Beet wine? Sure, it sounds scary. But my gramma used to make it and I promise you, Gramma didn’t make junk. 🙂
It’s always seemed like such a shame to me that more people don’t realize that there is a use for just about EVERYTHING most of us think of as garbage. Maybe you’ve been using your left over boiled veggie water for your household plants or your garden – good for you! Any step toward creating less waste is a step in the right direction. But, how many folks would ever consider using water left over from some of their veggies to stir up a delicious batch of wine?
Now, don’t go thinking you have to spend a fortune on equipment or on fancy wine yeasts or additives, no sirree. In rural Iowa back in the 40’s and 50’s when Gramma started making her own wine (probably learned from her mother), “wine yeast” and “nutrient” meant nothing more than plain old yeast mixed with water to form a paste and then slathered on a piece of dry bread. “What about tannic acid,” you say? Black tea works just fine, thank you very much! She threw the whole lot into stone crocks in her cellar to work their way into wine (and apparently sampled the goods often during the process, creating a few fun and silly family stories from “back in the good old days“). This recipe requires nothing fancy, nothing complicated, but it sure tastes good!
So, without further ado –
Gramma’s Beet Wine
Burgundy red, fairly sweet… it goes down so smooth that you don’t even know what hit ya till you stand up!
2-3 pounds raw beets, washed, with greens and tap root removed
2 gallons water
5 pounds of sugar (less if you like a dryer wine)
juice and peel of 1 lemon (just peel the lemon in strips, DO NOT ZEST or it’s really hard to get it all out of your wine later!)
peel of 1 orange (optional)
1 slice bread (whatever you’ve got)
1 TBS yeast + enough water to make a peanut buttery-type paste (the kind you use to bake bread with)
- Boil the beets in the water until they are nice and tender.
- Remove from heat and scoop out beets and set aside.
- Pour sugar into the hot water and stir well.
- Stir in lemon juice (which will turn the liquid a vibrant red, instead of the dull brown you had right after boiling), then add the peels.
- Allow to sit until room temperature, then strain out the citrus peels, and pour your liquid into your ferment container (I use old plastic frosting pails from the bakery). Top off the liquid with plain old water to ensure you still have 2 gallons.
- Slather the slice of bread with the yeast paste mixture, set afloat on the liquid, cover the container with a cloth (and tie with something to make sure it is pretty bug-proof).
- Leave it in a cool-ish, dark-ish place to ferment – you should notice a strong, bread-like fragrance in short order. I leave this alone for at least 2 weeks.
- After 2 weeks, skim off the bread – it will look quite disgusting, but that’s okay. Compost it, and for heaven’s sakes, don’t give it to any of your pets. It is unseemly to have a bunch of drunken hens clucking around.
- Siphon (or ladle) the top layers of the wine into a clean, secondary ferment container (another bucket works just fine). Make sure to leave all the dead yeast layer at the bottom alone. You don’t want to drink that since I’m sure it’s pretty nasty.
- Now, cover your secondary pail with a cloth, tie it off and leave it sit for a few months till the liquid is crystal clear. You can bottle it at this point, but make sure to cap the bottles loosely, to avoid explosions. Very young wines are still pretty active and will make lots and lots of bubbles, so you have to give the bubbles room to escape the bottle or… POP! All over the floor, ceiling, Fido… you name it!
I think that about covers it, and believe me, it really is a fun process. The wine tastes lovely pretty much as soon as you reach the bottling stage, but it mellows and gets sweeter with time.
How fun, I just made a date with my Mom and Sister to come on over in Septeber and make some beet wine with me. Thank you for the recipe!!!
I am very excited to try this recipe as is my husband as he is SICK of all the money I spend on wine! LOL
Hmm…I just prepped nice pounds of beets to pickle and make into chips. I’ve still got a few pounds in the garden growing. I just might have to try this.
My Irish Uncle Tom made beet wine and my son and I were treated with some the summer of 1969 when Mike was not quite 15. What a fun dinner we had as Uncle Tom had passed away some time before. Had forgotten that evening but just might share your recipe with him now before he turns 56.
Hi Barbara!
I hope you do share it and it brings your uncle back some happy memories!
