Army Worm Wine

I've posted previously about
snake wine, which I thought sounded pretty gross, but I could understand how it was made. Snakes are simply added to rice wine. However,
Army Worm Wine is another matter altogether. Ray Reigstad says that he makes this concoction directly from army worms (they're those creatures that hang in web-like tents from trees). In other words, he's not just adding them to rice wine. He's somehow fermenting the worms themselves to produce a wine that supposedly tastes like pinot grigio or white bordeaux. Here's how he says that it's done:
As far as the process goes, I simply treated them as a combination of a fruit and a flower, after all, they eat leaves. Other ingredients include sugar, water, champagne yeast (from Canada), yeast nutrient, pectic enzymes, acid blend and campden tablets. This wine was made in Duluth, Minnesota in small batches using highly sterile equipment. It registers approximately 11% alcohol on the vino-meter.
I'm not a wine expert (though I like drinking it), but just because the worms eat leaves doesn't mean they're sugary enough to ferment. Or does it? My gut instinct (for some reason) is to believe that this stuff is real, but I'd like to know more about how it's made.
Posted By: Alex | Date:
Thu Jan 27, 2005 |
Permalink |
Total Comments: 33
Category:
Food
Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
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It doesn't seem to mention where one can purchase the wine. Perhaps it is just a ploy to sell T-shirts?
Posted by Citizen Premier in spite of public outcry on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 11:20 PM
ewww
Posted by thephrog on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 12:32 AM
Why would anyone bother doing this if they can't even sell it? I think it might be a ploy to sell the T-shirts too.
I wonder how many worms it takes to make a gallon? The poor worms! Are they alive when he subjects them to this fermenting process? Do they get drunk? Where does he get all these worms? I think PETA would like to know about this guy! Nobody is thinking of the WORMS! Don't their lives matter?! Poor little worm, crawling around, living it's life, only to end up squished together with other members of it's family and friends, it's juices cruely pressed out of it and fremented then put in some bottle with a ridiculous cartoon picture on it. It's disgraceful! And I'm suppose to celebrate this barbarism by buying a T-shirt!
I THINK NOT!!!

Posted by Glamcat on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 04:46 AM
It seems as though the sugar and other fermentables are simply added to the mixture. I doubt mashed caterpillars would ferment at all, but the way he describes it, this sounds like it would be workable. I suspect the site is real - but the mystery is why anyone would bother to try this.
Posted by Matt on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 06:03 AM
He says on his site that he's not allowed to sell the wine, which I think would be true because you do need a license to sell alcohol. If he's just producing a few bottles of this stuff it wouldn't be worth it for him to get a license.
Posted by Alex in San Diego on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 07:02 AM
Here in the Pacific Northwest, we call them tent caterpillars, and they're a major nuisance, defoliating trees quite quickly. I used to have nightmares about them as a child. But I still wouldn't want to taste them, let alone drink booze made from them. Ew. What's next? Cockroach coolers? Junebug gin? Vermin vodka?
I don't like the direction this is taking....ew, again.
Posted by catlady on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 07:15 AM
Back in the day, I played The Blues for a living. I played at several joints around town, but my favorite was Smokey's Hotel. On the back bar, next to the register, they had a big jar of snakes and reptiles in alcohol. It was a BIG jar, 3/4 of a gal or so. I don't do metric, so don't go there. Anyway, there was no less than twenty-five reptiles in this jar, which was festooned with Chinese lettering and dragons and such. There were little newts, small and bigger snakes, little alligators, a frog, geckos,etc. all immersed in what I assume was grain or rice alcohol. Legend says some guys brought it back from Vietnam, and was left in a rented room (along with pictures of Henry Kissinger in the arms of Gina Lollabrigida, but that's another story) As far as I know, the jar wasn't there to sell the contents to customers. It was waiting there in case the owner comes back for it. That, and because it gave drunk chicks a thrill.
Posted by Hairy Houdini on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 07:58 AM
Hairy, that's just nasty. Do you think they still have it? I mean, what on earth would you do with something like that? YUK.
What instrument do you play?
