Tomato Wine

[ThatChefGuy]

Well i should've transferred to secondary a few days ago. It is golden in colour and smells like a wine (Thats a good sign ). OG was 1.110, finished at 0.990! Tastes very dry however not as unpleasant as i was expecting, some depth of flavour, just a little like rocket fuel at the minute, another 60 days in bottle, and perhaps try to take the edge off with a touch of something.

 

[stella_tigre]

Just put together a batch, pitch tomorrow. Probably use Montrachet, although I have Premier Cuvee....hmmm...any opinions on the better choice?

 

[Yooper]

Just put together a batch, pitch tomorrow. Probably use Montrachet, although I have Premier Cuvee....hmmm...any opinions on the better choice?

Either would work. Premier cuvee is a champagne type yeast. I rarely use montrachet, but there should be plenty of nutrients in this recipe so that it should be fine.

 

[captainnibby]

Neighbors gave me about 40 pints of grape tomatoes... think I'm gonna use some to try this out. Made some spaghetti sauce with some of them and had to use a lot of salt to cover the sweetness, so hopefully that lends well to wine.

 

[stella_tigre]

Finally gave it a racking to get it off the secondary lees - pretty clear. And smelled better than it tasted....We'll just wait and see!

 

[Firewalker11]

SHMBO and I had a bottle of this with my brother and sister in-law this last fall and I thought it was a chardonnay! Only the nose gave it away. Thanks for the recipe, Yooper, we will try this one this summer.

 

[brewman551]

Anybody pay attention to this thread anymore? I just made a two gallon batch according to the recipe, but only had 2.5 tsp of acid blend, instead of the recommended 4. Will this hurt anything? Thanks in advance.

 

[stella_tigre]

Anybody pay attention to this thread anymore? I just made a two gallon batch according to the recipe, but only had 2.5 tsp of acid blend, instead of the recommended 4. Will this hurt anything? Thanks in advance.

Well it showed up for me. I made it last year, bottled a few months ago, waiting to see.

Acid blend can be added at any time up to bottling, so you can get more on order and add it later. Or at least that's how I understand it.

 

[bwalker187]

I just stumbled across this and I'm super excited to give it a try. Has anyone tried it with honey instead of sugar? I make lots of mead and am generally inclined to use honey wherever possible.

 

[conpewter]

Well its that time of year and I have a pile of roma tomatoes sitting on my counter, I may need to make some of this up.

Anyone have recommendations on racking from 1 gallon jugs? All my stuff is set up for 5 gallons and seems a bit cumbersome with a 1 gallon jug.

bwalker - i've not tried with anything on this wine but I'm sure you could do this with honey, just have to calculate it out.

 

[Jim311]

I love tomatoes but hate tomato juice. This recipe sounds gnarly but at the same time I have to admit to being pretty curious about how it will taste. Considering apple and blueberry wines have turned out tasting nothing like their original form I bet it tastes great.

 

[Yooper]

Well its that time of year and I have a pile of roma tomatoes sitting on my counter, I may need to make some of this up.

Anyone have recommendations on racking from 1 gallon jugs? All my stuff is set up for 5 gallons and seems a bit cumbersome with a 1 gallon jug.

bwalker - i've not tried with anything on this wine but I'm sure you could do this with honey, just have to calculate it out.

They sell mini- auto siphons if you want one of those. Otherwise, just some tubing with the old fashioned siphoning technique of filling it with water and then taking your finger off of the end to make it flow (into a pitcher and then moving it to the new jug once the wine flows). I did that for about 20 years, before I ever heard of an auto siphon!

 

[stella_tigre]

Well, it's official. The wine is exactly one year old today - which I did not realize until after we opened a bottle to taste it! I bottled in beer bottles with oxy barrier caps, not knowing if we'd want a whole big bottle at once.

The verdict? Not bad at all. Color is very pale yellow, it came in about 12.5%. I noticed when I bottled it was a little meh, so I added a pretty good dose of acid blend (1/3 tsp for a gallon.) It is crisp, pleasantly acidic, came in dry (0.996) but has a nice mouth feel from the alcohol. The boozy taste is mostly gone. You can tell it's not from grapes, but it's not tomato-ey. Maybe a hint in the nose. Some light bitterness, but pretty balanced.

It would be fun to serve to folks to see if they could guess what it is!

 

[ThatChefGuy]

Mine is not much over a year old now I recall, I shall dig out a bottle over the weekend!

 

[stella_tigre]

So we popped a (12 oz) bottle open the other night to taste while we were cooking dinner. At 17+ months it's pleasantly drinkable. But as we were cooking we needed a few ounces of wine for our pan sauce (seared pork chops are a bit boring without something.) And the revelation was, this makes an awesome wine for cooking. 4 oz per cook and 4 oz in the pan, just about perfect! At the cost of some sugar and a packet of yeast, you get a good quantity of white wine that works very well for cooking. When we have a bumper crop, we'll probably make more just for that reason.

 

[LissyNailsIt]

I hadn't even thought of that! Cooking wine! I cook with wine all of the time and now if I have a batch that isn't super great, but decent enough... I can cook with it! Did the tomato flavor come out in the sauce?

 

[stella_tigre]

I hadn't even thought of that! Cooking wine! I cook with wine all of the time and now if I have a batch that isn't super great, but decent enough... I can cook with it! Did the tomato flavor come out in the sauce?

No hint of tomato. It's sort of like a tart white wine with a hint of something else, before cooking, but there's nothing odd that came through in the sauce. Well chilled is quite drinkable, esp if it's being sipped while cooking!

 

[sfarion]

is it best to keep the skins on the tomatoes or remove them when making the wine?

 

[Brewbuzzard]

This is very interesting, I'm going to try this.

