Topic: In preparation: rhubarb wine

[Sparkly]

What is a tried and tested recipe? I have never made wine before. I have a fermentation bucket and brewers yeast from making cider.

[SteveJ]

Hi Sparkly,

I use a very basic method, but has worked succesfully from both fresh and frozen rhuarb:

Chop up 2Kg rhubarb and place in fermentation bucket, add 1kg sugar and mix together.  Leave for a couple of days (stir 1-2 times a day) for sugar to dissolve and juice to be extracted from Rhubarb (no need to add any water at this stage).

Strain all juice into demi-john and top up to 6-7 pints with boiled/cooled water, and seal with an air lock.  Add general wine yeast (not sure if general brewers yeast will do the job), and leave somewhere warm to ferment.  Once fermentation has stopped (approx 2 weeks), add 1 crushed campden tablet.  To clear the wine add a sachet of finings and follow instructions.  Once clear, siphon into bottles, cork, and leave for a few months to mellow (flavour much improved).

I find that if you try to drink this wine too early it is a bit grim, but a bit of patience and it is grand.  I have made this using both fresh and frozen rhubarb.

Also try adding some root ginger to the orignial ferment for a slight variation.

There is also a recipe posted on here by Curry, you will need to do a search to find it.

[adrianhumph]

 Hi Sparkly,
                  My method is slightly different from Steve`s, I use the same amount of rhubarb, always chop it & freeze it , this makes juicing the rhubarb easier. When thawed, squeeze the rhubarb in a straining bag or some muslin ( the square muslin cleaning cloths are good for this as you can cut one side open to make a bag). You should end up with about 1.5 litres of juice, put this in a fermenting bucket & add 800 gms sugar that you have dissolved in 500 mls of hot water. Then add 1 litre apple juice plus 1 litre grape juice, add enough water to bring the volume up to 4.5 litres approx. Add a teaspoon of yeast nutrient, then a good quality wine yeast .look out for the Gervin brand if you have a homebrew shop nearby. Stir this daily for 3 days then strain into a demijon, & continue fermenting until it is dry. Rack into a clean demijon & place somewhere cool for at least 6/8 weeks. I find that at this stage it is usually ready to drink, you may need to clear it with wine finings for a crystal clear wine.

                                                        Adrian.

[Just Vegging Out]

Rhubarb wine is nice made with Champagne yeast, sparkly.

[tonybloke]

here's another recipe for you! 15 lb of rhubarb, 2 1/2 lb sugar,1 gal water, yeast.  Chop up rhubarb, pour boiling water over it, and mash. Don,t heat any further. leave to soak over night. strain of liquor and press 'fruit' to get any remaining juice. Stir in sugar, bung in yeast, put in demi-john. This recipe is from John Seymour, the self-sufficiency guru (deceased) I made some last May, Very violent initial ferment, then slowed to a nice steady rhythm. I forgot it was in the shed, and only gave it it,s first racking on Thursday last week! It has maintained its flavour and colour (pink) well, good alcohol content, another 4 months till my 50th birthday......

[GrannieAnnie]

From what I've read the Brewer's yeast is not able to do the job- may not get the alcohol content high enough? if I remember correctly as different yeasts die off at different percentages alcohol. Last year was my first attempt at making wines (elderberry and crabapple). We have some rhubarb so thought that might be 2008's experiment.