Beet Wine - My First Attempt

No, i'm not crazy ~

My grandfather would make different wines: chokecherry, bullberry, apple, crababbple...and beet. This makes sense, since he was German and Swedish; beets are integral to the foodways of both cultures, not to mention Ukraine, where my German ancestors lived for a few generations before emigrating to North Dakota.

I was out at my parents' place one night this past autumn, and talked with my dad about how Grandpa would make this beet wine. Grandpa's "method" (although he probably never would have referred to it that way) consisted of re-purposing a large glass battery case, which would have looked something like this:





He would wash and peel the beets, then pare them (like a potato), then cut them up into small chunks. He would then toss them into the battery case and add the sugar and water. As to the amounts of beets and sugar, Dad didn't know for sure, but he was certain that Grandpa made wine 5 gallons at a time. Grandpa would then pitch the yeast (bread yeast) and let the magic begin. When it was done working, he'd bottle it, and that was that.

I'm not much of a "real" wine drinker, but I am enjoying these home-made "country" wines more and more, made from the bounty of the land. True connoisseurs might shudder at them, but they taste great, they look wonderful, they are a tie to the land and - for me - have the added bonus of being a connection to my past and a continuation of a family tradition.

I figured to myself, why not? I am a food historian, I'm very keen to explore and preserve my "Germans from Russia" heritage, and it's a tie to one of the greatest men I've known in my life. I should give this a try....I mean really, the more I think about it, what could be more "German-from-Russia" than beet wine?

So - for all of the Doubting Thomases out there, this one's for you!

This is a pretty easy story to tell, so far:



3.4 pounds of beets, sugar and spring water; not pictured are a package of Montrachet wine yeast and a campden tablet (to protect the wine from infection and to ward off oxidation). You can read more about campden tablets and their purpose in winemaking here:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com...e-of-campden-tablets

Note: The (very) few recipes that I found for beet wine contain several additives that probably "balance" and "improve" the wine to something a little more in line with modern practices. Pectic enzyme is presumably not necessary; however the biggest benefit that I can see would probably be some acid blend. I do not know for sure if this is the case, but I suspect that it might be. On the other hand, some reports stated that beet wine made the "right" way - that is, with the additives - has been lackluster and even inferior. I will most likely experiment with some of those additives at some point, but for this first attempt, I chose to stick with just the campden tablet, and called it good.

Moving forward, I cut off the tops and roots of the beets, then pared them with a carrot peeler:



Some recipes said that paring the beets is unnecessary, but my grandfather did this, so I did, too. The peelings, roots and tops of the beets were buried in the garden, to keep the land happy.

This actually left me with exactly 3 pounds of beets:



I was estimating that I would have anywhere from 2.5 to 3 pounds total, so this was just fine.

My grandfather would then chop up the beets into small pieces with a knife; however, I am either too lazy or too busy to do that, so I cut them into medium-sized pieces, then pulsed them through my food processor:



This seemed to work quite well.

Some recipes call for cooking the beets at this point, in order to extract the juice. This seems unnecessary to me, and could, in my opinion, result in some sort of off-flavor. Would it? Won't it? I don't know. But the thing is, my grandfather did not cook the beets; my father insisted on that - so I didn't cook them, either.

Meanwhile, I heated my gallon of spring water on the stovetop to the point where it would easily dissolve 3 pounds of sugar. This amount of sugar was arrived at after reading the recipes referred to above, and should be a good amount.

By this point, I was starting to wonder if I was the recipient of some family joke, but I kept with it anyway, and am glad that I did.

The next step was to put the beets into a fine mesh bag, then pour the warm sugar water on top of the bag in the fermenting bucket, along with a crushed campden tablet. The water turned beet-red (no pun intended) immediately:



Truly a beautiful colour!

I loosely covered the bucket with a clean tea towel, then set it in a dark, temperature-stable place for 24 hours. After that, I stirred the mixture and pitched the wine yeast.

For a week or so, I stirred the must periodically, and used the large spoon to squish down the bag in order to continue to extract juice from the beets. This project cruised right along; we definitely made wine, and that was a good start.

Ambient temperatures were a bit on the low side, in the mid 60s; no big deal, but it is something that should be noted. When making wine, I try to keep temperatures around 69-71, but my house was built when Teddy Roosevelt was President, and my "temperature control system" consists of a closet lined with clothes and a space heater, so it's not going to be an exact science. No worries, though, as I am pretty sure most farmhouses that made this stuff didn't have a laboratory nearby.

The beet aroma came through nicely, without being over-bearing or obnoxious. I managed to sneak a couple of very small samples clinging to the spoon after stirring the must; early impressions were that I am onto something really good here, and I am thinking that I will end up with some very interesting wine. It's too early to really describe it, but it is definitely good, and for the most part an unexpected treat.