 

[Michael L Collins]

This might be a stupid question (so I have to ask), could you add the ingredients for salsa into this and make a salsa wine or would the garlic, onions and lime juice hurt the fermentation/taste?

Cilantro, peppers, onion, lime juice, garlic, and blood of my enemies (optional).

 

[monkeymath]

This might be a stupid question (so I have to ask), could you add the ingredients for salsa into this and make a salsa wine or would the garlic, onions and lime juice hurt the fermentation/taste?.

I hope I don't come off as judgemental but WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU ??!!

 

[Michael L Collins]

I hope I don't come off as judgemental but WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU ??!!

To answer your question, A lot.

What would be wrong with a tomato wine that has the spicy notes of Cilantro, peppers, onion, lime juice and garlic? A wine made to drink while eating tacos or nachos.

There are recipes for garlic and onion wines online. This could be as simple as a blending of wines with some herbs.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

To answer your question, A lot.

What would be wrong with a tomato wine that has the spicy notes of Cilantro, peppers, onion, lime juice and garlic? A wine made to drink while eating tacos or nachos.

There are recipes for garlic and onion wines online. This could be as simple as a blending of wines with some herbs.

You guys are funny as hell. Gotta love it.

 

[Blacksmith1]

This might be a stupid question (so I have to ask), could you add the ingredients for salsa into this and make a salsa wine or would the garlic, onions and lime juice hurt the fermentation/taste?

Cilantro, peppers, onion, lime juice, garlic, and blood of my enemies (optional).

I think it would ferment well. As for what it would taste like? Only one way to find out. Hopefully by the time you find out the wife and I will have our garden going at our new place. Right now we can't do anything with the wines either

 

[Michael L Collins]

I think it would ferment well. As for what it would taste like? Only one way to find out. Hopefully by the time you find out the wife and I will have our garden going at our new place. Right now we can't do anything with the wines either

I lost half of my equipment in a basement accident and I'm just too new in this whole thing to try something so radical. I would think you would have to make (or almost make) every flavor a separate wine then blend them until you have the flavor you would want. Good luck with the garden.

 

[madscientist451]

What would be wrong with a tomato wine that has the spicy notes of Cilantro, peppers, onion, lime juice and garlic? A wine made to drink while eating tacos or nachos.

Nothing is wrong except that fermented fruits/vegetables don't have the flavor of the unfermented fruit/vegetable.
If you want an alcoholic drink with those flavors, my suggestion would be start with V8 juice, add your flavor ingredients, pulse in the blender, add Vodka to taste. Garnish with more Cilantro and a lime wedge.
It might be interesting to make a tomato wine and add all of the above in a wine cocktail.
I wanted to try making Tomato wine last summer but a the early part of the season was wet/chilly, and nothing would grow. There's always hope for next season.

 

[Michael L Collins]

Nothing is wrong except that fermented fruits/vegetables don't have the flavor of the unfermented fruit/vegetable.
If you want an alcoholic drink with those flavors, my suggestion would be start with V8 juice, add your flavor ingredients, pulse in the blender, add Vodka to taste. Garnish with more Cilantro and a lime wedge.
It might be interesting to make a tomato wine and add all of the above in a wine cocktail.
I wanted to try making Tomato wine last summer but a the early part of the season was wet/chilly, and nothing would grow. There's always hope for next season.

A Bloody Mary Salsa Smoothy. It might work or a cocktail.

Maybe muddle the lime, cilantro, onion in a little garlic oil. Shake with either tomato wine or tomato juice (or V8, if tomato or V8 is used add alcohol such as vodka or tequila) and pour into a glass rimmed with either salt, celery salt or hot pepper sauce.

 

[Brewbuzzard]

I

Nothing is wrong except that fermented fruits/vegetables don't have the flavor of the unfermented fruit/vegetable.
If you want an alcoholic drink with those flavors, my suggestion would be start with V8 juice, add your flavor ingredients, pulse in the blender, add Vodka to taste. Garnish with more Cilantro and a lime wedge.
It might be interesting to make a tomato wine and add all of the above in a wine cocktail.
I wanted to try making Tomato wine last summer but a the early part of the season was wet/chilly, and nothing would grow. There's always hope for next season.

I Concur

 

[Agent]

Let's see if @Yooper or anyone else chime in on this. All the Tomato wine recipes call for fermenting on a small quantity of fruit for a short duration. I'm hoping to use my clear juice separated by freezing tomatoes for canning.

My biggest concern is whether this going to be TOO tomato-y. I have had a great example of tomato wine a few years ago, but I neglected to inquire about the process at the time.

FYI, the juice alone comes in at 4.2 Brix.

 

[Yooper]

Let's see if @Yooper or anyone else chime in on this. All the Tomato wine recipes call for fermenting on a small quantity of fruit for a short duration. I'm hoping to use my clear juice separated by freezing tomatoes for canning.
View attachment 830060

My biggest concern is whether this going to be TOO tomato-y. I have had a great example of tomato wine a few years ago, but I neglected to inquire about the process at the time.

FYI, the juice alone comes in at 4.2 Brix.

I have no idea- but with such little tomato juice, I think it will be very little ‘tomato-y’. But that is my best guess. The liquid in tomatoes is primarily water.

 

[Raptor99]

I have some tomato wine in secondary.It has a slight tomato flavor, but it is not overpowering. So far it is tasting pretty good It is still young, so I will see how it tastes after 3-4 months of aging.

 

[madscientist451]

I have tomato wine I made a few years back with nothing besides tomatoes and some sugar. Every now and then I take a small taste. I don’t want to dump it, but I really don’t want to drink a whole glass of it either. I’ll probably start using it as a cooking ingredient.

 

[Raptor99]

My recipe used 5 lbs. of tomatoes per gallon, plus some water. That may explain why the tomato flavor is not as strong.