carrot wine???

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soflavino

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Im curious if anyone has ever tried to make carrot wine and if you have , would you be so kind to share a recipe? :D
 
yes, I have made carrot wine. It tasted like...carrots. Unfortunately that is not generally what people expect in wine. I'm guessing there are recipes where you obliterate the carrot taste with a bunch of spices that people might use, but really, carrots make bad wine.
 
I made a carrot wheat once. Very early in my winemaking career. The recipe came from CJJ Berry's book and if I remember right, there was some citrus added in there too which gave it a nice flavor. It ended up cloudy and too high in alcohol due to my inexperience in wine making, so I can't really say it would be good if made properly.
 
1 gallon recipe

6 lbs carrots, scrubbed and sliced
12oz orange juice concentrate
8oz golden raisins chopped
2lbs white sugar
1 lb clover honey
1 campden tablet (optional)
1 pkg Montrachet yeast
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 1/2 cups orange juice for yeast starter
 
yes, I have made carrot wine. It tasted like...carrots. Unfortunately that is not generally what people expect in wine. I'm guessing there are recipes where you obliterate the carrot taste with a bunch of spices that people might use, but really, carrots make bad wine.

I wholeheartedly disagree!! My carrot wine tastes nothing like carrots at all, it reminds me a little of a chardonnay/cream sherry cross.. I am terrible at describing flavors....but I have yet to have ANYBODY guess my "Dobbin's Day Off" is a carrot wine. In fact, I just took a bronze with my carrot wine at Cellarmaster's wine competition. I think carrot is some of the best wine I make. I put mine on toasted red oak (which may shock some people) but it comes out great! and it ages well too. I pretty much just used the 'Winemaker's Handbook' recipe;

4 gal batch;
Ingredients
(1cup red grape concentrate ) recipe calls for this, but i have never used it..
13lb lbs carrots
4 lb raisins
4 gal water
8 lb sugar
1tbls acid blend
3/4 tsp tannin
3 tsp nutrient
1 campden , crushed
1 pkg wine yeast/kv1116
2 tsp pectic enzyme
 
Last edited:
Good to hear it. I'm guessing you backsweeten it as well? How much? The 4 pounds of raisins probably help out quite a bit as well to give it body and help the taste. Mine was a straight carrot. I just balanced the acid and adjusted the specific gravity, no recipe otherwise.

Oddly, I borrowed the juicer I used from a friend of mine who said all he wanted in return was 3 bottles of the finished wine. I gave them to him, and he ended up giving them to some friends who happened to be chinese (friends of his wife, who is chinese), and they absolutely loved it, and asked him to have me make some more. I politely declined, but offered to show him how.
 
No backsweetening with the carrot. Almost all of my wines are left dry when bottled. I can see where using strictly carrots could lead to a thin bodied wine with a strong carrot flavor. I cook the carrots, then run the carrots through a juicer and use the combined liquids (from cooking and juicing) for the wine.
One thing I have learned with wine making is to take people's opinions as generalities, unless it is for procedural or sequencing matter (and even those vary sometimes). I have had people tell me that using red oak will make my wine taste like cat pee, well I have used red oak with great results. It not something I would use with every wine, but the flavor profile I get with my toasting methods works perfect for some wines, carrot among them.
That's what is some much fun about this hobby, there are no hard and fast rules....make em' up as you go!! :D
 
One thing I have learned with wine making is to take people's opinions as generalities, unless it is for procedural or sequencing matter (and even those vary sometimes).

That's the key, my opinion on carrot wine is just my opinion. Also, I think everyone should remember people have different tastes as well. I didn't like my carrot wine, but I found someone who did. I did find more that didn't like it, but at least someone did. I also don't care for most sweet wines either, but other people hate dry wines. Sometimes if you're that far apart it's hard to even discuss wine. My wife thinks dry reds taste terrible, but I love them. So we don't talk about wine much! I make her a super sugar bomb every now and then, and she's happy.

I've never heard anything about red oak, good or bad actually. But I did see one of the sponsors carried it.
 
I made a carrot wine this year from homegrown carrots and loved it. I grew orange and purple carrots so the color is amazing. It does taste a little like carrots, but not in a bad way. I also left it dry an was quite happy. Recipe was from the book "Making Wild Wines and Meads" and included orange juice, raisins and honey.
 
but the flavor profile I get with my toasting methods works perfect for some wines, carrot among them.
:D

I pulled my carrots from outside yesterday as it was to get down to 5 and I didn't want frozen carrots....so....I am going to follow your recipe bein_bein. I was also planning on using the red oak.....and was wondering what "your toasting method" is! I have never used oak yet, but this seems like a good time to start!
 
Carrot and Tangelo; because I think they go together. It's only a month old; almost clear, no finings and I'll age this one. Smells lovely, tastes good, and beaut colour!
 
help, anyone?

So, got my must going.....let it sit overnight with the raisins, carrots and pectin enzyme. Squeezed the carrots, added up to 4 gallons and took an SG reading....it is already at 1.050, without added sugar. Doing the math....that would mean I would only add 54 more ounces to get to 1.080. This falls way short of the 8 lbs suggested in the recipe. I have an errand to run in a few minutes, I'm going to add the 54 ounces, stir well, then check the sg when I get back.....before I add the yeast. Any advice will be greatly appreciated as I'm pretty new at this wine making adventure!
 
Go by the sg readings. Add what your math said to add then recheck the sg. Don't just add as much suger as the recipie calls for. It is a guide. Suger content in fruit and veggies is never the same twice so your extra suger will also be different.
You can always add extra suger after fermentation has started if you decide you want a higher abv in your finished wine.
 
So I used the calculations in a book I have written by C.J.J. Berry, and the starting sg ended up being 1.092, that was on 11/23. It has been working great so far, has slowed down, but not sure if it is done, 2 days in a row now the sg is at .998. But the two days before that it was at 1.000. I did take the mesh bag of raisins out yesterday, figured all was squeezed out of those raisins and carrots! So will give it a few more days, then rack to a car boy...
 
fabrictodyefor said:
So I used the calculations in a book I have written by C.J.J. Berry, and the starting sg ended up being 1.092, that was on 11/23. It has been working great so far, has slowed down, but not sure if it is done, 2 days in a row now the sg is at .998. But the two days before that it was at 1.000. I did take the mesh bag of raisins out yesterday, figured all was squeezed out of those raisins and carrots! So will give it a few more days, then rack to a car boy...

You can rack it now. No need to wait any longer!
 
Thanks, jensmith, I did so this morning. Racked it to a carboy and added a stick of "American Red Oak Medium"! The recipe I was following used oak, so am trying that. The first time with anything oak! I kept a sip back and will test it out tonight! Now it will be a while before I can talk about any progress. Thanks for the help and advice.
 
You're welcome. Enjoy!
I have not used much oak but beleive taste testing often is recemended. I guess the oak flavor gets kinda strong if left in too long. Good luck!
 
OH! Thanks for the heads up on that one! We taste tested it last night, it is very dry, I can taste a hint of the raisins, but you certainly can not tell it has carrots in it! My neighbor said he couldn't taste either one, but he did like the flavor! So I guess I'll have to force myself to taste it often to make sure the oak does not overwhelm!!
 

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