I just pulled out some beet wine I had put away in May of this year and was
very disappointed with what I found. The color had changed from brilliant
red to a somewhat brownish ruby. The flavor, originally on the sweet side
with tones of beet and a rather interesting mix of other flavors has become
something with an overwhelming taste of brown sugar and a hint of cheap
port. The aroma is also overwhelmingly of brown sugar. The odd thing is that
no brown sugar was used in making this wine.

Is this a result of oxidation or some sort of infection? The wine, other
than its peculiar aroma and taste seems perfectly fine. It's beautifully
clear, the bottles are sediment free, and has good body. It is a little more
brown than red than I would like but otherwise seems normal. I just don't
understand how I screwed this up this bad.

Sounds like oxidation to me, browning tends to be from too much O2

Rob L
"TechnoShroom" > wrote in message
. com...
> I just pulled out some beet wine I had put away in May of this year and
was
> very disappointed with what I found. The color had changed from brilliant
> red to a somewhat brownish ruby. The flavor, originally on the sweet side
> with tones of beet and a rather interesting mix of other flavors has
become
> something with an overwhelming taste of brown sugar and a hint of cheap
> port. The aroma is also overwhelmingly of brown sugar. The odd thing is
that
> no brown sugar was used in making this wine.
>
> Is this a result of oxidation or some sort of infection? The wine, other
> than its peculiar aroma and taste seems perfectly fine. It's beautifully
> clear, the bottles are sediment free, and has good body. It is a little
more
> brown than red than I would like but otherwise seems normal. I just don't
> understand how I screwed this up this bad.
>
>

Sounds like a red beet wine on his way to becoming a gold coloured special
treat (like it should become provided it had been given the time to mature).
You have been to impatient. Let it rest and mature; waiting is half the fun.
Ed

"TechnoShroom" > schreef in bericht
. com...
> I just pulled out some beet wine I had put away in May of this year and
was
> very disappointed with what I found. The color had changed from brilliant
> red to a somewhat brownish ruby. The flavor, originally on the sweet side
> with tones of beet and a rather interesting mix of other flavors has
become
> something with an overwhelming taste of brown sugar and a hint of cheap
> port. The aroma is also overwhelmingly of brown sugar. The odd thing is
that
> no brown sugar was used in making this wine.
>
> Is this a result of oxidation or some sort of infection? The wine, other
> than its peculiar aroma and taste seems perfectly fine. It's beautifully
> clear, the bottles are sediment free, and has good body. It is a little
more
> brown than red than I would like but otherwise seems normal. I just don't
> understand how I screwed this up this bad.
>
>

Robert Lee ) wrote:
>Sounds like oxidation to me, browning tends to be from too much O2

>Rob L

Sounds like oxidation to me too.

What was your free SO2 at bottling, and what is it now? How about
pH?

FWIW, if those numbers are reasonable, it's possible that it's just
a bad closure on that one bottle, and the remainder of the batch
will be okay.

Dave
************************************************** **************************
Dave Breeden

Beet is the only wine I ever made that just seemed to fall apart color
wise. I chucked it.
Tim

My first thought upon reading of your woes was, "What the hell is he
doing pulling a bottle of beet that was only put away in May?" I make
a beet, I put it away in a dark closet to protect that delicate color,
and it doesn't come out for at least two years, and even then it is
"young" in my book.

Beet wine changes dramatically as it ages, but not the way you have
described. It sounds to me like it has oxidized, either from
insufficient sulfite during fermentation and at bottling or from a bad
closure. The color, on the other hand, WILL change to brown (and, at
the same time, grow lighter) if not stored in a dark environment. I
had two bottles of a seven-bottle batch that were laid down in a
cabinet with louvered doors because the cubby-hole in the closet
filled up when I put the other five bottles in there. The bottles in
the closet, after nearly four years, were as deep ruby as the day they
went in, but the two in the cabinet had both turned brown and were
lighter that the others. They tasted okay, but not quite as good as
the other five.

Whatever the cause (and by now you should have enough hints to
diagnose what you may have done wrong), I wouldn't toss them out.
They just might turn out okay if you leave them alone another 18
months. If the problem is oxidation, they just might turn into a good
sherry (depending on alcohol) in another four-five years. All they
will do until then is take up space, so why not wait it out? Unless
you are in your 70s, why be impatient?

Just my two cents worth....

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/