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scrumpy

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Hi guys just been given 6 kilos of rhubarb and didn't know what to do with it so was browsing the information super highway and saw I could make wine , I have never made wine or any other alcoholic drink before so thought I would join the forum and get some inspiration and advice
Thanks for having me here
Dave
 
Have a look at this.


How-to-Make-Rhubarb-Wine.jpg




http://andhereweare.net/2014/04/make-rhubarb-wine.html/
 
I made rhubarb wine many years ago, but it was not a great success. I think the problem is that the rhubarb does not break down very easily, and therefore the yeast has a very slow reaction with the fruit sugar. You can add sugar (I didn't but had no benefit of hindsight at the time), but then you probably end up with a large pile of half decomposed rhubarb at the bottom of the fermentation vessel.

The whole affair took days and days to begin fermenting, and even then was painfully slow. I would almost throw a party if I saw a bubble pass through the airlock.

My mistakes seemed to have been not crushing up the rhubarb enough and not leaving it in the fermenting vessel for a few days to break up somewhat before adding the yeast. I was told that I ought to add a can of grape concentrate, to speed things up - but for me that would have been cheating, although I am a bit of a maverick.

The wine I made never did clear properly, and although I drank some my wife was not impressed.
 
I've also made rhubarb wine in the past, using a recipe from a very old wine making book* which generally veered towards adding too much sugar (to my taste, anyway). I don't think rhubarb has very much sugar at all, so you will have to add plenty.

I found my old recipes (2005-6), they vary a bit, but it's clear I had access to a LOT of rhubarb. For a 7 gallon recipe I used 30lbs rhubarb, 5.5kg sugar. I recall it being a pretty dry result, fermented to 10.3%, and really was a rhubarb flavour wine in a light pink colour. As far as "mashing" was concerned I used to chop the rhubarb, pour over boiling water and leave for a couple of days (or a week in one case). Sometimes I used a pectolitic enzyme, sometimes not, it didn't appear to make much difference. I also used a press to extract all of the juice once I'd steeped the rhubarb, which was a messy experience, but seemed to retain a lot of the flavour.

Looks like all of my recipes were roughly similar, 1Kg of sugar / 5lbs of rhubarb (I know, mixed units, but the sugar comes in Kg bags....), but of course you can adjust depending on how strong you want the final result to be. I don't think aiming for stronger made it better, and my preference is for a dry wine anyway, so I'd aim a bit lower and let it ferment to dryness.

Most of the older recipes went on to say "use it to mix with something else", but I loved the taste of it on its on. Shame I don't have access to the quantities of rhubarb I used to. It was growing wild on an allotment I had, and the Champagne variety quickly grew too big to eat, but was great for wine.

Oh, and finally, I never bottled until the year following the harvest, although I'm sure I racked a couple of times between demijohns...

Enjoy!

*Probably "First Steps in Winemaking" by C J J Berry
 
Welcome Scrumpy. I grow rhubarb on my allotment and there's always too much to eat.

I put some in a batch of all grain beer but yet to taste the spoils of my labour. I think I'll give the wine a go next time - first time for everything.
 
Welcome to the Forum. :thumb: :thumb:

Mate in Glasgow made rhubarb wine last year and said to his wife "They can't possibly mean that you use that much sugar!" and made the wine with about half of the recommended amount. :doh:

His wife refuses to drink it, refuses to let him throw it away and insists that drinking it will be the only way he can learn to follow the instructions of someone who knows. :whistle:

I therefore strongly recommend that you stick to whatever recipe you choose. :thumb: :thumb:
 
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