Anyone done a tomato vodka?

[MountainWilliam Bill]

Perhaps I am not looking in the right spots, but can't find any good data about making a tomato vodka. I'm assuming pot still (or in my case, refluxless column) and a lot of tomatoes, considering the low sugar content. I'm looking for anyone who has practical knowledge of making this and can provide their experience. Will this have taste/smell hints of tomato? Is there a particular variety that works best? What other adjuncts are necessary?

[frozenthunderbolt]

Birdwatchers is a tomato paste neutral or 'vodka' that you will find in the "tried and true' recipes section. I would start there.

[MountainWilliam Bill]

Birdwatchers is a tomato paste neutral or 'vodka' that you will find in the "tried and true' recipes section. I would start there.

Thanks frozent-bolt, been there. That's a neutral spirit. I was looking for something that is almost exclusively from tomatoes with a tomato taste or subtle notes of tomatoes. Birdwatchers is almost all sugar with the tomato paste added for pH adjusting.

I don't know, just throwing it out there, but do I do birdwatchers wash and use a gin head with sun-dried tomatoes to impart flavor? Or macerate sun-dried tomatoes for a few months in the rectified birdwatchers wash?

[Prairiepiss]

So you are wanting a tomato flavored vodka? Not a vodka made from tomatoes? Most vodkas are distilled to the point of no flavor. Or very little. That's why most consider a neutral wash to be a vodka wash. If your wanting to ferment tomatoes and get tomato flavor in the spirit. That would be more like a tomato brandy? Maybe? I would say make a neutral and maserate some sun dried tomatoes in it to start with. See what you get? Because I don't think you will get very far with fermenting tomatoes. As you can see the Birdwatchers recipe uses tomato paste with no flavor carry over.

[Dnderhead]

contrary to popular belief tomatoes have little food value and have little sugar.but they can be fermented
about 4-5 lb ripe tomatoes ,2 lb sugar,top to gallon.(2kg tomatoes,1kg sugar,4 l water)this should git you in the ball park.
iv never distilled them.you want the best tomatoes you can fiend.

but if i was to try make vodka from them id make a sugar wash distill,add tomatoes then redistill in a pot still.

[HolyBear]

I've made some tmater wine before, not my favorite but different. I suppose ya could run it through a still ta see what ya could get. Ill try to find my recipe when I get home and post here.....

[HolyBear]

It sounds to me like your wanting to make a tomato brandy, not a vodka... here's the tomato wine recipe for one gallon of wine, you'll be rendering it down so of course you'll want to make more, just multiply the incredients by the number of gallons you want as a wash....
3.5lb red tomatoes
1 cup raisins
6pts water
1.5 lb sugar
2.5 tsp acid blend
1/4 tsp tannin
1 tsp nutrient
1 campden tablet crushed
1up pkt wine yeast (the will make up to 5gal)

Wash yer maters, cut em up, put in a nylon straining bag, (yer wife's pany hose will work, don ask me how I know), squeeze out juice into yer primary fermenter, keep the pulp in tha bag, tie tha top and put in fermenter too. Stir in all ingredients except yeast.... cover primary for 24the hours

[HolyBear]

Sorry typing on my phone... after 24hrst add yeast, when ferment reaches 1.04 (3-5the days) siphon off into a secondary, lightly squeeze liquids from bag into secondary, attach bubbler when ferment reaches 1.00 siphon into yer boiler an run it!!!!

[frozenthunderbolt]

contrary to popular belief tomatoes have little food value and have little sugar.but they can be fermented
about 4-5 lb ripe tomatoes ,2 lb sugar,top to gallon.(2kg tomatoes,1kg sugar,4 l water)this should git you in the ball park.
iv never distilled them.you want the best tomatoes you can fiend.

but if i was to try make vodka from them id make a sugar wash distill,add tomatoes then redistill in a pot still.

As far as variety goes, i would suggest 'Sweet 100' cherry tomatoes - piss easy to grow and insanely sweet (for a tom) - might get you 6% or so without added sugar (though that is conjecture)

[MountainWilliam Bill]

Point of order...aren't all brandies technically vodkas, but all vodkas are NOT brandies? My understanding was that vodkas were any distilled beverage from distilling fermented grains or fruits(including sugar). Brandies were produced through distilling wines, which is fermented fruit juice. A tomato is a fruit, so both names (vodka and brandy) would be applicable, right?

~Prairiepiss - yeah, I'm looking for something that will be tomato tasting. I figured a wash made from mostly tomatoes would impart some tomato notes to the finished product, then intensify the flavor with macerating sun-dried tomatoes to taste, if necessary. But you're saying just skip the tomato wash step, since minimal flavor will convey into the distillate.

~Dnderhead - I'm assuming that you've done these flavorings to vodka before with a redistill via a pot still. Does this method give a fairly intense flavor from the added fruit?

~wacabi1 - Thank you for a recipe.

~frozenthunderbolt - Thank you for a recommendation of tomato variety.

Thanks to the four of you! I guess now I have 3 avenues to explore. I'll update in a few weeks after running with these recommendations.

[Dnderhead]

if you make a good clean vodka to start with then little or no cuts have to be made when "flavoring"
so this way you will retain more flavor.

