25 cans of beets, what to brew?

[canid]

if you are like me, you have that item or two of canned goods that just piles up in your pantry and never seems to get used.

for me, this is usually canned beets and used to be mushroom sludge. i don't know what to tell you about the mushroom soup, it's food if you're starving but the beets; now there's a gem. if you are further like me, they aren't fit to eat, but here's an idea:

5 12oz cans of sliced beets [low sodium, too much salt with stall fermentation], emptied juice and all into a large stock pot. add 1 gal. of clean water, 1/2 lb sugar, 1-2 tablespoons of yeast nutrient like fermax and the juice of one lime or lemon, or a similar acidifying agent. bring to a rapid boil and mash beet slices with a potato masher. reduce heat and hold on a gently rolling boil 1 hour. strain through a seive into a 1 fermentation vessel, letting it splash to aerate, then allow this to cool to room temperature. while it is cooling, prepare 1 cup yeast starter with 1 oz yeast, distilled water and 1 tbs sugar. pitch into fermenter when wort is cool and swirl container to evenly mix.

fit airlock and ferment for 3 days in a cool indoor area, swirling vessle once per day for the first two to disperse yeasts and further aerate. after 3 days, when the fermentation has mellowed, allow everything to settle, then rack into a new sanitized vessle which can be fitted with a lid. secondary [alcoholic] fermentation should take a further week. this can be drinken right away, but is best aged several months in a cool, dark environment such as a cellar.

[Rick]

I feel pretty confident when I say no one on this forum is quite like you. Now, that's not a bad thing, mind you. But I doubt very many folks sit around conjuring up ways to turn a canned beet into bottled heat. If this keeps up I may just have to turn my Minister of Science belt buckle and decoder ring over to you. I'm sure all the sheeple of Traxistan will appreciate all the various brews even if we don't really know what it used to be. I'm not even certain we WANT to know what it used to be.

Anyway. Another great post. Just call me in a couple of months when that stuff has aged or tomorrow if sippin' needs to be done before hand.

[canid]

current brew is chugging right along. bubble, bubble, fizz.

[grundle]

current brew is chugging right along. bubble, bubble, fizz.

Beet wine? Wow, I have some growing in the garden as an experiment. I don't care for them either, but this is a great idea.

What kind of yeast did you use?

[mountain mama]

I love wine of just about any kind, but you have to tell me if the end product even slightly resembles beets in taste. If so, you can count me out! I'll just stick to my dandelion wine, thank you very much (should be ready by Sunday).

[Rick]

Beats are wonderful. Pickled, they are great. Beats are hard to beat!

[Badawg]

I just threw up in my mouth a little... beets affect me that way. Let us know how it tastes?

[Rick]

Thanks for sharing. Really.

[mountain mama]

I am in complete and total agreement with Badawg on the subject.

[crashdive123]

I love beets. Send them to QC.

[canid]

the yeast used is my home culture, cloned from red star brand active dry yeast. this is a baking variety of Sachromycese cerveseae that has given me many fine brews.

beet wine is as variable as the beets involved, much as you find with grape and many other fruit wines.

this canned beet wine batch, which i have just sampled is comperable to a cheap red wine but with almost no astringency [not much tannins in a beet root].

i personally hate beets, but beet wine is something i've been curious about for a while. i think ultimately i would like to grow some sugar beets fresh and use them, particularly as the sugar content can be high enough to preclude the need for adding any.

i do notice that the acidity is not as good as i had expected, so the next time, i will double the lime [i still have 20 cans left which will not be eaten in any event short of nuclear war or a zombocalyptic scenario]. if the ph is not low enough, the batch is more likely to support anaerobic bacterial contamination. a frightening prospect in respect to canned foods.

[Ken]

Whatever you grow, whatever you brew, Q.C. gets samples. It's the rule!

Remember, the Quality Control Department exists as a public service to all Forum members. We are your friends! :)

[canid]

that's gonna be one heck of a sampler package, you have to know i'll expect the shipping pre-paid :D

[Ken]

that's gonna be one heck of a sampler package, you have to know i'll expect the shipping pre-paid :D

Deal! :tongue_smilie: :tongue_smilie: :tongue_smilie:

[Rick]

Uh, Ken. You might want him to send that in a water proof container. A regular envelope..well...you get the picture.

[crashdive123]

Canid: I'd like to ship this to the Quality Control Department.

Postmaster: Uh Huh. What is it?

Canid: Beet wine.

Postmaster: Uh Huh. What's it stored in?

Canid: Condoms.

Postmaster Uh Huh.

[canid]

hrm... you and i must use different brewing techniques my friend.

incidentally, a buddy of mine uses condoms as airlocks for his fermentation carboys.

[Rick]

I'm going outside now and look for Pink Fluffy Bunnies. That can't be nearly as weird as this thread is getting.

By the by, Canid. Your new theme song will now have to be the old Michael Jackson favorite. "Beet It!" I slay myself. I really do.

[Ken]

By the by, Canid. Your new theme song will now have to be the old Michael Jackson favorite. "Beet It!"

THAT, is a literary gem. "Beets." "Condoms." "Beet IT!" Those few words could merit a CliffsNotes analysis........ :innocent:

[grundle]

hrm... you and i must use different brewing techniques my friend.

incidentally, a buddy of mine uses condoms as airlocks for his fermentation carboys.

Balloons and Condoms are often used, but I find that they inevitably inject a rubber/latex taste to your brew. Pretty nasty and unacceptable to me. The best way to go about it is to make a bubbler, which basically water seals the entrance and the CO2 can bubble out. No retrograde contaminating tastes, you get the pure product that way.

[canid]

yeah; my airlocks are made from aquarium hose and old poweraid bottles.

[canid]

i have also lately been using simple holes in the caps/corks, with two layers of 3m micro-pore tape, the same tape i use to seal the sides of my petris.

[crashdive123]

the same tape i use to seal the sides of my petris.

Warning - do not read the above portion on Canids post early in the morning, before being fully awake. It will cause you to spit coffee on your monitor.

[LudwigVan]

So are these home canned beets or store bought?

[Winnie]

I'm sorry, have I just moved to a parallel universe?!?