# Grass Wine



## ultrasuede (23/5/11)

Grass wine?? Grass beer?? does it exist? a quick google search didn't come up with much.. Anyone know a recipe? I'm thinking wheat grass, but who knows, mabey someone has made wine or beer out of bull grass.


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## ChrisECarpenter (23/5/11)

I remember wheat-grass shots tasting pretty awful - would you want that character in a finished beer?

Chris



ultrasuede said:


> Grass wine?? Grass beer?? does it exist? a quick google search didn't come up with much.. Anyone know a recipe? I'm thinking wheat grass, but who knows, mabey someone has made wine or beer out of bull grass.


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## ultrasuede (23/5/11)

ChrisECarpenter said:


> I remember wheat-grass shots tasting pretty awful - would you want that character in a finished beer?
> 
> Chris



A local winery has asked us to grow fresh wheatgrassfor them.... that they have developed a Sweet Wheatgrass Wine!

LOOK OUT!....What's next!

Of course it will be a novolty....and has none of the properties of drinking the FRESH wheatgrass juice.

You may see pictures of our nursery in the Picture Gallery. Our 9th year! And growing.


EXTRA!!!EXTRA!!!

The Sweet Wheatgrass Wine has won a BRONZE Metal at the Tampa Florida International Wine competiton!!!! Over 1,580 entries were submitted!

Go figure. In addition the wine maker Tim Brewer has developed a DRY version also with wheatgrass as the ingridient!!! Brewerscellars.com​ Taken from http://www.ewheatgrass.com/wheatgrassjuice...grass-wine.html Apparently it's good


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## pdilley (23/5/11)

I don't know about brewing grass.

But the infamous Couch grass actually makes a really tasty tea and if you keep drinking it you can battle the bloody blighters in your yard!

Good use, eat them!


Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## ChrisECarpenter (23/5/11)

without meaning to be disparaging - isn't wine technically a beverage made from fermented grape juice?

Chris



ultrasuede said:


> A local winery has asked us to grow fresh wheatgrassfor them.... that they have developed a Sweet Wheatgrass Wine!
> 
> LOOK OUT!....What's next!
> 
> ...


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## ultrasuede (23/5/11)

Apparently it's anything made out of a fermented plant


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## jbowers (23/5/11)

ChrisECarpenter said:


> without meaning to be disparaging - isn't wine technically a beverage made from fermented grape juice?
> 
> Chris



'Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes.'

It would appear not.


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## ultrasuede (23/5/11)

any ideas anyone? Iv'e seen vodka made from grass. Mabey a high alcohol content could be used to mask the flavor. Also wine can be made out of flowers, bark, seeds etc.


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## ChrisECarpenter (23/5/11)

well, no. wine is made from fruit, mostly grapes- as above.
otherwise its a beer if its grain based.

Wybroka was the vodka that was trendy for a few years, distilled through bison grass to give flavour (like gin with the botanicals and juniper). But it was still a grain alcohol.

I guess you could grow some wheat grass, juice it and try and ferment it.
The wheat grass will have zero sugar content - leaves are not large carbohydrate storage compartments like grains, roots (potatos etc) or fruit.
Mostly they are cellulose which is there to provide structure - and I guess if you could malt that somehow it would extract some sugar.
Either way I reckon the reality of fermenting wheat grass juice is you would end up with less fermentable sugars than normally added to provide carbonation.

I genuinely can't wait to see your OG and FG numbers - it would be interesting to see what is actually fermentable in grass clippings.

Chris



ultrasuede said:


> any ideas anyone? Iv'e seen vodka made from grass. Mabey a high alcohol content could be used to mask the flavor. Also wine can be made out of flowers, bark, seeds etc.


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## HoppingMad (23/5/11)

Oh. I thought he was talking about this (slaps hand to forehead).  
BarleyWine Experiment

Hopper.


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## Greg.L (24/5/11)

ChrisECarpenter said:


> I guess you could grow some wheat grass, juice it and try and ferment it.
> The wheat grass will have zero sugar content - leaves are not large carbohydrate storage compartments like grains, roots (potatos etc) or fruit.
> Mostly they are cellulose which is there to provide structure - and I guess if you could malt that somehow it would extract some sugar.
> Either way I reckon the reality of fermenting wheat grass juice is you would end up with less fermentable sugars than normally added to provide carbonation.
> ...



Well sugar cane is a sort of grass. Some plants keep a lot of sugar in their stems and leaves. I have heard that if you juice the leaves and stems of jerasulam artichoke you get a fair bit of sugar.