And...the colour is simply beautiful - I can't say enough about that!

(Fast-Forward a few weeks....)

Follow-up - 17 January 2017:

Between being busy and procrastinating, I was not able to rack this wine over until 17 January. I added 1 crushed campden tablet and topped the gallon off with some extra wine that I had from racking over into secondary. There was a surprisingly-low amount of lees, but fermentation had definitely taken place, and I am definitely ending up with wine, here.

There was enough left over for a small sample, so of course I tried it. This wine is very interesting and surprisingly good. The colour is simply beautiful, a jewel-like hue somewhere between magenta and burgundy, similar to yet slightly lighter than the “bucket” photo above. It is hard to describe, so I will get a photo next time. There is a definite flavour of beets, but not in a bad way - it is very slightly earthy and finishes with a nice “beet-ness.” Its over-all character has a slight alcohol harshness, as it is still a young wine, but if it does any maturing at all, I think I am going to have something really special here.

I’ll rack it one more time in a month or two, then bottle it a month or two later. By mid-summer or autumn, we’ll see what we end up with.

That is all for now - more as it happens, etc. &c....

Ron

A back lit picture of that wine in a clear wine glass would be worth a thousand words.

I'm curious about the sugar blend . We have 'sugar beets' that are an important source of sugar .Do you have any info about the type of beets used ?

Tas, you've gone too far. Beet wine!?!? I can't even eat a beet. The thought of drinking a beet makes me cringe. Maybe it is an acquired taste. After all I learned to drink scotch.

I want a "back lit picture" of your wife or one of your friends taking a sip for the first time. The look on their face might "be worth a thousand words".

Having said that, I have a bottle of Texas South Wind Blackberry Wine. I haven't tried it yet. There was just a good looking woman in Whole Foods selling it, so that was that.

...but..., a blackberry is a fruit, so wine makes sense. A beet is just too damn ugly to be a wine.

Hey, guys - many thanks for the feedback. This one was a surprise as I was skeptical at first; however, I think in the end it might turn out to be one of my favourite projects, for many reasons.

Mete - We used to have a thriving sugarbeet industry up here in north central Montana - in fact, my hometown's high school mascot is, believe it or not, the SugarBeeters. I'll probably give sugarbeet wine a try this fall, as there is a good supply of them around, still. For this project, I just used plain, old red beets, grown at a local Hutterite colony.

TC and Ken - so far, the clarity of this wine isn't much to write home about, BUT this could change with time. I made some rhubarb wine that took a very long time to clear up, so it is possible - having said that, I am guessing that this one will always be a bit on the opaque side. But, the colour is absolutely beautiful. I'll try to get some decent photos, and I hope that my camera will do it justice.

Ken - so far, my dad and #2 son are the only two who have dared to try this, besides myself. Both expressed pleasant surprise. My oldest son and my wife are - shall we say - skeptical. For me, much of this project was about getting in touch with my roots (no pun intended); I've always been fairly neutral where beets themselves are concerned, but I've grown to like pickled beets the past few years. The biggest "pleasant surprise" for me was that this was quite drinkable; the earthiness that is a hallmark with beets was there, but dialed quite far to the back - just enough to remind you that this is, after all, beet wine.

This wine was quite good, and got me to thinking that a spiced beet wine (using allspice, cinnamon and clove, as in pickled beets) might be interesting. Either that, or perhaps a mulled beet wine with the same spices and a hint of orange, maybe.

That blackberry wine should be something nice, indeed - I'd recommend it with a steak or other beef dinner...or definitely venison. Give it a chance - it might surprise you!

Tas, I consider you the Jason Bourne or Jack Reacher of food. You're out there doing the dangerous stuff, and we're lying back in the bushes waiting to see if you die. If you don't we might consider trying it. In this case however I'm hiding behind the wall with your oldest son and your wife. The one marked "No...way...in...Hell".

As for the blackberry wine, I'll take your suggestion and try it with Gato Wild Hog next cookout.

I love beets!

Let me draw a line through Poetry, Texas. Crazy people live there.

quote:

Originally posted by Kensco:
Let me draw a line through Poetry, Texas. Crazy people live there.

You may be correct.

Tas, what an unusual project. Really eager to hear how this wine tastes after it has been bottled and aged a bit. I had not heard of beet wine before. Wonder how it distills.

Ron, my pure German grandfather would do this much the same way. He would make considerably more and the gallon or more he had "left over" would get the extra treatment of "distilling the water" out of it. In other words, it made some damn fine shine as well as wine. My uncles called it "wine and shine" time.

He also tried it with carrots......not so much.

Ron-looks great!

If it doesn't turn out perfect, it still can be used to dye Easter Eggs