Jami
I just finished the step to remove the bread… I am unsure if what I have is done cooking or not, it is very sweet yet.
I am worried that I did not start the yeast (Dry) with warm enough water or I did not let it sit long enough to activate before I put it in the pail…. Is it suppose to still be pretty sweet at the end of that step?
I moved it from my Bucket (old Sheetrock bucket :-D) to my glass carboy with an air lock on it and it seems to still be active.
This batch smelled a little like wine, but not a lot. The second and third batches I have made smell more like wine to me.. but I have not tasted them yet as the 2 weeks is coming up in a few days.
Hi KT!
Sorry for the delayed reply … As for the wine, yes, it should still be sweet after fermenting because I like it sweet so that’s how I wrote my recipe. If you like it on the dry side, you can absolutely use less sugar! Mine always smells very wine-y after just a couple days, so make sure you’re keeping your ferment warm enough. Is it’s on the cool side, it just takes longer to get to the right level of alcohol.
As for the temp of the water for the yeast, so long as it isn’t too hot, you’re fine. I use water straight out of the cold water tap and it works just fine! 🙂
Jami
The recipe says to set the beets aside after boiling them. I don’t see anywhere that you are supposed to actually use the beets, just the beet water. Please verify.
Hello there, Ms Mouse! I typically eat the beets after boiling, simply because I hate to waste anything. So, beet wine would be a great project if you’re planning beets for a meal, since you’ll have a use for the beets AND for the cooking liquid!
J
I love beets & have no problem eating them. I just thought the beets would be added back to the wine somehow & that part was missing.
I have made fruit wine before with a sort of “prison” recipe I found on the internet, where you use 6 cups of cut up fruit, 6 cups of sugar, a gallon of water, swirl it every day for 30 days (to keep the fruit cap from rotting), then bottle, straining out the fruit. Then wait 6 months to drink. It works well.
But I will definitely try your recipe. Thanks again.
Nope! Enjoy your beets in a lovely salad or eat ’em plain like I do! Vive la beets! 🙂
Hey, this is an absolutely wonderful recipe! It smells delicious so far. I’m now at the stage where I have to siphon it into the secondary pail but this next step seems confusingly simple.
I can literally store it in another container, covered only with a tightly pulled cloth?? Or should I put the lid over it at some point…
guess I’ve been reading far too many Home-Winemaking warnings….
Hi Anouk!
Yes, you can finish the fermentin process a second, clean container! I use a big glass jar, my grandma used a crock. This isn’t “fancy” wine making, it’s home-fermented and delicious and probably a whole lot less work than the other kinds. 🙂 I used the cloth to keep bugs out – if you close this tightly without being able to breathe, you could maybe get sparkling wine, but more likely you’ll get a whole lot of broken bottles/jars from all the pressure that builds up during the ferment. It takes a while for that action to cease. Once you’re not bubbly anymore, you can bottle the wine (or put it in mason jars).
Hope that helps! Enjoy!
Jami
Thanks for this wonderful yet relaxed tutorial! I have a batch at the 10 day mark and am very excited to try the wine in a few more weeks! If its good, it will be Christmas presents for a select group 🙂 I love the underlying principle of ‘making do’ – my grandparents were of the same cloth
My grandfather used to make beet wine (and rhubarb, and carrot), and I’ve always wanted to try my hand at it but nobody kept his recipes. Thank you for posting this! I can’t wait to try it. Hopefully it will bring back some good memories for my Dad.
What yeast did you use?
Hello Deniese!
Believe it or not, I used the plain old yeast I use for baking bread. There is a variety of yeasts available for wine making, but my goal was to model my grandmother’s process as closely as possible, and given her limited financial means, as well as the era’s lack of internet shopping resources, I decided it was unlikely she used anything but what she kept readily on hand and what could be used for more than the purpose of making hooch. 🙂
The brand I have in my cupboard is Fleischmann’s, but I can’t imagine using a different brand would yield noticeably different results. In fact, I doubt the result would be ANY different at all.
Hope this helps and feel free to send me any additional questions for clarity.
