Rhubarb wine

Mike, go to

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page

Hi, Jack has a good recipe on his site. I started making wine with Rhubarb, just like you, I had too much in my garden. FYI - it can be addictive. I started with 1 gallon of Rhubarb, and now I'm up to making about 18 -20 gallons (1 gallon batches) of different types of fruit, vegetables, and herbs during the year. Welcome Darlene

A method I like in making rhubarb wine is slicing the rhubarb in thin slices, add the sugar to the rhubarb. The sugar extracts the juice from the rhubarb so strain and then rinse the pulp with the water the recipe calls for. Dick

Pre-freezing the rhubarb makes it much easier to crush. I don't get a whole lot of rhubarb at once, so I stockpile in the freezer over the year. I'm gonna hafta start a big batch soon, because I'm running out of freezer space for the rest of my food!

I made a batch of Rhubarb wine using this recipe but it has not fermented all that well. It is fermenting very very slowly. It is just crawling along now down to about 1.030 from 1.095. Could it have just been to acidic? I didn't titrate the acidity, although now I wish I had.

Looking at your email address I'm guessing you are in the UK.

It is very late in the season for rhubarb. I've read that after July you should not use the rhubarb that is left as the oxalic acid in the leaves moves down into the stalks. It's poisonous. However I don't know if fermentation neutralises it.

Anyone know?

I have never heard that, but.... I suspect anything regarding that would be affected by location. This year snow was finally gone from my yard in May... I would have very time to harvest any rhubarb if that were fact... And it would be so small that it would not be worthwhile.

Later, A.J. Rawls Anchorage, Alaska, USA

I've had rhubarb for years, as have my parents. We live in Wisconsin. My parents have always harvested the rhubarb all summer long. I did read somewhere that when first establishing your plant, you should leave it alone the first year you plant it, and the second year, just pick for a month and then leave it alone. Yes, rhubarb leaves are poisonous, but the stalks are okay. Yes, there is oxalic acid in rhubarb, but you can get rid of that when making wine by adding precipitated chalk to the must before fermentation. As far as I know, the oxalic acid in the rhubarb will not hurt you, it just adds a funny taste to the wine which not a lot of people will like. Darlene