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Advice for a newbie Rhubarb wine attempt

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smudger28:
Hi guys

I'm about to embark on making my own rhubarb wine.

I could do with some advice though.

I'm going to buy a demijohn and a bucket with the associated parts.

I have a rhubarb recipe using 11kg of rhubarb.

Its a basic recipe which just involves sugar, water and yeast.

Now I have read about using yeast additives etc.  What yeast would you recommend and do I need to add any chemical tablets.

Also do you guys have any recipes that are tried and tested.

Cheers

Paul

wraith:
Firstly and most importantly...

Make sure that you get none of the leaf in your brew..!!! it contains Oxalic Acid and if you ingest some of that you'll be a very unhappy bunny... Or should I say your next of kin'll be unhappy bunnies if your not insured...!! Point made..?

It depends on if you want a pleasant table wine or something more like a port or a whiskey...?

I'll give method as for a 5 gallon barrel, and if you want to break it down for a demijohn then feel free...


Disolve 5 bags of sugar in 5 gallon of water, add some grated ginger, good couple of handfuls of mixed dried fruit (without the cherries and candied peel) boil up with a pound of wheat or barley (or mixture of the two) strain and add that to the mix... Add a standard yeast and leave till done it will give you a brew of around 13.5% and makes a pleasant desert wine... advise people of the alcohol content though as it doesn't taste as strong as it is and if people are driving they want to keep their licences

Working as if with 5 gallons of water...

if you add another 2 bags of sugar to the five gallons you'll end with a brew of around 18.3% but will taste like a light aperitiff type wine

If you were to add a further 4 bags in total to the 5 gallons (9 in all) you'd get a finished brew of around 23.5% but for this one, double the ginger and mixed dried fruit and you'll end with a rather nice sippin-whiskey style drink... let it mature for a couple of months till the winter and then enjoy..!! Whilst maturing, protect from light and it darkens up lovely...

With the first two examples, standard yeast will work fine, but for a more 'porty' style finish use a port yeast (which you can buy) for the third example (23.5%) you will need a 'High Alcohol Tolerant' yeast as a standard yeast struggles in a saturated enviroment, start it with a port yeast to give it body, but when the yeast starts to slow due to alcohol saturation activate and add the 'High alcohol tolerant' yeast to finish the brew... let it take all the sugers to alcohol and then use finnings to clear completely... once clear you can sweeten to taste using syrup or a better idea is to actually add a couple of bottles of cheap whiskey and a bottle of cheap port to it to get a nice rounded finish... Once fortified this is a quaffable wine so be warned, also if serving to guests its best to know the content for driving purposes so use the Pearson Square to calculate this... here is a link to a calculator that will tell you the alcohol of the finished wine... http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/blending.asp If you get stuck, let me know and I work it out for you..

Tip:

Disolve all the sugar your going to use in 1 gallon of your 5 gallons, leaving 4 gallons in the barrel and then start the fermentation off, as it slows down, just add another glug of the sugar syrup you have made... so eventially you'll have all the liquid in the main bucket, hence: 5 gallons. this way you avoid a sugar saturated enviroment, which the least wont like... If you dont do it this way there is a chance that the yeast will dies early, leaving you with a high gravity and a undrinkably sweet wine...

Hope this helps you out... Must say its a pleasure to be able to contribute to the site for a change instead of just asking for others help, as up till now...


regards,


wraith

Ps: You say in your post that your recipe uses 11KG of rhubarb and its a recipe for a demijohn..? That sound odd to my ear, suggest you re-read the recipe as its either for a 5 gallon barrel or there a typo and should say 1KG of barb for a gallon demijohn or similar...?!?!?

smudger28:
Hi Wraith many thanks for the detailed reply.  I wish you had replied earlier LOL..

I have started my recipe and this is the one I have gone for.


