# Why did grapes become the defacto wine making fruit? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 1, 2020, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-grapes-become-the-defacto-wine-making-fruit/845713 "2020-01-01T13:11:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-grapes-become-the-defacto-wine-making-fruit/845713/41 "2020-01-08T22:39:20Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > I’ve made a lot of “rum” with sugar beets but they are hard to work with directly so it’s from their molasses and processed sugar. The beets themselves are rather tough and not very juicy so simply pressing them doesn’t get out a lot of sugar. You’d need to mill them and cook them them in water for a while to release the sugar and it would be fairly dilute so you’d have to cook down the water which is basically the molasses process. ON the other hand sweet pumpkins make great booze after they’ve been roasted though you need tons to get even a single barrel of brandy. Thanks \*\*Oredigger \*\*for your perspective. I did check out some recipes so I know such wine can be made but, yes, it sounds like an awful lot of work. I was just curious as I live close to sugar beet land (Red River region) but know precious little about them. I think I’ll stick with my blueberry and raspberry liquor (made with vodka) and just buy my wines. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-grapes-become-the-defacto-wine-making-fruit/845713/42 "2020-01-08T22:44:36Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > I’ve made a lot of “rum” with sugar beets but they are hard to work with directly so it’s from their molasses and processed sugar. The beets themselves are rather tough and not very juicy so simply pressing them doesn’t get out a lot of sugar. You’d need to mill them and cook them them in water for a while to release the sugar and it would be fairly dilute so you’d have to cook down the water which is basically the molasses process. ON the other hand sweet pumpkins make great booze after they’ve been roasted though you need tons to get even a single barrel of brandy. Wait, you can make booze out of, like, Halloween pumpkins? Why has nobody jumped on that just for the easy built-in marketing? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-grapes-become-the-defacto-wine-making-fruit/845713/43 "2020-01-08T22:55:55Z")
> [@Alpha\_Twit](#): > > The joke is that apparently I don’t know enough about sugar beets to know that they are white. > > Idiocy exposed, ignorance fought. Hey, I only learned that some time in my 30s. I’m not exactly sure why, but I think I just googled “sugar beets” one day for some reason and was surprised to see what they looked like. I, too, thought they would be some type of red or orange beet that was somehow refined and processed to get a pure white sugar. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-grapes-become-the-defacto-wine-making-fruit/845713/44 "2020-01-08T22:59:48Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Wait, you can make booze out of, like, Halloween pumpkins? Why has nobody jumped on that just for the easy built-in marketing? As long as its got sugar (or starches that you can enzymatically convert to sugar), you can make booze out of it. (Well, I think it has to be within a certain pH range for the yeast, but other than that, all you need is sugar.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-grapes-become-the-defacto-wine-making-fruit/845713.md?page=2)