What kind of mead is that!?! Awesome/Terrifying?

I was making a mini batch of berry wine this morning and had extra yeast (EC1118) to pitch so I started looking around the kitchen for potential fermentables. I came across a 10# bag of organic carrots that we had and thought... "What the hell?"

Juiced ~3#s carrots and added a couple pounds of honey. This is either going to be awesome or absolutely disgusting. Only one way to find out!

Very brave, but I am going to bet on disgusting.

I have a few batches like that. Red hot hot sauce wine, liquified marshmallow wine, cucumber mead.... All have not turned out well. I actually threw up on the cucumber. I actually have not tried the marshmallow because after a month now it still looks to be fermenting. I don't think it will ever clear.

Good luck though, carrots are pretty tasty so even if it is not a good sipping mead it may make a great marinade!

IF the carrots were good tasting, you should get something decent out of the batch. Just be prepared to have very little carrot flavor in it, unless you add some more juice to it post fermentation. I would also try to make it at least a bit sweet (FG around 1.006-1.015) so that it's not too hard to drink. Oh, and be prepared to need to add more honey/juice since EC-1118 WILL go to 18% unless you force it to stop (stabilize it). IMO, you're better off letting it go and just add some more sweetness back to it.

Post up once it's done, so we can see how it came out. I would plan on it being at least 6-12 months before it goes to bottle. :rockin:

Carrots are high in natural sugars. It should be interesting. There's 5 threads on carrot beers. The longest one, looks more like a carrot wine, I just skimmed it, and don't remember how it came out. Can't wait to hear how it turns out.

Arpolis said:

I have a few batches like that. Red hot hot sauce wine, liquified marshmallow wine, cucumber mead.... All have not turned out well. I actually threw up on the cucumber. I actually have not tried the marshmallow because after a month now it still looks to be fermenting. I don't think it will ever clear.

Good luck though, carrots are pretty tasty so even if it is not a good sipping mead it may make a great marinade!

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They are really good organic carrots but even drinking some of the fresh straight juice this morning was a little... intense. Hence I am crossing my fingers but not holding my breath so to speak.

Golddiggie said:

IF the carrots were good tasting, you should get something decent out of the batch. Just be prepared to have very little carrot flavor in it, unless you add some more juice to it post fermentation. I would also try to make it at least a bit sweet (FG around 1.006-1.015) so that it's not too hard to drink. Oh, and be prepared to need to add more honey/juice since EC-1118 WILL go to 18% unless you force it to stop (stabilize it). IMO, you're better off letting it go and just add some more sweetness back to it.

Post up once it's done, so we can see how it came out. I would plan on it being at least 6-12 months before it goes to bottle. :rockin:

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Yes yes and yes. I am sure the EC1118 will annihilate the carrot flavor. I am hoping the color keeps though. I lost almost all the color out of a batch of strawberry I made with EC1118. Back sweetening was the plan and I wasn't going to taste it for close to 6 months lol so you pretty much called everything there.

Anyway that you look at it... I am drinking it... oh yes... I am drinking it.

I'll try to post up the final along with tasting notes if I can find this thread again in 6 months to a year!

Unless your account gets wiped out, you'll be able to find the thread. Simply use the 'My Threads' link in the top nav bar. :rockin:

Seriously interested in knowing how this turns out. If it's epic, I might have to give it a shot. Of course, I'll need to source some great carrots too. Then see if we still have the juicer around someplace (mom might have it). Or get the attachment for my KitchenAid mixer. :rockin:

It took a little while to start fermenting but as of this morning there is like an orange vortex of doom going on in there right now. Pretty vigorous.

Regardless of how it ends up tasting, it looks pretty awesome.

Curiously, there seems to be a number of recipes for various vegetable based wines floating about the ether, carrots included.

It's just that its one of many "fermentables" that I don't fancy the idea of, so I wouldn't make a batch like this, though that's not to say that I won't be reading any posts about it........

an orange vortex of doom

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nice phrasing

Can you post a video of the orange vortex of doom?

BadSully said:

Can you post a video of the orange vortex of doom?

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I actually tried taking one yesterday but you couldn't see it well enough. There were chunks of orange, lees, and bubbles swirling around in there like a Tasmanian devil. Unfortunately it didn't record well...

Although it is off gassing so much this morning that the airlock is actually hissing continuously and loudly... I have never had that happen before.

*Edit* I tried to take another video this morning and got one where you can kind of see it but I had to turn the quality up so high that the couple second video is 30 mb and its in mp4 format so not sure how to share it. It s kind of cool though because you can hear it violently hissing in the background as well.

Muahahaha. Posted it on youtube. Can't promise how long I'll keep it up there though.

It looks like grinning evil death. I want some.

Awesome! Looks like an alien life form!

I have tasted two carrot wines and a carrot mead over the past two years. They all were nice and reminded me of off-dry Riesling. I was told the wines were both at one year mark and the meas was almost three years. Oh, one of the wines had some ginger to it.

Arpolis: my cucumber mint wine from the 7 in 7 challenge turned out quite well, but so very cucumber-y. It will be used as a salad dressing blended with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, because I do not think anyone could drink it straight up. Perhaps added to a fruit and juice drink, or into a bloody mary. Good thing I only made 2 liters!

That action reminds me of my hibiscus mead, terribly interesting but scary! Mwaaahhhhhh!

The vid looks like Saturn from low orbit.

*UPDATE* As you can see the carrot has mellowed out quite a bit and is actually clearing really quickly.

We have made carrot wine before, it does not taste like carrots in the end, unless you top off with raw carrot juice when you bottle but then it wont be clear. It tastes like a nice white wine. Having added some honey to it you are going to get a nice carrot mead that doesnt really taste like carrots but will taste good and the honey is going to add body so enjoy. Stop worrying and take good care of it. WVMJ

Carrots in the primary. Hmm, well I can see the reason for the vigious fermentation. Carrots have a lot of sugar in them. The only 2 veggies that have more is the Sugar Beat and I think that sweet potatoe. So, yeah for giving the yeasties more sugar.

Matrix

I'm way too late to this discussion for my suggestion to make a difference now, but if you try this again in the future you should add ginger to it. Sounds wierd but carrot ginger soup is one of the greatest flavors. Well balanced sweet and herby spice. Probly make for at least a drinkable unique bottle.

I've tried carrot wine twice, once in a five gallon carboy and again when I got me some rain barrels for fermenting in, because carrots and sugar were the cheapest way I could come up with to fill a barrel. The five gallon barrels came out great, cleared up a lot like yours is looking, and it finished of fairly sweet. It didn't taste very carroty, but it kind of got a sort of cinnamon flavor. That stuff is all gone now, but it would've been great to mull, and the ginger is a great idea.
My barrel hasn't turned out so well, several months later and it's still cloudy and a bit sour. After reading this, I think it must've been contaminated, but I've also read that carrots actually have a lot of pectin in them for vegetables, and that all root vegetables should be boiled before fermenting. Got some pectic enzyme in there working on it right now, we'll see if that works. Did you add pectic enzyme or boil this or anything, or just the basic stuff?

svenalope said:

Did you add pectic enzyme or boil this or anything, or just the basic stuff?

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Just threw the straight stuff in there. It was a "what do i have in the house that might ferment" whim experiment.

This is why I homebrew, I love theres threads.

I have had carrot and tomato wine. I liked the carrot, in fact i bought two bottles one went down my throat the other was used in a tasty beef carrot and leek soup.
The tomato wine was pleasant but i immediately slapped myself in the forehead and said "coulda had a v8"..... You have no idea how long ive been wating to use that joke