The first step in making tomato wine is to dilute the honey in about half gallon of water. Warm up the water to almost boiling, turn off the heat, add the honey and stir. Let the mixture cool.
2 pounds Honey, 1 gallon Water
While the water is heating up, mash or food process the tomatoes. Dump the pulp into the primary fermenter (or into a mesh bag in the primary fermenter for easy removal later).
4 pounds ripe red tomatoes
Thinly grate the yellow of two lemons, juice the lemons, and add the juice and zest (gratings) to the primary fermenting bucket.
1 large lemon
Add raisins to the primary fermenter.
1 cup raisins
Once the diluted honey has cooled to below 90 degrees Farenheit, add the diluted honey to the primary fermenter.
2 pounds Honey
Add enough water to top off to 1 gallon.
1 gallon Water
(Optional) Crush Campden tablet and add it to the primary fermenter with acid blend. Stir and cover for 12 hours. If you are using garden fresh heirloom tomatoes with natural high levels of acids, this step can be skipped. If using store-bought tomatoes or hybrid tomatoes, acid blend and Campden tablet should be added.
1 Campden tablet, 2 tsp Acid blend
(Optional) After waiting 12 hours after adding acid blend and crushed Campden tablet, you can now add pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient to the primary fermeter. Stir and cover for an additional 12 hours. This step can also be skipped if you are using garden fresh heirloom tomatoes with natural high levels of acids, this step can be skipped. If using store-bought tomatoes or hybrid tomatoes, pectic acid should be added.
1 tsp Pectic enzyme, 1 tsp Yeast nutrient
Add the wine yeast (and yeast nutrient if skipping previous steps). (Make sure to wait the proper amount of time after adding the chemicals, to prevent the acids from killing the yeast.)
1 Packet Wine yeast, 1 tsp Yeast nutrient
Mix the ingredients, and cover with airlock and ferment for 21 days. Stir or shake daily.
After 21 days, rack into a new carboy using the siphon. Leave the sediment and raisins behind in the primary fermenter.
Cover with airlock and ferment for another 30 days.
On day 52, if the wine is clear you can bottle it. If the wine is cloudy and has sediment, rack it into another carboy (leaving behind the debris) and wait for another 30 days. Repeat this process until the tomato wine is clear, and then bottle it.
The wine tastes best after about 6 months of aging in the bottle.
Keyword Brandy, Mead, Moonshine, Schnapps
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