Jami
the recepie is perfect, but its better to grate the beet & add to the boiling water, boil for atleast 2hrs till some of the liquid has reduced,stain the beet juice using a muslin cloth, & collect the liquid in another container, cool & add sugar, add lime, cardamon, cinnamon, cloves, & to the fermenter add activated dry yeast, u shud hear the fizzing sound by 3 to 4 hrs, keep checking for the fizzing sound, that means yeast is working, u can stir the jar after 5 days & strain again & keep in Demijohn with airlock, rack after 21 days & then bottle. Simi Sahni India
Thank you so much for the tip – it honestly never occurred to me to shred the beets, but it sure makes sense to get as much surface area of the beets exposed as possible!
When I start the next batch, I’ll let you know how it’s turning out with the addition of the cardamom, etc. (one of my all time favorite spices).
Have a beautiful, amazing day!
Jami
You do not talk about sanitizing the equipment – do you or use anything. What is tannic acid and use black tea – what is that for.
Hi Lila!
No, I do not sanitize the equipment I’m using. I’ve always just washed everything in hot soapy water and never had any troubles. Keep in mind this is “down home,” style wine, which is how my grandmother made it, not the hyper-regulated kind that requires many online shopping expenditures. I’ve had good luck with this process as outlined, but I’m sure it won’t be to everyone’s taste. 🙂
The tannic acid helps add a slight “bitterness” to the wine, which helps keep it from being cloyingly sweet.
Hope this helps!
J
thanks it helps a lot because of lot of the recipes I find it says nothing about all that stuff. Another question did you use black tea and when?
Hi! Sorry it’s taken me awhile. No, I don’t use the black tea, but I included the information so people who wanted tannic acid in their wine, to not spend a fortune on the fancy tablets because they can use black tea instead. 🙂
Well here I am again with a question – have let sit two months and had strained and transferred to another plastic bucket. I finally got up enough nerve to sample taste – beautiful color but not at all sweet so really disappoint. Also the gal that helped me accidentially added an extra pound of sugar!!! Is there any way of sweetening it at this point – does it get sweeter with age. Not happy with it this way. I am not a dry wine drinker.
I absolutely understand! My grandmother used a whopping 8 pounds of sugar for her recipe. That’s just far too sweet for me. I have to congratulate you for waiting 2 months to taste (I’m ashamed to admit it, but I was taking nips regularly after the first wk – lol!).
I’m sure you can add additional sugar at this point, but stir it well and let it sit a while (a week or two) longer – taste it to see if it’s as sweet as you like first. You’ll likely have to re-strain later, simply because the fixatives in sugar leave a lot of sediment.
Also of note – don’t tightly cap jars or bottles of this wine for several more months. It continues to “work” for quite a long time and you could end up with exploded containers from the pressure built up during longterm fermentation.
I had five pounds in mine! I also had a pound of raisins, one orange and one lemon. Thanks I will add more sugar – how much I am not sure. I guess I will add and taste and add and taste and have a good time doing it! lol
I absolutely understand! My grandmother used a whopping 8 pounds of sugar for her recipe. That’s just far too sweet for me. I have to congratulate you for waiting 2 months to taste (I’m ashamed to admit it, but I was taking nips regularly after the first wk – lol!).
I’m sure you can add additional sugar at this point, but stir it well and let it sit a while (a week or two) longer – taste it to see if it’s as sweet as you like first. You’ll likely have to re-strain later, simply because the fixatives in sugar leave a lot of sediment.
Also of note – don’t tightly cap jars or bottles of this wine for several more months. It continues to “work” for quite a long time and you could end up with exploded containers from the pressure built up during longterm fermentation.
I have the syran wrap on mine along with the top of the plastic jug. I made this 3 months+ ago and still not clear. I am thinking it is to air tight – there is no bubbles. Will quilt batting secured down with rubber band work in keeping the fruit flies out?
Hi Lila!
The lack of bubbles is a good thing, though you don’t ever really want an airtight container for the process until it’s time for bottling. However, no bubbles means you can bottle the wine without it being likely to explode. 🙂 As for the clarity of the liquid, I think you mentioned you had to add additional sugar, post-ferment. I had that same issue a few years ago. Does the wine smell like wine? Does it taste good? Bottle it, let it sit for a few months and the cloudiness will dissipate in time (to form sediment in the bottom of the bottles).
