My Rubarb Brew....

[weepete]

Well folks, here is my 2nd ever brew, a rhubarb wine I am making from scratch. I recipe I foud online then modified with what I had . I've already made a few mistakes with this brew so I'll explain what I did as I go along.

Basic ingredients for 5 gallons were:

7.5kg rhubarb
6.8kg sugar
Water (boiled)
2lb of raisins
1.5lb strawberries
A few blueberries I had in the fridge
1 Camden tablet
6 yeast nutrient tablets
1 sachet of white wine yeast

Rhubarb was picked, cleaned chopped and put in primary. Sugar was added while water was boiled. The water was then put in the primary to 23l. Then the mash was left for 24 hrs and then pressed through a course mesh to get mst of the juice out. The solids were removed and an og of the mash was taken (reading 1.120) then the yeast was primed and added, and airlock fitted. (First mistake)

All was good for the next 24 hrs, then it started smelling of rotten eggs. So I got a bit worried about bacteria contamination and blasted it with 3 Camden tablets. (Second mistake). After a bit of online research I splashed it down, put it in a bucket with the lid ajar then the smell turned into a nice sweet fermenting smell. Took another hydrometer reading 24 hrs later and it had only dropped by 0.004 (probably due to the extra Camden tablets. So I did another yeast primer with a little under half a sachet of yeast, added a half pint of the fermenting must And
added it in when I knew it was going.

From there it seems reasonably happy and I'm leaving it alone now!!

I'll post some pics later but can't right now because of the spamming restrictions!

 

[Mark1964]

always fancied doing a rhubarb wine myself.

 

[TRXnMe]

I've got rhubarb and parsnip on my 'to brew' list, this looks like it's easy to scale down to my usual 8 litre wine brews, ta very muchly

 

[Crastney]

I wouldn't say that adding the airlock was a mistake, though adding the CT probably was.
an eggy fermentation smell is usually associated with not having enough nutrients (or is it too much nutrients? - given that you put 6 sachets in maybe it's the latter) - either way the smell usually goes away with time.

 

[alanywiseman.]

My Rhubarb has finished fermenting, need to rack it and let it clear but it tastes amazing. Well worth doing :thumb:

 

[tazuk]

how did you make yours :thumb:

My Rhubarb has finished fermenting, need to rack it and let it clear but it tastes amazing. Well worth doing :thumb:

 

[alanywiseman.]

Just followed the recipe HERE :thumb:

 

[tazuk]

cheers for that ill follow ricks brew recipy :thumb:

managed to get my rhubarb wine on last weekend but haven`t had time to post it yet!

only had enough rhubarb for 1 gallon

here is my recipe/method - thanks for the input!

Rhubarb Wine

To make 1 gallon

2kg Rhubarb
1.4kg Sugar
2tsp Pectolase
1tsp All purpose wine yeast
1tsp Yeast nutrient


Method

Wash and cut the rhubarb into chunks, freeze overnight and then the next day defrost in a bucket or FV.
When it has defrosted add the sugar and leave for 24 - 36 hours.
Strain the rhubarb liquor into a demi-john, add some cold water to the rhubarb and swill around to remove
all of the liquid - add this to the demijohn. Top the demi-john up with water - but only 3/4 fill as when
fermentation starts it may overflow!
Also add the pectolase, yeast and nutrient. Fit an airlock.
When the fermentation has slowed down top the demi-john up with cooled boiled water.


I added the zest of two oranges and juice of four to the defrosted rhubarb as i have made a tasty rhubarb and orange cordial before (and drank it with vodka!!)

It`s been fermenting like crazy since i put it on - must have been sunday night - still not even a second between bubbles on the airlock- blub,blub,blub,blub,blub,blub,blub,blub,blub,blub,blub,blub!!!!

 

[weepete]

A wee update: 9 days after I started I've done my first rack, it didn't really end up with much sediment but that' s mibbies due to using the mesh. Anyways its now in a secondary fermenter with an airlock on it as I think the slow fermentation was now going even slower and I got a bit of the fear for leaving it any longer. The temp in my house seems to drop quite a bit during the day and it feels a bit cool so I'm putting it in the warmer kitchen for a bit every night and we'll see if it turns out.

Interestingly enough it has changed taste now, starting to taste quite good thouh a sweet fruit juice still and not a wine ....yet

 

[tazuk]

also doing this one too lol so will have 2 gall on the go


http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... ubarb-wine

 

[narmour]

My rhubarb wine is VERY acidic, must've allowed too much oxalic acid to extract. Funny, I used the dry extraction technique, but it was probably giving the rhubarb pulp a good squeeze which allowed the acid in!

I'm going to blend it with 2 gallons of rather weak tasting cherry wine to hopefully make a pleasant mixed fruit brew.

 

[weepete]

Latest update:

I've been desperately trying to leave this alone but I got a bit worried at the weekend that I'd added too much sugar to the must at the start so I put another 5l of distilled water in it at the weekend, and after a short while the bubbles going through airlock got faster. I'm going to leave it alone till the weekend and then check the SG again and see how it' s doing.

I got a wee bit bored waiting at the weekend so started brew No3, a strawberry Ribena wine that seems to be coming along nicely. I'll post the details in a different thread.

Anyway, I am now the proud owner of 3 new glass demijohns and a host of other homebrew gear thanks to a recent birthday so expect a few more brews from me!

 

[weepete]

So... Last weekend it seemed to get a bit stuck, so racked it, made another starter with youngs super wine yeast and also pitched some in dry. Also put on a brew belt two days ago to bring up the temp a bit ( was 18C now 22C). I'm not even looking at it for another week as its now blooping every 6-9 seconds again. Fingers crossed!

 

[weepete]

Ok lads, this one has taken ages. After I added the extra yeast it kick started again and then slowed right down....again. so I decided to leave it in the corner, checking it periodically. Though the airlock had stopped blooping at any kind of rate there was bubbles coming through to the top still and it tasted too sweet still after drawing a couple of samples. Anyway, all activity stopped about 2 weeks ago so I drew a sample last week and checked the SG which had finally dropped to 0.998 or there abouts which surprised me as there were a couple of times I almost scrapped it. I racked it and added finings, so now it's clearing slowly in the corner. My intention is to wait until it's cleared, stick it in some 5l bottles and stick it away for six months to age, then I'll see if it's worked! Am finding that this homebrew lark can take patience!

 

[weepete]

Latest update:

The wine took a few days to stabilise and clear but I just left it in a corner to bulk age a bit. Anyway decided to bottle last night. So with a little help from the bairn I got 29 wine bottles and an extra 2l of the stuff in an old soft drinks bottle.

A bit epic considering I started in Sepember last year, thats 7 months from start to finish, though in that time I've got a fair amount of brews under my belt.

Anyway it tastes very acidic, very dry and has that pucker rubarb gives you. If you can get over the initial shock it's quite nice, not everyones cup of tea though. Might try and leave it a couple more months before drinking in ernest, we'll see though!

 

[ingypingy2]

the longer you leave it, the better it will taste :) mine is still sitting in the corner maturing from last summer and will prob stay there for a good bit longer, nicely tucked in beside the dandelion wine :)