Posted by Glamcat on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 08:05 AM
Well, here's the deal. The owners of the Bar/Hotel failed to renew their liquor license a couple of years ago. It seem that their business fell off quite abruptly, somewhere around the time that I retired. Hey, I'm not implying a connection, but nothing brings 'em in like a good blues bar band. Anyways, they closed up shop not long after they lost the liquor license, and then failed to pay local real estate taxes. The place is now up for Sherrif's sale, in the next week or so, for the unpaid tax price of $25,000- that's twenty-five thousand dollars. That would be the minimum taken, I'd think. It's a big, three story old inn with eight or so rooms to rent, a bar, pool table hall, and a kitchen. Back to the snake jar. They have Sherrif's sale signs in the window, and the neon Bud light is off, but if you look thru the windows (it's right up against the sidewalk) you can see the Big Jar Of Snakes still sitting, all by itself, on the empty, dusty, bar. The best part about this place is the fact that it's right across the street from the train station. I played whatever I had to get the gig, GlamGrrrl. It depended upon who was available to play. A couple of the guys wouldn't play at the biker gigs, and some had significant others who objected if they played in THAT bar. So, you gotta be versatile to get the job done. If I had known that Smokey's was gonna close down, I would have asked for the Big Jar of Snakes for my retirement present. I'll just have to buy the bar. As if.
Posted by Hairy houdini on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 08:49 AM
Sounds like a bargain. You could get at least $25,000 for a "haunted, fermented snake jar" on ebay! Don't you think? Might be worth getting your hands on that thing Hairy! I can't believe they didn't take it with them! What town is this place in anyway? What a creepy site that must be looking through the abandoned window at the jar just sitting there on the empty dusty bar. Can you get a picture of it?
Posted by Glamcat on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 09:09 AM
I doubt the jar is worth anything. They are a dime a dozen in China, I've even seen them regularly in Chinatown and Chinese restaurants.
Posted by G on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 11:04 AM
You are correct, G. They are quite common. But for those of us who don't live in China, or near Chinatown, or even near a Chinese restaurant, they are a rare sight to behold. We don't get out much around here. That's why my band was successful. The one eyed man is king in the land of the blind. King Hairy- that's me. We thank you for your comments. We stand corrected. You may go.
Posted by Hairy Houdini on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 12:00 PM
Harry, I have this song in my head:
Henry and Gina
Sittin in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G-E-R
Posted by Chadds Ford Prefect on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 03:41 PM
Hey. You know that Boston Market on Rt 1 just East of Kennett?
Posted by Hairy Houdini on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 04:11 PM
I do, but I'm not Bill (if I correctly recall a Kennett person mentioned recently).
Posted by Chadds Ford Prefect on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 04:48 PM
I've made alcohol (mead) and you need a lot of sugar, because that's what the yeast eat to produce alcohol. Bugs don't have much sugar. If he's getting alcohol, it's not due to the caterpillars, it's all the other stuff.
Now, caterpillars would have some protein, and maybe they add a certain je ne sais quoi to the taste. But I'd rather not try it myself, because I don't know where the line is between "fermented caterpillars" and "rotten caterpillars."
Posted by cvirtue on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 05:47 PM
>>>after all, they eat leaves.<<<
Well, so do koalas, but I don't think you could make wine from them either....
I don't know a lot about brewing, but I was pretty sure the basic material had to be vegetable in nature.
Glamcat, if you had ever seen a dozen or so of these worms (we call them webworms around here) infesting and destroying the trees in someone's front yard, you wouldn't have much empathy for them either. Imagine a web the size of a football, dripping hundreds of squishy green caterpillar-things. You have to set fire to the webs to get rid of them.
Posted by Barghest on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 06:07 PM
Well, Bill lives just South of rt 1 on Sills Mill Road. Say Hi for me. Say Hi to those nice Wyeth boys, too.
Posted by Hairy Houdini on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 11:40 PM
Are you closer to Concord Pike, or Route 100?
Posted by Hairy Houdini on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 11:42 PM
Hoorah to that, Barghest! In southern NJ, we called them 'tent catarpillars', and pretty much the same in western PA. I did fire battles with them in Maryland, too. These pests deserve nothing but to burn and DIE! The only ecological good they do, is to provide a few, scarce species of birds with some lively food. But I have seen them completely strip a formerly productive fruit tree in two days. The trees die.
Posted by stork in the spiracles of space on Fri Jan 28, 2005 at 11:42 PM
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