Take care!
Jami
yes it smells like wine and tastes pretty darn good! I thought I would try to laddle into glass gallon jars and cover with quilt batting and let it sit awhile longer before bottling. I have plenty of wine bottles but kept throwing away the screw tops. I did buy some corks from the hardware store – they are ugly. Would using the real wine corks be better?
Sounds like you’re on the right track then! Hooray! So, yes, the quilt batting will probably work just fine to keep the critters out, as would any piece of fabric or even a towel. I have wine corks, but honestly, I really liked the wine in mason jars once it’s not bubbling any more. But please, don’t be surprised if you end up with pressure built up in the jars or bottles, even after all your efforts to ensure the fizz had left the building. This is more science experiment than exact art. 🙂
J
ah yes, the venerable beet wine. many happy days are remembered on the ranch here in wyoming with nothing more than soft summer breeze and a gallon jug on the porch :). as i recall there are only slight differences between your recipe and my great grandmothers but her recipe was from around the early 1900’s so instead of lemons which were in short supply back then she used an apple. one thing about beet wine is it gets better and better as it ages. thanks for posting this and inspiring me to drag out that old german recipe of liquid delight.
I just made my Grandmother’s Beet Wine recipe this past week and put it into bottles yesterday. Her recipe called for a peeled, sliced potatoe and a buttered slice of white bread along with five pounds of sugar, one pound of raisins, and beet juice to equal 2 gallons and a cake of yeast. I made it many, many years ago and decided to give it a go again this year since I had beets to spare. The longer it sits, the better it gets and I do add sugar to it every now and then since I like sweet wine. My grandmother used to leave a shot glass of her wine on her hutch in the hallway for my sister and I every night to drink on our way to bed since our old farmhouse didn’t have heat upstairs! Sure warmed us up all the way to our toes!!! Good memories!
Just made this today, so exciting, I have never made wine before. Does this only work for beets, or would it work for rhubarb? Thanks
Hello! I haven’t ever tried this with rhubarb, but I have done it with turnips, cherries, dandelions and corn cobs. I think the same basic premise exists, no matter what you decide to go with. Just make sure you err on the sweet side for the less-sweet fruits, flowers or veggies, simply because you’ll lose a substantial amount of sweetness in the fermentation process.
Please, let me know how the rhubarb wine works out! I’d love to add another flavor to my repertoire!
Best wishes and good luck,
Jami
I am definitly going to try the rhubarb and will let you know how it comes out
How do you have 2nd fermentation without being anaerobic without airlock
Hello Mike!
This is a very low-tech way to make wine. It’s the way my grandmother made it, the way her mother made it and I would imagine the way many women have made it throughout the ages, using things readily available, typically from ingredients which might have otherwise gone to waste.
The one certain thing is that this recipe produces a lovely drinking wine, but is unlikely to pass muster for the average connoisseur and whose technique may seem incorrect by modern standards but has withstood the test of time.
Jami
Started this year’s batch of beet wine! Added macerated blackberries, raspberries and the juice from a couple of oranges to the standard recipe. Hoping it will have a “fruitier” taste (maybe a little sangria-like?). I enjoy the end result mostly because of the tradition I’m keeping alive. Grandma would be proud (I hope)!
Good morning, Terry! How exciting, to get this year’s vintage started, isn’t it? What a great idea to add fruit, I am going to have to try that. I’m a bit embarrassed that it never occurred to me before (lol).
Jami
Hi Jami! Yes, I have to admit I enjoy the ritual and it’s nice to think about my Grandmother having made the wine every fall along with all the other canning and preserving that she did. She was a real pioneer! I did add some sliced apples to the second batch of wine that I did last year, but, unfortunately, I didn’t mark the bottles so now I’d have to taste a little from each one just to see if I could tell the difference! What a boob I was! Also, I whole-heartedly agree with you that beet wine will never be one that a person would sit down and drink a glass. I find it more along the lines of a brandy – a little goes a long way! I’ll let you know if I like (or see) any difference with the fruit. I didn’t use a lot so it may not make much difference.