Rhubarb Wine
WineThief
6 gallons 24 Pounds Rhubarb (3-4 lbs per gallon is fine)
6 cans (11oz ea) Welchs Frozen 100% White Grape Concentrate
Water to 6 gallons
12 Pounds Sugar
1 Teaspoons Tannin
6 Teaspoons Nutrient
5 oz Precipitated Chalk
6 Campden, crushed (or 1/4 tsp Potassium Metabisulfite)
1 Package Premier Cuve' Yeast
Later
6- Campden Crushed
3- tsps Potassium Sorbate

Starting S.G. 1.080-1.095 Acid should be around .60 after the chalk is used.
METHOD: Select and use stalk ONLY. Discard all Leaves and Roots. Wash, drain, and cut into small 1" pieces and Freeze for a week. 1. Place thawed rhubarb in primary, mash with hands or large potato masher squeezing out as much juice as possible. 2. Pour sugar over rhubarb and stir in, add 6 crushed campden tablets. 3. Let mixture sit for 24 hours promote juice extraction. Then, pour rhubarb pulp and juice through a large fine straining bag trapping pulp in bag, tie top, and place back in primary with juice. 4. Stir in the precipitated chalk (obtainable at winemaking shop). The must will fizz, but then settle down. Wait 3 hours and taste. If the oxalic acid taste is still too strong, add another 1 oz of precipitated chalk and wait another 2 hours. 5. Stir in all other ingredients (add water to make a full 6 gallons of liquid). Check SG to confirm you are between 1.080 and 1.095, make adjustments if necessary by either adding more sugar water to raise SG or just water to lower SG. 6. When SG is correct sprinkle yeast on top of must and cover primary. 7. After 48 hours remove straining bag and squeeze out juice into primary by hand and discard pulp, then and recover primary. 8. Stir daily, check Specific Gravity. When ferment reaches S.G. of 1.010 (about 4 to 7 days) siphon wine off sediment into 6 gallon glass carboy secondary. Attach airlock. 9. When ferment is fully complete (S.G. has reached 1.000 or less -- about 2-3 weeks) siphon off sediment into clean 6 gallon glass carboy secondary. Stir in the 6 crushed campdens or 1/4 tsp of potassium metabisulfite and reattach airlock. 10. To aid clearing siphon again in 2 months and continue racking every 2 months to clear before bottling. If desired, you may fine with sparkloid or SuperKleer or you can filter this wine to promote clearing for early bottling. NOTE: Some may prefer this wine dry, but most will enjoy it sweetened back slightly. To sweeten at bottling: Add the 3 Teaspoons of Potassium Sorbate Stabilizer, then stir in approx 2-3 lbs of sugar dissolved into boiling water making a thick sugar syrup. Allow to cool then add in increments slowly stirring in as you go and tasting often. When you reach the desired level of sweetness reinstall the airlock and let sit for 30 days racking one more time before bottling.

I'm having some problems though as I only had 50g of chalk.  I have added this, do you think I need to addanotehr 100 g as stated by Oz in the recipe?

Or will it be ok?

wraith:
Hi,

As you probably have realised from the recipe - the chalk renders the Oxalic Acid inert...

As to if you should add more...

It would depend on the age of the rhubarb you used for the brew... the older it is the more acid it contains, forced barb contains very little by the way...

I'm assuming that you sampled the must prior to starting the fermentation..? did it taste pleasantly sweet with no unpleasant undertones..?

Really you have two choices...

1) continue as is and taste the finished wine and see if its pleasant and drinkable, if so enjoy, if not then either bin it or use it as a base wine for another batch, either the one I suggest or the same as the one you are running now and increase the chalk to compensate...

2) Add the advised chalk now, it may (and probably will) kill the fermentation, if so syphon to another barrel to oxygenate the must and restart with a fresh yeast culture...

Appologies I didn't reply earlier as am new to the forum and only found your thread moments prior to posting the reply I did...


TIP:

Next time instead of using the freezer method to extract juice (thermal contraction) you could try 'steaming the barb which will neutralise the Oxalic Acid and remove the need for the chalk... NOTE: I said 'steam an NOT boil...!!

Steaming will mean you'll need to use finnings to clear the wine instead of letting gravity do its thing though... boiled barb will still clear but it'll take a hell of a while to do so and may deliver a strange metalic taste which you dont want...


wraith

smudger28:
Hi Wraith

I did taste before fermentation and it tasted sweet with no underlying undertones.  I have decided against adding anymore chalk and I'm going to take the hit to see how it turns out.

I added all the other ingredients last night and took my first SG reading which was 1.090 - 1.095 so at least something has gone to plan.

I added the yeast now I'm at the wait 48hrs stage until the next part of the recipe.

I will definately give your first recipe a go as that sounds great!

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