Looking for Green Tomato Wine

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Sunsetscy

Junior
Joined
Sep 18, 2020
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Hi all

Has anyone got a tried and tested green tomato wine, have a glut of toms that aren't going to ripen anytime soon.

Thanks
Sue
 
Here is a green tomato recipe that I found on another thread in this forum. The recipe is for 6 gallons but you can scale it down to your liking.
Hope this helps...

A few years ago I tasted a strange wine that reminded me of a bit of Chardonnay. When I found out I was drinking green tomato wine I couldn't believe it. I have wanted to try making it ever since. When my uncle gave me almost a full bushel of green tomatoes this year, I made the following recipe (based on several recipes I reviewed and adjusted to what I had available).

Green Tomato Wine (makes 6 gallons - I know, I might be crazy but what the heck, the tomatoes were free)

21 lbs green tomatoes
36 cloves
3 oz. ginger root, chopped
6 cans Welch's white grape concentrate (69 oz)
10 lbs sugar
juice of 6lbs of lemons
juice of 5 valencia oranges
1 1/2 tsp tannin
6 tsp yeast nutrient
6 tsp pectic enzyme
water to 6 gallons
6 campden tablets
Lalvlin EC-1118 wine yeast

Wash the tomatoes, remove bruises and blemishes, chop (I used a food processor). Place in a straining bag with the cloves and ginger root. Add the sugar and about two gallons of water and stir. Add remaining ingredients (except yeast) and leave overnight.

I plan on adding Lalvlin EC-1118 yeast tomorrow evening. My SG=1.120, which is a little higher than I'd expected, but my acid was right at .70. I plan on racking and removing the pulp/cloves/ginger when the SG=1.040.

Here's a picture of my 6 gallon green machine right now:

20091004_164727_DSCF0738.jpg


Wish me luck (fingers are definitely crossed on this one - this is by far the strangest thing I've tried to ferment to date).
smiley17.gif
 
Here is a green tomato recipe that I found on another thread in this forum. The recipe is for 6 gallons but you can scale it down to your liking.
Hope this helps...
Made the red tomato wine several years ago and turned out fine. All the RED was gone by the 3rd day of fermenting and had a light golden color to it. Took it to a party and put a $20 bill by it. If anybody could tell me what the wine was made from, they keep the $20. Put the money back in my wallet at the end of the night and they still didn't think it was tomato wine.
 
It's that time of year again. Does anyone have a favorite recipe for green tomato wine, other than the ones mentioned in the this thread Green Tomato Wine I'm looking for several recipes to compare. My initial idea is to aim for something similar to a white wine rather than a spic wine with ginger and cloves. But I am open to your suggestions.
 
I found a good thread on tomato wine here: Tomato Wine

Apparently tomato wine, and especially green tomato wine, is well off the beaten track. @BigDaveK take note!
I made tomato wine last year. 3 gallons using 18 lbs from the garden. I commented somewhere that it was THE wine that sent me roaring down that "off the beaten track" road of wine experimentation. It was really good!

Funny how perception evolves - now I think of tomatoes as a "normal" wine making ingredient.

@Sunsetscy, I found this in "Mary's Recipes", a nice collection of country wine recipes. Personally I always up the flavor element quantity in all my wines.

3 1/2 - 4 lbs green tomatoes
6 cloves
1/2 oz ginger root (bruised)
2 1/2 lb sugar or until 1.085
1 cup raisins
2 tsp acid blend
1 tsp nutrient
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1/4 tsp tannin powder
1 Campden tablet

I haven't tried it. After my other green tomato go-to's I don't have enough to use.

Good luck! Let us know which recipe you decide on and how it turns out.
 
Does anyone have opinion about which makes the better wine: ripe tomatoes or green tomatoes? I could leave them out to ripen...
I can't say which is better but to me all green tomatoes taste the same.
Allowing them to ripen brings so much additional flavor to the party. And you can experiment by mixing different varieties. And then, too, you'll pick up some of the color, perhaps like a rose'.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top