Tomato Wine Anyone ?

[Worth1]

Campaito.
I am saving my gallon glass wine jugs.

Worth

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Campaito.
I am saving my gallon glass wine jugs.

Worth

Good idea. I am also been doing the same plus regular wine bottles. I have ordered cork. Today I am going to town (Whiteville , NC) to get food grade buckets for fermenting. My yeast will be here in 5 days to get it going.

Time for mighty fine mater wine.

[Salsacharley]

Here's my tomato wine as of today (07/23/17). This will be bottled within the next couple of week...hopefully.

[Gardeneer]

looks great, Charley.
And the color is very nice and unique.

How is the bouquet ?

[Worth1]

Needs ketchup.

Worth

[Salsacharley]

I'm no sommelier, but this wine has a clean, semi-sweet bouquet, and finish. To me it is like a blend of Moscato and Chardonnay. There is a hint of tomato but not strong. I like it as well as any white wine.

[gorbelly]

Isn't there folklore around Giant Belgium being used traditionally to make wine or something?

[Worth1]

People at one time made hooch out of anything they could.
Seen it for myself.
The next time I drive by the brew place in Austin I am going to pick up some yeast and so on.
I had to get out of there the last time, it was like I was a kid in a candy store.
They had a wood barrel that had whisky aged in it.
I took the stopper off the smell was heavenly.
Worth

[Father'sDaughter]

I dabbled in wine making after I got into mead making and realized I had everything needed except for the ingredients. Honey got really expensive, and inexpensive grape wine that is much better than any homemade I've ever made became readily available. So I brewed beer for a while, but since we only have a beer each once or twice a week we ended up with a stockpile.

The one thing I will still make every now and then is a gallon batch of mead using an unorthodox recipe that was a bit controversial when it first started to hit online forums, but actually makes a great mead. Google Joe's Ancient Orange Mead and you'll find the recipe. Follow it and you'll get great results. All you need is a one gallon jug, an airlock, a couple of empty wine bottles, and a piece of tubing for siphoning. All the ingredients can be found in you local grocery store. We're still slowly working through the three gallon batch I made about three years ago, and it's been aging beautifully.

The tomato wine sounds interesting. If I ever end up with a surplus of tomatoes, I may have to give it a try!

[imp]

Originally Posted by Salsacharley

Here's my tomato wine as of today (07/23/17). This will be bottled within the next couple of week...hopefully.

What a great picture and the wine color is just gorgeous! Will you be aging it any more or is it good to go now?

[Salsacharley]

It is good to go now, but will improve more aging in bottles. Regarding interesting color, here's a pic of prickly pear wine which is now at the same stage as the tomato wine.

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by Worth1

People at one time made hooch out of anything they could.
Seen it for myself.
The next time I drive by the brew place in Austin I am going to pick up some yeast and so on.
I had to get out of there the last time, it was like I was a kid in a candy store.
They had a wood barrel that had whisky aged in it.
I took the stopper off the smell was heavenly.
Worth

My basic items (ordered online ) will be here in a couple of days : Yeast, yeast food/energizer, clarifier, airlocks,...corks . I've also ordered Potassium Sorbate. I will add that before bottling to kill the existing yeast and add fruit flavor like elderberry juice.
You can get fancy with the equipment. But I am just using food grade buckets ( @ $4.5 a piece w/lid ). poor man's brewery.
A glass carboy can cost over 20 bucks a piece. Or a fancy corker over 100 bucks. I can design my own corker. nothing to it.
I will brew just 5 gallons this time around. That will be like 25 bottles.

[Worth1]

I can use my drill press for a corker.
Worth

[imp]

That is some color on that prickly pear wine, Charley!!! How is the taste? Will it get more clear than that? How did you make it?

The only thing I ever made with prickly pears is a jam, many years ago.

[Salsacharley]

The picture of the prickly pear wine was taken back in Oct 2016, so the wine is much clearer now. I haven't tasted it yet. It was made basically like the tomato wine, and as all wine is made. I had to add a lot of sugar. It is no fun picking prickly pear fruit and juicing it. There are gillions of seeds in a prickly pear fruit and they are juicy like a pomegranate and make a huge mess. I hope it was worth the effort to make wine out of it.