Country Wine- Tomato wine recipe

Wine is normally considered a grape based product, but why not use the fruit of other vines to create a tasty beverage?  Here is a recipe for making a small batch of tomato wine.

Marty’s Tomato Wine Recipe

1 Gallon recipe

1.       ½ gallon of red ripe tomatoes, wash, cut, mash in bowl, place in mesh bag. Place I crushed campden tablet, bag and juices into a container ( Tupperware bowl with the lid loose on a side) with loose lid overnight.

2.       After 24-36 hours.  Mash juices out of bag into a one gallon jug- the fermenter.

3.       Add 2 lbs sugar, one crushed campden tablet, 1/2 packet of dry wine yeast, the juice from the tomatoes, a sliced lemon and water to fill the jug to the shoulder.  Leave room at the top of the jug for foaming.  Put the airlock- bubbler in the rubber stopper, place on the jug with water or vodka in the bubbler.  Check the bubbler daily to make sure some foam has not clogged it.

4.       After all bubbling has stopped, empty the jug into a clean jug or the container used in step 1 along with a crushed campden tablet.  The goal is to leave as much sediment behind in the fermenter.  Try using a siphon tube to leave more of the sediment in the fermenter. 

5.       If you have more than one fermenter, you can just leave the wine in the clean second fermenter. Otherwise, clean the fermenter jug, rinse very well, and return the wine to the fermenter.

Pouring the wine from one container to the next leaving residue and sediment behind is decanting.  Siphoning the wine from one container to the next leaving the residue and sediment behind is racking.

Wine may be racked or decanted a number of times to aid in clearing the wine. 

Wait 2 months.  Smell and taste the wine after 2 months.  If the taste is acceptable then drink the wine.  Wine may be left in the fermenter jug with the bubbler or a screw top , keep the air out.     If it smells bad, do not give up!  The fermentation of the fruit is not always pleasant smelling.  Off odors often miraculously disappear as the wine ages. Wait a few weeks and check again.

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