Rhubarb wine

Rhubarb 3lb
Sugar 3lb
water,to 1 gallon
Wine yeast & nutrient.

Chop up Rhubarb,Cover the fruit with the sugar and leave it until most of the sugar has dissolved(at least 24 hours) then strain off. Stir the pulp in a little water and strain again,and with more water rinse out all remaining sugar into the liquor,and make up to 1 gallon with water.Add wine yeast & nutrient I should say that i put the rhubarb through a press so all im left with is dry skin thats thin & flat like paper!when i rinse it in the water i do it in a bowl and squish it with my hands and also freeze ur fruit first it really does make a whole world of diffrence especially for rhubarb:-)

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Rachel,

Nothing like getting straight in with some stuff to temp the Zig

Whats that like with the acidity ? Do you have to leave it to mellow for some time ?

 

Using that method produces a colourless wine that looks like water. That 3lb of sugar doesn't make such a strong wine as you may think because some of it is absorbed into the rhubarb during the sugar juice extraction process and gets thrown away with the pulp. Here's a gall made that way in May 2008 (not a good pic as the sun coming through the window caught it and made it look as if it has some colour to it - I'll do it again later on today) EDIT - done, see next post



Using Gervin D yeast that will metabolise some of the malic acid will help reduce the acidity (I'm not a big fan of precipitated chalk as I think it can affect flavour).

The method I now use for rhubarb is chopping it into chunks, bagging and freezing, then de-frosting over a bucket which causes most of the juice to run out which can be sulphited and used for wine, re-frozen/pasteurised for later use Pasteurising then use 500ml of the pure rhubarb juice with a litre carton of white grape juice and a litre carton of (or some of my own pressed) apple juice and it will produce a light, golden 'white' rhubarb wine, quick maturing and still distinctly 'rhubarby'.

 

Here's a better pic of how wine using that method in the OP turns out, and without most of that sunlight that was giving a false impression of some colour to it:



It just seems weird to be drinking something that looks like tap water (apart from gin that is).

 

:yess: glad to see you`ve found your way on here rach and had the great honour of meeting ziggy ( all nice things said obviously :D ) gotta say her wines look and smell the buisness shame i dont drink , anyone

 

dunno what wine uv ever drunk that looks like that but i feel very sorry for the person who made it:DOH: im just very lucky that mying is allways perfect

 

Well I'm afraid that's everybody who's ever made it using that recipe/method, apart from yourself it would appear. The sugar extracted juice syrup is initially a light pink colour, but that reduces on dilution when making up to a gallon and disappears after fermentation.

My rhubarb beds produce about 50 lbs of stems p.a. and I've made rhubarb wine using sugar extraction, pulp fermentation, pressed juice, steam extracted juice and freeze/thaw juice extraction methods, using just about every recipe I'm come across, including the one you posted.

Perhaps you could you post a piccy showing what colour wine you achieve by using that method?

 

I don't care what colour it is, i'm going to come round your house & suck that demijohn till its dry:sleep:

 

I've just found one made in May '07 (looks just that the one above). Probably ready for bottling now.

 

Blimey,

A wine thats more than a month old, I remember the old days

 

Got some (other stuff) going back to 2005. That's not down to restraint, just making it faster than I can drink it. Last week I racked off eleven 5 litre ex-water bottles of wine, this week eight 5 gall fermenters (doing 3 a day), next week I'm starting them all off again. Should have sorted them out a while ago but I've been too busy growing stuff.

 

Ziggy u would of luved the elderflower champagne we made it was wicked we just couldnt stop drinking itthis year so far Ive made 5 gallons of rhubarb wine & 3 gallons of strawberry wine and ive got anough peaches to make 4 gallons of wine which i was susposed to of started tonite! Im waiting for the rain to stop and be dry for a couple of days so i can go forage some elderflowers to make wine,ive never made elderflower wine just the champagne so i canna wait to try thative been trying to put up pictures of my wine and other stuff but im having trouble! lol

 

So you're trying to tell us you've become a Brewery in your spare time then Scrunge

 

Sounds good Rachel,

Made elderberry champagne, that had pink froth & made your teeth fall out

When you get a dry day, pick a load of elderflowers and put them on those big egg trays to dry, in the shed but out of direct sunshine. It extends the season.

 

I will deffo give that a go ,what do u use them for once uv dried them?