Carrot Wine 2

Started 9th July 2012

I nipped out to Sainsbury's yesterday for a couple of bits and spotted some bags of carrots reduced to clear, so for 30p, I picked up enough carrots for another gallon of wine.

Although the plan is to use mostly free fruit and veg, either home grown or foraged, I don't mind spending a few pennies here and there. In any case, carrots take months to grow and we now have several bags of sliced carrots in the freezer, ready to just bung into a stew in winter.

We're almost out of sultanas and raisins, so this time, we decided to use a small tin of white grape juice concentrate instead. We would rather use the sultanas if we have them, especially as most carrot wine recipes use sultanas, but CJJ Berry uses concentrate in his carrot wine recipe, so we have too.

The method for this carrot wine recipe is a bit different to the previous carrot wine. No special reason for this, it's just how we did it this time.

Carrot Wine 2
Ingredients:
4lbs carrots
2lbs sugar
1 x 245g tin white grape juice concentrate
1 cup strong black tea (for the tannin)
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon Youngs wine yeast

Step 1:
Add sugar to bucket
Slice the carrots - do not peel or grate them
Boil the carrots for about 20 mins until soft but not mushy
Strain the liquid from the carrots into the bucket to dissolve the sugar
Allow to cool to about 25C or less (5 or 6 hours)

Step 2:
Add the concentrate to the bucket
Add the lemon juice to the bucket
Add the tea to the bucket
Add yeast to bucket and stir well
Cover and leave for 10 days, stirring every day

Step 3:
Strain through a sieve into clean, sterilised demijohns
Fit airlocks
Store in a warm place until fermentation has finished

Step 4:
Rack off into clean demijohns
Leave in cooler place for 6 months

Step 5:
Bottle and drink