Topic: Wine

[sueshamen]

How long does it take before you can bottle wine and drink it?
Made some rhubarb wine in May and it appears to have stopped working, tried a drop last night and it's really nice.
Also some of my other wines seem to have stopped after about 2 months or so. This is my first attempt at wine making so I'm not sure how long before I can bottle safely.

[derbex]

If your rhubarb (and other wines) are still sitting on their sediments then I'd get them into other containers asap, either by bottling or racking. They can go off sitting on sediment.

Racking is moving from one big container (say a demijohn) to another.

When you say they've stopped working do you mean that bubbles have stopped coming through the airlock?

As soon as that has happened you can rack them into other demijohns and airlock them again to let more sediment drop out, optionally repeat this (can take weeks or months or years) and then bottle the wine. You may want to add the relevent number of Camden tablets to really stop the wine.

I think there are more detailed instructions on here somewhere. Otherwise try :

http://home.btconnect.com/ntruman/wine/index.html

I tend to work on at least a year before drinking, but less is easily possible, and if your rhubarb tastes ok now I'd enjoy it. Leave a couple of bottles for next year to see if it gets better with age. When you bottle it don't drink it immediately but give it a few weeks to mature.

Different wines take different times to mature, generally white wines are quicker than red.

Jeremy.

[sueshamen]

Thanks Jeremy, really usefull info.
By "stopping working" I meant that no more bubbles are coming thro the air lock.
The wine has been racked twice already so there is no lees at all now.

[derbex]

In that case I'd bottle it -keep it upright for a bit in case it blows the cork- then lay it flat (only really necessary if you're using real corks)


Then you've got the demi-johns free to start on the elderberry, blackcurrant &c. ;D

Jeremy

Has anyone ever seen a full sized john?

[sueshamen]

What do you mean by a full size john????
The ones I have are all 1 gallon size.
I've already got the elderberry and blackberry on the go.
Also, mint, pea pod, tea,blackcurrent, elderberry, blackberry, plum, elderflower and mint and tea mixed.
Had a glass of the rhubarb last night and it's lush hic

[derbex]

Party round at yours then  ;)

As to the John -just me trying to be smart and thinking it meant a half-john; whereas it comes from Dame Jean according to :
http://members.aol.com/pristis/demijohnpage3a.html

Jeremy

[sueshamen]

Hiya, yeah anybody can come and help me drink all the wine, at the mo I got 20 gallons brewing in the kitchen, enough to get you p***ed on just the smell.
Have you ever done coffee wine? found a recipe and it sounds so easy, you only use 1 spoon of instant coffee.

[derbex]

Never tried coffee wine. Sounds good though, making your own Kahlua, distill it over and we'll have fireworks at the party!

[sueshamen]

Its a deal  you bring the fireworks i'll supply the booze

[Derekthefox]

Sorry Derbex, never seen a full sized John, only a pair of long ones!  :D