Tomato Shine!

Grain bills and instruction for all manner of alcoholic beverages.

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chrisross302
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Tomato Shine!

Post by chrisross302 »

So my wife and I had some leftover tomatoes from the garden this year and before they went totally bad we decided to try fermenting them. We have a large steamer juicer we dumped a medium size box of tomatoes in and started juicing! After collecting the juice I checked my pre grav no surprise it was way low. The only sugar we had was brown sugar so I started adding till my pre grav was 23%. We put the liquid in 2 1 gallon jugs and added just shy of 1 tbls of daddy's red star distillers yeast. It started of super slow not much reaction or bubbles. After a day of sitting it started to roll and roll fast. It's still in fermenting stage so just playing the waiting game till we can run it. I'm hoping for a good bloody Mary spirit. Will update when we run to let everyone know how it goes

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cranky
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Re: Tomato Shine!

Post by cranky »

I wouldn't recommend trying to ferment something to 23% alcohol. I doubt there are many yeast out there that can do it without stalling and it will taste awful from over stressed yeast. Many of us have made tomato paste wash (TPW) like Birdwatchers and I've done both tomato juice for vodka and a tomato wine. The tomato wine was the 2nd worst thing I have ever put in my mouth :sick: You would actually be better off splitting those batches in half and watering them down to get the potential alcohol below 14% before they stall on you because once they do you won't get them restarted and will have wasted both the sugar and tomatoes.
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ShineonCrazyDiamond
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Re: Tomato Shine!

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

cranky wrote: The tomato wine was the 2nd worst thing I have ever put in my mouth...
And don't ask him what the first was :shock:
"Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
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chrisross302
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Re: Tomato Shine!

Post by chrisross302 »

Thats odd. I've been fermenting fruit mostly for the past year with a pre grav of 20-23% and have no issues. No off flavors and never stalled the yeast and averaging 130 proof of a 3 gallon pot still and collecting about 700 ml from 1 gallon of mash. I've only ever used red star dadys distillers yeast with great results

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NZChris
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Re: Tomato Shine!

Post by NZChris »

chrisross302 wrote:... my pre grav was 23% ...
What does that mean?
chrisross302
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Re: Tomato Shine!

Post by chrisross302 »

Potential alcohol by volume. So if everything works as it should I should have a final gravity of 20-23%alcohol by volume. It's basically measuring how much sugar I need to add to give me the highest abv at end of fermentation. What I've experienced the higher my mash is at end of fermentation the higher proof and more product I get after running through my still

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sltm1
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Re: Tomato Shine!

Post by sltm1 »

That's some fuzzy math partner. Your OG should be between 9-12 on the scale
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cranky
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Re: Tomato Shine!

Post by cranky »

ShineonCrazyDiamond wrote:
cranky wrote: The tomato wine was the 2nd worst thing I have ever put in my mouth...
And don't ask him what the first was :shock:
I'll tell you anyway

Kelp Chips

They taste like low tide at the sewer plant :thumbdown:
chrisross302
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Re: Tomato Shine!

Post by chrisross302 »

So I ran this tomato shine through my still Sunday with pretty good results. Got 700ml of 125 proof. It's a little harsh hopefully will mellow out with time. Has very mild tomato flavor like if you didn't know what it was mad with you wouldn't know. It's kinda sweet. I'm happy with the results and will be enjoying a bloody Mary this weekend!
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HDNB
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Re: Tomato Shine!

Post by HDNB »

It's a little harsh hopefully will mellow out with time. Has very mild tomato flavor
well, that sounds...awful. but then again a bloody mary can ruin even the best vodka. Y'all need to get your hands on some motts clamato. hail Caesar!
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now i drink for evil.
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cranky
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Re: Tomato Shine!

Post by cranky »

Most people say the tomato flavor doesn't carry over but like you I have found it does. There is a point in the late hearts / early tails it is especially prevalent. That's why I wouldn't use it for a pot still, I think All-Bran is much better for that.
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ShineonCrazyDiamond
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Re: Tomato Shine!

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

cranky wrote:Most people say the tomato flavor doesn't carry over but like you I have found it does. There is a point in the late hearts / early tails it is especially prevalent. That's why I wouldn't use it for a pot still, I think All-Bran is much better for that.
+1

I am one that can pick it out, too.
"Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond."
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MichiganCornhusker
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Re: Tomato Shine!

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

I think the whole point here was for the tomato flavor to carry over, otherwise why not just add all that sugar to water rather than low SG low pH mater juice?

Pre grav 23% on my hydrometer reads in the neighborhood of 1.17, about 3 Times what I aim for with whiskey mashes. That does seem kinda high. But if it makes a good bloody, more power to ya!
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