rhubarb wine

[diana]

Can I freeze rhubarb and then defrost it to make wine?

[Hilary B]

Can I freeze rhubarb and then defrost it to make wine?

Works for a lot of stuff, can't see any reason Rhubarb would be different!

[podfather]

thats what i did

[Gardenwitch]

Im making wine for teh very first time and it happens to be rhubarb wine since I have a glut of it. The recipe i'm using is:

CJJ Berry's recipe:

3 lb rhubarb
3lb sugar
1 gallon water
wine yeast and nutrient (1 tsp each)

Chop rhubarb and cover with sugar; leave in covered pan/bucket until most of the juice has run out and the sugar dissolved then strain off.
stir pulp in a little water and strain again, rinse container with more water to get all the sugar out and make up to 1 gallon. Add yeast and nutrient and ferment in a demijohn.

Now I have this bendy thing that I add to the cork and I'm suppossed to add it half full with water while it bubbles away fermenting, REALLY silly question here, sorry! Do I leave the bendy tube thing capped at top or do I take the cap off? while the other end is in the rubber plug in the demijohn? And how do I get the water in there without it spilling all out? And I leave wine alone until is stops bubbling?

Thanks for any help, if i can get this i hope to make blackberry wine this autumn!

[Hazel at the Hill]

The bendy thingy is the airlock - bodge it into the rubber bung, hold it over the sink and dribble water in the end which had the cap on (yes, you take this off). The water level sorts itself out, then bung the bung (ha ha!) into the top of the demijohn.

Huge warning about the rhubarb wine, though - when it ferments it goes BANANAS and froths up everywhere, and can fizz up through the air lock. I now split the gallon into two demijohns then when it's calmed down after about a week I put them both together into one.

Also, rhubarb wine so fabulous, you'll be wanting to make more very soon!

PS I find that 2 to 2 and a half lbs of sugar is enough, rather than 3lb.

[Gardenwitch]

Thank you Hazel, I felt like such a nutter asking but honestly I didn't know

Question since it seems to fiz so much would it be a good idea to add only half gallon water for first week until it settles down then add the rest of water to the demijohn?

Thanks for the heads up about the sugar content I want it sweet but not so sweet it hurts to drink.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Question since it seems to fiz so much would it be a good idea to add only half gallon water for first week until it settles down then add the rest of water to the demijohn?

Thanks for the heads up about the sugar content I want it sweet but not so sweet it hurts to drink.

I think that maybe that would be ok with maybe 3/4 of the water (then top it up later) - my guess is that only using half the water at the start would make it so concentrated that the yeast wouldn't work well (although I stand to be corrected on that one.)

[burnie]

I think you need to do some reading ,try any of CJ Berrys books,it will help you with things like racking off and other "mysteries" of the way of Baccus(sp).

[Hazel at the Hill]

I think you need to do some reading ,try any of CJ Berrys books,it will help you with things like racking off and other "mysteries" of the way of Baccus(sp).

CJJ is my guru, but he doesn't say what to do when your rhubarb wine starts to creep out from the dj in a bid for world domination!

Reminded me for some reason of Dr Who (70's version, obviously), and if anyone can tell me why this should be, I'd be grateful.

[Gardenwitch]

I have ordered the book already so waiting and have been reading up on winemaking online to be honest at various sites, so thank you for the suggestion but already working on it Its also his recipe I'm using.

lol hazel that cracks me up! So is rhubarb the only fruit you've used that goes crazy with fermentation? Maybe its the acid level or natural pectin level in rhubarb thats doing it?

[mrdinkle]

I have an old tatty copy of the first steps book. In mine he reckons that rhubarb wine ain't very nice and to use it as a base for other wines?!

It put me off a bit, but I might just try it on your recommendation! I would have thought that it would make a fine wine - perhaps Mr Berry had a dislike of rhubarb?

How many fat stalks is 3lb? I don't have huge crown, I take it that it is early enough for more to come up if I use it all on a wine experiment?

[burnie]

Rhubub can be a bit tart for some,you can use precipitated chalk to reduce the acid if you like,personnaly I use a kilo of sugar rather than 3lb,it makes it a little drier,which suits the tart taste.If you use the nice red stalks and use a dark fermenting vessel,you get a nice rose.

[mrdinkle]

So that would be 360 grams less sugar? I am just worried that I won't get another crumble out of the crown if I use it for wine

I think I might go for shirley's tinned rhubarb recipe first until I can establish more rhubarb.

What is, and where can one procure precipitated chalk?

thanks!

[Hilary B]

If your rhubarb is well established, and well fed (loads of well-rotted muck in autumn) then as long as there are still some leaves on, the more stems you pull, the more you get. If there don't seem to be many stems available just now, take a few and freeze them, until you have enough.
If you use the 'dry sugar and cold water' method recommended by CJJ Berry, the acid content is reduced quite a bit anyway.
You can get precipitated chalk from any winemaker's supplier (eg Wilkinsons), in a tub similar to the ones of yeast, yeast nutrient, pectin enzyme, etc.
I don't much like the 'one piece' airlocks. I prefer the 2 part type, because it can be tricky taking the other kind OFF after fermentation stops, without some of the water being drawn back into the wine....

[Hazel at the Hill]

How many fat stalks is 3lb? I don't have huge crown, I take it that it is early enough for more to come up if I use it all on a wine experiment?

Having just got the scales out, I can report that about 8 fat stalks weigh 3lb.