by the end of this year.

Sometimes I will get some pectin, gel that holds the fruit together, precipitate a little further in the bottle. I make sure the yeast is dead with campden and sorbate when I rack to secondary. All the yeast and most pectin will drop out within a week. Once it goes from a creamy color back close to the original color, it is drinkable. The pectin seems not to have a lot of impact on flavor. When it gets bottled, it is all given out and drank with the month before the next batch is ready, so it doesn't stay in the bottle long. Now winter is here I have less friends over and it last and ages a little longer.

Here is a pic of watermelon wine, fermented a week, and bulk aged 3 weeks. I started thieving drinks from the secondary after a day or two, swiping bottles from it within a week.


l_05b5397d56664172aacb41c3c63988ee.jpg
 
Wine changes dramatically over time.

I had a wine once that changed 4 different colors in the fermenter as the fruit broke down. It was strawberry red, kiwi green, pink and another color. I thought that was pretty dramatic but I dumped the batch out. It was like tasting razor blades. No other description. That was the first and only time I used pectic enzymes. I am not sure if that was what caused it, but after that I read if the pectin isn't hurting anything, then leave it alone. The enzymes just delay things anyway in my case.

Aging wine gives the alcohol and fruit molecules time to move around and bind together. It can be done naturally through the rotation of the earth or it can be introduced through mechanical means at a faster pace. Lets say you stick your carboy on a lazy susan and turned the bottle in a circle a few times an hour. This would move the molecules around and bind them rapidly. Now lets say you add a motor and a timer to rotate the bottles in a circle for you. Now thats what I am working towards building but maybe not with those exact parts. I use a similar technique now.
 
Aging wine gives the alcohol and fruit molecules time to move around and bind together. It can be done naturally through the rotation of the earth or it can be introduced through mechanical means at a faster pace. Lets say you stick your carboy on a lazy susan and turned the bottle in a circle a few times an hour. This would move the molecules around and bind them rapidly. Now lets say you add a motor and a timer to rotate the bottles in a circle for you. Now thats what I am working towards building but maybe not with those exact parts. I use a similar technique now.

I remember hearing about someone who found a spot in the ocean to age wine so the waves rocked them; there by aging them faster.
I know next to nothing on the chemistry of this, but I'm quite interested as to what the ideal rate of movement would be.
 
I remember hearing about someone who found a spot in the ocean to age wine so the waves rocked them; there by aging them faster.
I know next to nothing on the chemistry of this, but I'm quite interested as to what the ideal rate of movement would be.

I had to look that one up. They age their bottles in the Indian Ocean. Pretty good idea. I make my wine on a houseboat. It is always moving around in the wind and with boats going by. It isn't a hard enough rock to stir up the bottom, just enough to move the liquid around a bit. I am thinking about 1 rotation a minute should work in a simulated environment, but I would have to experiment some more. I would like to come up with a way anybody can get a similar result as I do.
 
Okay.

It is more likely that the moon would change your wine than the motion of the earth.

Enjoy your brewing!
 
Well I starterd my experiment, and it turn out rather interesting. I used 3 quarts of Campbell's Tomato juice and 1/4 bottle of tabasco added sugar to get the gravity to what I think was 1.080. (I'm not sure how accurate it is since tomato juice is a thicker juice than most others and I think it might effect the Hydrometer.) I also added yeast nutrient, pectin enzime and pitched the yeast. So far everything seems alright and going according to plan.

Now things took an unexpected turn. I learned that canned tomato juice is more of a really thin tomato paste. After about 5 days in the primary it seperated into liquid and a sludge that was the consistancy of spagetti sauce. the must was 60% sludge and 40% liquid. I kept mixing it every day till fermentation stopped. When it came time to rack I wanted to get all the liquid possible, so i mixed it up and strained it through a nylon straining bag. This removed about 30% of the sludge. Than I doubled over the bag put that in a cullunder and strained it again. This got another 40% of the sludge and left me with 3 quarts of liquid. I topped if off with a little sugar water and more tobasco because when I tasted it there wasn't much spice and i was a little weak on alchohol. So after 1 week in the secoundary it seperated again I had about 2 inches of sludge in the bottom of my jug I racked the liquid off the sludge into a clean jug and that's were I'm at.

I tasted it after my last rack and it has a very interesting flavor. Kinda bold fruit flavor with a nice kick of tobasco in the after taste. Not sure I like it, I don't dislike it, but it's like nothing I've ever tried. I figure I either have an interesting sipping wine that will go good with mexican food or a really awesome cooking wine. I'm going to try both. Marinating a couple of steaks in it and throwing them on the grill should be unbelieveable.
 
Nice! Glad it worked out for ya, and those steaks sound delicious right now...

*stomach rumbles*
*checks clock for lunch time*

Anyway, most of the time it's best to just go ahead and use established recipes the first (and maybe second) time you make any particular style or type of wine. :)
 
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