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Rhubarb Wine Part 1

I've finally started my wine. The wife was tired of rhubarb accumulating in her freezer over the past year or so. I've used 30 lb of frozen rhubarb (which I was surprised to learn resulted in lots of juice and only 8 lb of pulp after squeezing). Don't let your rhubarb thaw in, say, a laundry basket. You might discover one or two of your decosonic packages has a leak in it and you'll get juice all over your floor. Trust me.

I started following Jack's recipe, which I printed out awhile back and modified to suit my quantity of rhubarb (about 5x multiplier). I had chucked out the original recipe, so when I went back to Jack's site, I see he's modified it. (No chalk, acid blend instead of lemon juice, and I think maybe the sugar amount changed, I'm not positive).

Since I got more juice from the rhubarb than I had figured (my batch is exactly 7.5 imp gal instead of about 5 imp gal that I had guessed), my addition of 10 lb of sugar gave me an SG of only 1.062. I used up all the sugar in the house (17 lb total) and have an SG of 1.092 now. I have the batch split between 2 glass carboys fitted with blow-off tubes. There's enough room in them for head, so I shouldn't get any blow-off. I have an old recipe book that says rhubarb should start at 1.095 to 1.100. I'm thinking that after heavy fermentation has slowed, I can add more sugar. I'd like to add more water too, to top up the carboys, but I think it might be a bit to much water (about 3/4 of an imperial gallon per carboy.)

I used the lemon juice instead of acid blend as per Jack's original recipe, since I had already bought it. My starting TA was 7.0. I held back about a gallon of water at the start (when you let the rhubarb soak in water for 3 days prior to straining). I figured that it would be easier dissolving the sugar in a gallon of boiling water then let it cool, rather than trying to dissolve the sugar in the cold juice. I used 1/2 tsp pot. met. instead of the campdens too. After the first night, ALL of the red in the rhubarb was gone. So rather than getting a rose, it'll be a white.

Oh, and I have to buy another pack of yeast today since I had to split the batches.

I'll let y'all know if anything exciting happens!

Reply to
Dan
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Keep us posted. I do like to hear how others are making their wine. I'm on my third batch of rhubarb wine. This time, I used my leftover frozen rhubarb, plus a quart of leftover blueberries and a quart of strawberries, so it will be an interesting gallon of wine. My batch fermented to dry very quickly, and I've already transferred to my secondary. Good-luck. Darlene

Reply to
Dar V

Sounds like you're off to a good start. I would say an SG of 1.092 is perfectly fine and will give a nice dry rhubarb wine with a good alcohol level. I'm concerned about your comment that you "already bought" the lemon juice. Are you talking about fresh squeezed lemon juice? I would not recommend products like "RealLemon" as they just taste insipid. They may really alter the taste of your wine. In the future I would use fresh squeezed lemon juice or acid blend. Please let us know how it turns out. My first wine was also a rhubarb and it was quite good.

Reply to
Greg Cook

Yes, I used bottled lemon juice. I've been making wines off and on for about

10 years, and have always used acid blend. I debated on whether I should use the juice or blend. Wife suggested I do something different, so I did. We'll see.
Reply to
Dan

That's a nice amount of fruit for the volume you have. I wouldn't dilute with more water now if I were you.

The way to go IMO.

SG 1.092 is fine if you're planning on fermenting this to dryness.

That's a little high for my liking but you could always sweeten it a bit after fermentation if you find it tastes too acidic.

Ben

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Reply to
Ben Rotter

I've read so much about how straight rhubarb wine isn't the best, so I'm thinking I might have to sweeten it in the end. Maybe I'll sweeten some and let some go untouched. I have lots to work with, so experimentation will be easy.

Reply to
Dan

Just a note, I have never tried rhubarb on it's own, but will surely do so next year after your comments. I have rhubab mixed with wild rosehips in 2001 though, and that proved a very nice combination. I must add, the vintage rosehip of the same year was awfull, I chucked a dozen bottles only a few weeks ago.

Rene.

Reply to
Rene

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