Off the vine...

hp468

hp468

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Washed, weighed, and in the freezer.

We begin in about 3 weeks.



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What ya'll have staged for fermenter?
 
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I've had all kinds of hooch and have never heard of anyone using tomatoes in anything.
 
All fruit has frustose (sugar) that can be fermented. Never had any but, I imagine it might be okay, especially if the skins (tannins) are left in.
 
LeeMajors said:
I was visiting with another forum member last week, his wife is making tomato wine
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Mike and Joe that ran the brew supply store in Hickory used to make tomato wine and mead. It was probably one of the most amazing things I've ever tasted. Only thing is that it takes a year to get good.

You fermenting with wild yeast or seeding it yourself, @hp468 ?
 
premise said:
Mike and Joe that ran the brew supply store in Hickory used to make tomato wine and mead. It was probably one of the most amazing things I've ever tasted. Only thing is that it takes a year to get good.

You fermenting with wild yeast or seeding it yourself, @hp468 ?
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The tomato wine sounds interesting, maybe something to play with next year. I typically have access to bumper crops of tomatoes.

Campden tablets to kill off any wild yeast then I'll seed it. Wild yeast is too unpredictable for me to bother with at this point. I may make a small run next year and try wild, interested to compare the results but this will be the first run from these vines and I don't want to risk it turning easily.

To expand on the first post, the bucket holds 30lbs of Muscadines pulled from a couple of my vines. We pulled right at 45 lbs this year off of these two vines, this is their 3rd summer in the ground, and they have exceeded my expectation (Ison Muscadine for those curious of the variety). Once destemmed and washed they were put into a deep freezer, they will stay there for the next few weeks. Freezing helps break down the cell structures making them easier to process and ferment.

As a side note, if any of ya'll make blue berry or black berry jelly. Freeze em up good prior to processing, you'll see a huge difference in how the fruit breaks down and how much easier it is to strain out the seeds.

We'll also have some peppers going into fermentation this week (for hot sauce).
 
The Ison variety is one of my favorites. How do you ferment your peppers for hot sauce?
 
beamernc said:
The Ison variety is one of my favorites. How do you ferment your peppers for hot sauce?
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I like the Isons but my favorite by far for eating is my Scuppernong or Fry. I have 7 total vines, 2 Isons and the rest are a mix of other variety's, the others just didn't produce much this year. Hoping we will see large yields from them all next year. We have 18lbs of Ison set aside for jelly, i'm sure it will be great.

Not sure on the peppers, that's something that the ole lady is playing with. I'll post up some pics and details though, I do know they are Tabasco peppers.
 
@beamernc Apparently just coarsely chopped and covered in salt water. Then abandoned in a cool closet for a couple of weeks. I'm not sure why they would call that fermenting, i'd consider it pickling but what do I know. They are then blended up, strained, and diluted with vinegar to taste. I think that's how it goes, we've never done this before.
 
My wife and I tried making wine with our muscadine’s & scuppernong’s.....that $12/bottle D’Asti is so much better/easier/ez-er/EASYEEER. Ok so maybe I’m still annoyed at that fiasco......carry on.
 
Half of a fruit jar of muscadines and top off with untaxed liquor makes some good sipping stuff.
 
hp468 said:
@Gspec expand on your experience if you don't mind. I'm good with this thread becoming a what to do/not to do thread.
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I’ll have to tell the tale from a hubby’s perspective.

This was 5ish years ago when we first bought this house. Have a couple huge vines out back. My wife got the wild idea while we were at The Sleepy Poet (antique store in Charlotte) to check out the diy beer/wine supply store behind it. Next thing I know I’m hauling $200 worth of crap to the truck...we get home and squish things out them in 5 gaskin buckets, and then big fancy jugs with balloons on top, inadvertently left them in an inconvenient spot and then was directed not to disturb them because it would mess something up. Proceeded to live/exist around the poorly placed jugs for what seemed like an eternity. Then one day Inthought it was “the” day, but no, it was just pouring and filtering and reJugging (but yay for getting to move that crap out of the way) and then rinse repeat like 3 more times. When the real “the” day finally came around, the taste was dreadful, I was over it, it all went down the sink drain and $200 worth of junk got thrown in the wife’s she/shed never to be used again.

not helpful, I know....don’t know what we did wrong, maybe it was supposed to taste like crap....we’ll never know.
-G
 
Gspec said:
I’ll have to tell the tale from a hubby’s perspective.

This was 5ish years ago when we first bought this house. Have a couple huge vines out back. My wife got the wild idea while we were at The Sleepy Poet (antique store in Charlotte) to check out the diy beer/wine supply store behind it. Next thing I know I’m hauling $200 worth of crap to the truck...we get home and squish things out them in 5 gaskin buckets, and then big fancy jugs with balloons on top, inadvertently left them in an inconvenient spot and then was directed not to disturb them because it would mess something up. Proceeded to live/exist around the poorly placed jugs for what seemed like an eternity. Then one day Inthought it was “the” day, but no, it was just pouring and filtering and reJugging (but yay for getting to move that crap out of the way) and then rinse repeat like 3 more times. When the real “the” day finally came around, the taste was dreadful, I was over it, it all went down the sink drain and $200 worth of junk got thrown in the wife’s she/shed never to be used again.

not helpful, I know....don’t know what we did wrong, maybe it was supposed to taste like crap....we’ll never know.
-G
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Gspec, my attempt was similar. Had 2 - 5 gallon carboys full that looked really good. Did everything by the recipe and waited. Same result, tasted like shit. One was poured out and I have been to lazy to pour the other one out and it is still stilling upstairs.
 
Sugar is the key to making wine, most fruits don’t make enough or the fruit is pulled before is real ripe.
 
I tried some tomato wine a couple months ago that was made in the late 90's.

It was excellent, and hardly had any tomato taste. Tasted more like a brandy than a wine.
 
My grandmother did not make wine but made some great grape juice with the grapes from her vines. She would get a quart Mason jar and add to it a cup of whole grapes and a cup of sugar. Fill the jar most of the way up with water and put them in a canning pot to sterilize the mixture. Put on the lids and cool them until they pop to complete the seal. Leave them alone for a year or three and then enjoy some very smooth juice. The grapes stay on the bottom and are not eaten.
 
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