Greg


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## ultrasuede (24/5/11)

we have all eaten the white part of a grass stalk before, it's sweet! Not very sweet, but sweet all the same. I'm going to salvage up some fermenters, and try some different grasses.. Would introducing a bit of sucrose or dextrose be cheating? lol at HoppingMad


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## Kristeva (16/6/17)

ultrasuede said:


> Grass wine?? Grass beer?? does it exist? a quick google search didn't come up with much.. Anyone know a recipe? I'm thinking wheat grass, but who knows, mabey someone has made wine or beer out of bull grass.



It does exist but finding a recipe is proving to be terribly difficult. I am planning to make alfalfa wine this summer but will have to completely make my own recipe as I cannot find anything anywhere! If you find a grass recipe please do post! Otherwise, I'll try to remember to post here as I do mine and let you know how it turns out. I've drank alfalfa wine and it is delectable. You can taste the grass on the finish and I think it would pair very well with wild game, specifically sheep since they also have a grassy taste due to the lichen they almost exclusively live on in the wild here in Canada. I'm sure it would go well with your spring lamb too! 

I've just put up two 5 gal carboys of dandelion wine which already taste fantastic. I can't wait to try them at Xmas which will make them 6 months old. 

Cool forum!


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## Kristeva (16/6/17)

ChrisECarpenter said:


> well, no. wine is made from fruit, mostly grapes- as above.
> otherwise its a beer if its grain based.
> 
> Wybroka was the vodka that was trendy for a few years, distilled through bison grass to give flavour (like gin with the botanicals and juniper). But it was still a grain alcohol.
> ...


Don't juice it and ferment... make a tea from the clippings and then strain and ferment the tea. Naturally, you will need to grow a LOT as it takes pounds of the fruit/grass/dandelions/etc to make the tea/brew that you want to ferment.


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## Kristeva (16/6/17)

I'll be basing my recipe off this spruce tip wine recipe.. this might help inspire you to start with grass too! 

For six gallons Spruce Tip Wine (I use 6-gal carboy; adjust sugar mixture if using 5-gal carboy):
3 lb fresh spring spruce tips
10 - 12 lb sugar (for semi-dry wine). I normally check and record SG but do not have my notebook at hand.
Lalvin EC-1118 or D-47 yeast (or both in combination)
Add spruce tips to about two gallons water, heat to almost boiling, steep until cool, and strain into carboy.
Dissolve sugar in about three gallons hot water, allow to cool before pouring into glass carboy.
Be sure the dense sugar mixture and light spruce tip decoction are thoroughly mixed.
q.s. to shoulder of carboy
Activate yeast before pitching to cooled mixture.
A pound of raisins and yeast energizer will keep the yeast happy during the five-month fermentation period.
Let it ferment to deadness and give it sufficient time to clarify before racking or bottling (usually about five months).
I leave it in the same carboy without racking. It does develop a bit of krausen. If you are fastidious you may want to rack and clean.
This recipe usually yields 16% ABV and has enough residual sweetness to give it a bit of body.


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## Mardoo (16/6/17)

I must say, it's never once occurred to me to make beer out of grass. Beef, yes, but grass, no. Interesting... There has to be some sort of alfalfa wine recipe in some of those old farmers almanacs that had recipes for dandelion wine, etc in them. Alfalfa flowers are kind of nice.

On another note, have you seen the recipe for chanterelle wine?


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## Bribie G (16/6/17)

Growing up in the UK many an old aunt would scour the countryside for winemaking ingredients. Favourites were elderflower, elderberry, rosehip and blackberry.

Wouldn't dandelion be diuretic? Old people in Northumberland often called dandelions "pissleys" from the French pis au lit.


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## Ducatiboy stu (16/6/17)

The tittle reminds me of The Jovial Monk


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## mtb (16/6/17)

Mardoo said:


> Beef, yes, but grass, no.



Beef beer..? Grass wine was enough of a stretch but now it sounds like I could ferment my vegemite for an extra kick on my morning toast.


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## good4whatAlesU (16/6/17)

ultrasuede said:


> Grass wine?? Grass beer?? does it exist? a quick google search didn't come up with much.. Anyone know a recipe? I'm thinking wheat grass, but who knows, mabey someone has made wine or beer out of bull grass.


Barley and Wheat are grasses, we just use the part which is best for brewing. The seed.


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## earle (16/6/17)

mtb said:


> Beef beer..? Grass wine was enough of a stretch but now it sounds like I could ferment my vegemite for an extra kick on my morning toast.



You could also ferment your bonox for an extra kick in your bedtime drink


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## good4whatAlesU (16/6/17)

Nardoo might be worth a shot. A type of little fern the indigenous Australians made into a flour. They used the sporocarp, not the leaves...

Tiny little thing though, must be difficult to collect.


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## drsmurto (16/6/17)

Ducatiboy stu said:


> The tittle reminds me of The Jovial Monk



Proper lol! That was one crazy cat.


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