I am going to try your recipe. I have made beet wine on several occasions, last bunch didn’t “pass threw” but once I made it and gave it to the deer hunters when snow was on the ground. They all thought I’d poisoned them 🙂
I even wrote a poem, (I’m a poet), “This is no wine for sissys, this,
this is a Northern wine…”
Charlie Smith
I hope you end up loving the wine – I always err on the side of sweeter, to avoid the “paint thinner” effect, but then, I really like sweeter wines. It is, indeed, not a wine for sissies, and will keep the Northern chill off all winter long! 🙂
J
Hi, and thanks for the recipe..im at my one month mark of my beet wine sitting and followed your recipe exact. I did not take a starting gravity reading of my wine so that I can calculate my ABV when done. Can you Jinman28 or anyone else tell me how much alcohol this recipe will yield in the end?
Hello Bryce!
I’m so sorry, I’m pretty unscientific about my approach to winemaking. I measure the alcohol content like this: it tastes sort of like koolaid, so you drink a bit too much and then you find you can no longer stand. 🙂
I hope you still enjoy the wine – it’s very tasty and a fun experiment.
Jami
I made this exactly 2 weeks ago. I just transferred to secondary fermentation. I did about a half a batch as far as beet water and sugar but used the same amount of everything else. It tastes a bit like sangria. I can’t wait. I will do this again. Thank you for sharing.
Hello Tara!
I’m so glad you’re having success with this recipe. I’ve made it dozens of times and have had it go all wonky on me twice. Still, I figure that my ratio of success is good enough to continue.
If you make it again, consider looking at some of the great comments to this post – folks are adding cherries, spices, other neat stuff to get a more complex flavor profile and well, sheer snobbery means I have to at least TRY for a more complex flavor profile. 🙂
Jami
Jami,
What a great post! Thank you so much for sharing your Grandma’s recipe! I have been wanting to attempt making beet wine, but some of the recipes out there get too complex. I love the fact that you stuck with your grandma’s original recipe, and I intend to go with it as well. Thank you again for posting this!
Jack
Hello Jack!
I’m so glad you found this page and share my affinity for trying things the old fashioned way!
Jami
Gee, this sounds good. I used to make strawberry wine, but this sounds even better! Thanks for the recipe and entertaining directions (everything about wine, and beets, should be entertaining).
Hello Wendy! I do hope you try it – this wine really is fun and delicious. 🙂
Jami
[…] tastey treatful beetroot wine recipe from Swapna’sCuisine. And we can’t leave out Gramma’s beet wine recipe from Prarie Girl […]
[…] tastey treatful beetroot wine recipe from Swapna’sCuisine. And we can’t leave out Gramma’s beet wine recipe from Prarie Girl […]
Reblogged this on beerranchblog and commented:
Trying this out tomorrow.
Great instructions. Thanks for sharing!
It’s my pleasure – I hope you enjoy the wine.
we have just racked the beet wine the first time. we followed “the rules” and it is awful. I don’t imagine we can make it much worse by adding some fruit to it and letting it steep again?
Dave,
I’m so sorry this didn’t turn out for you! Much like everything else, what makes a wine “good” is subjective. One man’s nectar is another man’s toilet tank water. 😦
If you don’t mind sharing, what in particular was distasteful? Too sweet? Not sweet enough? Something else entirely?
I cannot imagine hurting a darned thing if you add fruit for a second go round, and I would love to hear from you as to whether that worked for you.
Warmest regards,
Jami
it is very thick, which is disconcerting. it is very “beety” which sounds dumb if you make it out of beets but I thought it would be a better beet taste. Its a beautiful color but I am afraid we are going to waste this if we can’t fix it. Our other wines have turned out ok but this one — yikes!
Hi Jami,
I tried rhubarb wine this year and have been experimenting with it a little. I decided it was a little dry for my taste so after it sat for about a month or more in gallon glass jugs, I transferred some to a smaller glass jug and added a mixture of frozen blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and a chopped up apple. I added more sugar to the mixture, stirred it up and threw it in the fridge for two days. I strained it the third day and WOW – a lovely sangria-flavored wine that has disappeared in record time. I then decided to do the same with a gallon jug and that has turned out just as well. I brought a bottle to a friend and we enjoyed a glass – she was impressed with the flavor and I was surprised at the clarity of the new brew. I’ve bottled the rest of the gallon, corked it and want to see what it tastes like down the road (if it lasts that long……)! I think most of the problem with the beet wines (and the rhubarb) is that sweeter is better and a lot of folks like a dry wine. For what it’s worth!
