Green Tomato Wine 101

At the end of harvest season, gardeners typically make one last harvest before the first freeze.  One item that folks generally end up with is green tomatoes.  Now there are a variety of things you can do with green tomatoes: make chutney, fried green tomatoes, mock apple pie, or simply store the tomatoes and let them ripen.  But for a unique twist on ‘what to do’ with green tomatoes, think Green Tomato Wine.

Making wine from green tomatoes is pretty straight forward.  Even if you haven’t made wine before, the steps are pretty basic and easy to follow.

Green Tomato Wine Recipe

• 12 lbs. green tomatoes
• 8 lbs. sugar
• 2 tsp. yeast nutrient
• 10 lemons, juiced
• 3 campden tablets
• 1 1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme
• 6 lbs. grapes
• 1 1/2 oz. fresh ginger root, peeled and cut into large pieces
• 2 1/2 gallons distilled water
• 1 package fruit wine yeast

Tools Needed

• Fermentation bucket with lid
• Mesh bag, large enough to hold tomatoes
• Airlock
• Stock pot large enough to hold 2 1/2 gallons of water and the 8 lbs. of sugar (we used a 12 quart pot)
• Small cutting board
• Food Grade gloves
• Large spoon for stock pot
• Food Grade Sanitizer, such as Star San
• Food Grade Cleaner, such as Five Star PBW
• Siphon tube
• Carboy

Gather tools needed.  If you have a home brew store in your community, they should carry all of the needed tools.  If not, do a web search for ‘making wine at home’.  There are many online vendors to choose from.  Once you have gathered all of the tools, clean them (except for siphon tube and carboy… those will be dealt with later) all using the Five Star PBW.  Follow directions on the container.  After tools have been cleaned, sterilize tools using the Star San.  Follow directions on the label.

Fill sink with water and add 1 tsp. of Star San.  Next, add the tomatoes, grapes and wash thoroughly.  Trim off any bruises or damaged areas on the tomatoes and remove the stems.   Remove stems from grapes

Place mesh bag in the fermentation bucket.  Drape the top of the bag over the rim of the bucket so the bag forms a pouch inside the bucket.  Crush one campden tablet and add to mesh bag. After the tomatoes have been cleaned and trimmed, coarsely chop.  Add half of the tomatoes and grapes, then add another crushed campden tablet to the bag.  Repeat with remaining tomatoes, grapes, all of the ginger, and final tablet.

Pour water into stock pot.  Bring to a boil.  Once the water is boiling, remove from heat then add sugar.  Stir to dissolve sugar.  After the sugar is dissolved then pour the water/sugar mixture into the fermentation bucket.

Add juice of lemons to the fermentation bucket.

Wearing the gloves, squeeze the mesh bag inside the fermentation bucket, thoroughly mixing the fruit.

Sprinkle onto the fruit/water mixture the yeast nutrient and the pectic enzyme.  Stir with spoon to thoroughly combine.  Check the liquid volume inside the fermentation container (will be marks on the outside of the bucket).  If the liquid volume is not at 3 gallons, add enough water to bring it up to that point.

Tie a loose knot in the top of the mesh bag.  This will keep all of the fruit inside the bag.  Put the lid on the fermentation bucket.  Allow the mixture to sit for at least one day.  Then remove the lid.

Now you are ready to add the yeast.  (Get yeast which is specific for fruit wine.  DO NOT use baker’s yeast!   In this case we used EC-1118 Lalvin brand yeast.)  Follow directions on yeast packet for adding yeast to warm water to ‘bloom’.  After the yeast has bloomed, pour into the fermentation bucket.  Place lid on the bucket and add the airlock to the hole in the lid.

Once you have added the yeast, you have officially created alcohol!  The mixture will ferment and this is indicated by the bubbles that appear in the airlock.  Each day, remove the lid and stir the mixture.  After stirring, replace the lid.

On day six, remove the mesh bag and all fruit within the bag.  Squeeze the bag to extract as much liquid as possible into the fermentation bucket.  (It is okay if there are a few bits of pulp.)

Clean and sterilize a siphon tube and carboy following directions on the Five Star PBW and Star San container.

Elevate the fermentation bucket so it is higher than the carboy.  Place one end of the siphon tube in the fermentation bucket and the other end into the carboy and start the siphon process.  After the developing wine has been transferred from the fermentation bucket to the carboy, add an airlock to the top of the carboy.

Now let the developing wine sit in the carboy for three months.  At the end of the third month, transfer to another carboy which has been cleaned and sterilized.  Elevate the carboy with the wine so it is higher than the empty carboy.   Place one end of the siphon tube in the carboy with wine and the other end in the empty carboy and start the siphon process.  Note: do not place the end of the siphon tube so it is in the sediment of the full carboy.  This sediment is fruit pulp and yeast.  Do not transfer that to the empty carboy.  The idea is that you want a clear, not cloudy wine.  After the transfer is complete, top the carboy with an airlock.

Repeat this transfer process three more times at three month intervals.  NOTE: before transferring the wine from one carboy to the next, remember to clean and sterilize the siphon tube and carboy.

Now you are ready to bottle your wine.  For a three gallon batch of wine, you will need approximately eighteen bottles.  You can either save wine bottles or buy new bottles from a home brew store or order online.  If a store carries bottles, they will also carry corks.  Corks are generally sold in packages instead of individually.  Buy enough packages that you will have a few more corks than bottles (just in case there is a bad cork).

To ensure cleanliness, we sterilize the bottles, corks, siphoning tube, and nitrile gloves that we wear.  After all the time spent aging, you don’t want to risk contaminating the wine with dirty equipment.  There are many sterilizing agents on the market.   We use Star San.  Follow the manufacturer’s directions provided on the container.  We use a liquid concentrate and that is poured to a large bucket.  Next, the required amount of water is added along with the items we wish to sterilize.

To transfer the wine into bottles, set up the carboy with a siphon tube placed into the neck of a wine bottles.  Make sure that the carboy is elevated above the bottle as this will ensure proper draining.  Be sure to have your next empty bottle waiting as the wine level reaches the bottom of the neck of the bottle you are currently filling.  Lift the siphon and place it into the empty bottle.  Set aside the newly filled bottle and grab your next empty.  Believe me, this process is much simpler than it sounds.  Usually, we treat this as a one-man process.  After all of the wine has been siphoned into bottles, it is now time to move onto the corker!

Now while very few people have their very own corker, local home brew stores carry them.  You can either buy or rent.  We generally go with a one-day rental.  If you have never used one, ask a store employee for a quick tutorial.  A corker is pretty easy to use.

Now go ahead and cork your bottles. And folks, that is it.  Making green tomato wine from scratch is not hard to do.  With good ingredients and patience you can be enjoying your own wine of your making in just a little over a year.   Believe me, this is time well spent.

This recipe makes 3 gallons of wine which is approximately 18 standard wine bottles.