[HolyBear]

I..... humbly....and grovelingly... rely on whatever Dunder and Mr P say.... member... I am a rider....

[MountainWilliam Bill]

I..... humbly....and grovelingly... rely on whatever Dunder and Mr P say.... member... I am a rider....

What?!!! There's no crying in baseball distilling!!! I'm going to try all 3 methods, including your recipe. Sounds pretty tasty and intriguing, if you ask me.

So remove your tail from between your legs and refer to Uncle Jesse's "The Rules by Which We Live", specifically official rule #2, sentence #3. Again, thank you.

[Dnderhead]

much of the flavors are in heads or tales.fruit in heads and grains in tales (in general)
so if you have removed the heads and tales then when flavoring you dont have to or at least not as much.
iv never distilled tomatoes but " flavor" are a combination of chemicals or "flavors".like a sweet and sour sauce.together it taste grate ,separated not so much. now some times these "flavors" are destroyed by heat others are just out of reach of distilling.hopefully the ones your after come across.if not its back to the drawing board.

[dakotasnake]

i did a tomatoe run last fall. i didnt take notes cuzz i figgered a one time deal. i used about 2 1/2 lbs of toms per gal. of water. 1 1/2 lbs. sugar per gal. juice from 3 lemons aspoon of nutrants and ec-1118 yeast. i left one jar white the other aged on oak. the white jar had a slight tom or friuty flavor the oaked not so much. they were both acually a pretty good drink, no bite and go down smooth. i guess ill do it again this fall since i got 6 plants out here. oh i used roma tomatoes.

[Dnderhead]

"i got 6 plants out here."
iv got over 100 tomato plants but not going for hooch,these will go for 4-5$ a lb.

[dakotasnake]

"i got 6 plants out here."
iv got over 100 tomato plants but not going for hooch,these will go for 4-5$ a lb.

wow dunder you must do a helluv alot of weeding. if it werent for the weeds id have a huge garden, but for 4 or 5 bucks a lb. id do it to.

[warp1]

i did a tomatoe run last fall. i didnt take notes cuzz i figgered a one time deal. i used about 2 1/2 lbs of toms per gal. of water. 1 1/2 lbs. sugar per gal. juice from 3 lemons aspoon of nutrants and ec-1118 yeast. i left one jar white the other aged on oak. the white jar had a slight tom or friuty flavor the oaked not so much. they were both acually a pretty good drink, no bite and go down smooth. i guess ill do it again this fall since i got 6 plants out here. oh i used roma tomatoes.

Might just try this over the summer....got some Belgian giants at the nursery....label says "so sweet....sometimes fermented for wine". Was thinking of double distilling in my de-tuned boka and see what comes over for flavor. I remember when I stripped the only birdwatchers I made...I pulled out a small hearts cut and it definitely had the tomato scent. Thinking my sister would love this with some sprite? Who knows.....interesting at least.

[Black Hearts]

Hey,

Ferment tomatoes, then run the tomato mash through a gin basket with sun dried tomatoes, then throw in some more of your dried tomatoes into you end product (vodka/brandy) for a few weeks. You could also mix the types of tomatoes to give a more complex nose.

Keep low,
Black Hearts

[still_stirrin]

Whew! What a “well aged” thread...over 6 years! Nice one.
ss

[OtisT]

6 years and no results posted. I’ll bet it did not go well.

[Hambone]

Had a bartender friend that made a “tomato water” martini. Filtered the tomato purée and got a nearly clear liquid that was a punch in the mouth of garden tomato goodness. Maybe a maceration would stay clear....

Another project I guess....thanks old thread!

[NZChris]

Most of the flavors are in the heads and tales, which is why Birdwatchers can be cut to produce a reasonable neutral and why you might have to cut the opposite way to what you are used to by removing a large proportion of the most flavorless hearts to concentrate the tomato in your final selection.

For fun, I re-ran Birdwatchers heads and tails a couple of times, concentrating the tomato flavors into a small batch of tomato vodka that got used to make very nice Bloody Marys.

[Copperhead road]

6 years and no results posted. I’ll bet it did not go well.

[Black Hearts]

Guess we might need to try it ourselves gents..

[Desert Dweller]

I'm going to try a pure tomato wash for making neutral spirit with waste tomatoes. Estimating 4g sugar / 100g tomato = 0.8 kg sugar in 20kg tomatoes. Not adding sugar or water, just mashed up tomato and yeast...

[cob]

All that reading makes me glad I know how to make a good bloody mary.

it's good to read some dunder, wacabi, pp, bill, and bolt though.

[workpress]

Tomato Vodka

50 lbs of tomatoes (destined for the trash) from a local food hub that distributed overstock produce to foodbanks and such.
8 kg sugar
two Gusmer yeast nutrient tablets
80 L water

cut the stems off tomatoes and pitched them into a barrel and crushed them into a paste then added the sugar dissolved in 80 L warm water
mixed the heck out of it with a drill and paint mixer , (sg 1.060)) (ph 5.2) pitched a healthy handful of Merrit vodka yeast
covered the drum with plastic and went home...
7 days later sg was at 1,000 and potential alcohol about 7%
distilled it and it came out of the still at 92% abv with a slight taste of sweetness, green vegetables, and some earthy notes.

this world be good in a Caesar or bloody Mary