Terry B,
I think that is an EXCELLENT point, and probably worth noting in the post body (tomorrow, my friend). This is intended to be a very sweet wine and it seems that if it were less so, it would likely be an unpalatable mess!
Thank you for your well thought out reply!
Warmly,
Jami
I do like rhubarb wine – my mother made a very tasty one. I am hoping the addition of fruit to the beet helps – otherwise it will probably go out on the garden….
I made a half recipe when I cooked my beets for pickling. I tried it today with a bit of seltzer water. I don’t drink but it was pretty good so I went ahead and started a whole recipe today when I cooked another batch of beets for pickling. I have been canning my beet juice for a few years to use in smoothies but this is a fun alternative.
I’m so glad you’re having fun with it! I do love the beet wine (my dandelion wine always comes out like jet fuel -yuck).
whowe !This wine is the cats meow having a little trouble typing here. Made 8 gallons of this delicious nectar, will never ever look at beets the same again thankyou, soo, much.
Hello Irvin! I’m so glad you’re enjoying (and imbibing).
Warmest regards,
Jami
We have racked our beet for the third time and now added some raisins. its no good as it is so are wiling to try a lot to salvage it. any suggestions? is it too late to add oranges and lemons?
I don’t know that it’s ever too late to add something new to the batch, so why not try it? To date, I’ve had one batch of beet wine go wrong where it ended up in the compost heap, though I’ve still not had any luck at all with dandelion.
One thing to note, because this is a very rustic, unscientific method, there are more variables to impact the final product than if this were made under exacting conditions. My grandmother made this in her cellar in a stone crock in Iowa. I make mine in the back bedroom in a plastic pail in Colorado.
Is the wine not sweet enough? Try adding more sugar. Too sweet? Next time add less sugar. It’s often a game of deducting and sleuthing to get the specific end product that appeals to you. In our family, a very sweet wine is what we like for this recipe.
I hope this helps, as I know it’s frustrating when a recipe doesn’t turn out for you as you’d hoped.
Warm regards,
Jami
I have to say that either the beet or rhubarb wines with fruit added to make a more sangria-like mixture seems to be pleasing to everyone who’se tried it so far. Even my sister and brother-in-law who normally only like very dry wines enjoyed the mango-fruited rhubarb wine I served this year. I don’t think it’s every too late to add fruit or sugar to these wines and I’ll probably even try it with too-dry store bought wines too! What have you got to lose???
I have some beet wine I just started. I love making wines. I have a dandelion wine, and a pumpkin mead in the cellar as well as some concord grape wine. I think these recipes are fun and make some great wines you can’t find in most stores.
Very keen to try this. I’ve just been reading Jitterbug Perfume and it’s put me on a beet beat 😉
One question I have;
Do you have to put the yeast on bread? Can one not just add the dry yeast to the cooled juice mix?
TIA
You do not need to put the yeast on bread. You can get dry wine yeast at any home-brew store and that will work fine. you can also find some wine yeast available on amazon.
Hi Brian!
You’re absolutely right! The thing is, this recipe is something my grandma made and her mother made and probably her mother before that, so I kept it true to what she did. There weren’t any home-brew stores in rural Iowa at the time, but leftover homemade bread and yeast were readily available. 🙂
But for you home brewers, you can for sure take Brian’s advice, cut out a rather ugly-looking step, if you like.
Happy wine-ing! 🙂
Its true either way will work. I’m glad you have a recipe like that and you’re keeping with it. This is a great way to do it also.
So excited to do this. So I have my beets cooking in the water. You mentioned to set the beets aside. Do I add back in to the pot after adding sugar. What do I do with beets?
Theresa, I am SO SORRY to have missed this – the comment ended up in my spam folder and so clearly I have some adjustments to make to my account. For your question, “What do I do with beets?” I can only answer, “Eat them!” But I’m a beet-lover. The sweet, earthy flavor and the gorgeous burst of color just make me happy.