Rhubarb drinks

[peanut]

I have tonnes of Rhubarb and can't keep eating whips and crumbles! Does anyone know if you can make a cordial or wine and where I could get a some recipes?

Thanks

[shirlthegirl43]

Copied from a brewing forum I am a member of:

Rhubarb recipe...courtesy of Jack Keller

Rhubarb Wine
6-7 lbs red rhubarb
2-1/2 lbs finely granulated sugar
2 large lemons (juice only)
water to make up one gallon
1 crushed Campden tablet
1 oz precipitated chalk
1-1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
Sauterne wine yeast
Wash the rhubarb and cut into 1/2-inch lengths. Crush with a piece of sterilized hardwood (the end of a baseball bat is perfect) and put into primary. Dissolve crushed Campden tablet in gallon of cold water and pour over rhubarb. Cover primary and let set for three days, stirring daily. Strain through a nylon straining bag and squeeze as much liquid as possible from the pulp. Discard pulp and return liquor to primary. Add the precipitated chalk (obtainable at winemaking shop). The liquor will fizz, but then settle down. Wait 3 hours and taste. If oxalic acid taste is still too strong, add another 1/2 oz of precipitated chalk. Stir in all remaining ingredients, making sure the sugar dissolves completely. (NOTE: You may want to hold back one pound of the sugar and add it after fermentation is well on its way.) Cover and set aside overnight. Transfer to secondary and fit airlock, but to allow for foaming during fermentation hold back a pint or so in a small bottle plugged with cotton. When ferment settles down (5-7 days), top up with reserved liquor and refit airlock. Set aside in cool place until wine begins to clear. Rack, refit airlock and top up. Allow at least another two months, making sure fermentation has ceased, and rack again. If possible, cold stabilize wine for 30 days. If you can't cold stabilize, at least allow the wine the additional 30 days. Rack into bottles or blend with another wine.

If you bottle the rhubarb wine pure, it is drinkable right away. If you blend it, age it according to instructions for the wine you are blending with. If you make a 3-5-gallon batch, add 1/8 tsp tannin per gallon when you add the other dry ingredients to extend the life of the wine.

Enjoy. If you rather, I am open to receiving large quantities of rhubarb by post - my plants are in their first year and are not producing enough to eat yet

[tinyvine]

Not made any myself, but found this rhubarb website! Don't know if its helpful or not, I know ideally you want a tried recipe...
http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/recipe-wine.html

[JennieAtkinson]

I always put a tin of strawberries in with my stewing rhubarb and strain the juice off before making crumbles and pies. Left overnight in the fridge, it is a lovely fruit drink the following morning and even nicer at dinner time with carbonated water (50:50).

Peanut - You could always make rhubarb schnapps which many of us made last year. Just search on "schapps" and you should be able to pick up the thread. It was loverly .......

[peanut]

Thanks very much for all your replies.

[shirley]

http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/ check this web site out. It has loads of info regarding rhubarb

[Headfry]

Could you make a rhubarb merangue type pie?
How????

[shirley]

would you be thinking of similar to lemon merangue??? why not

[Headfry]

yes exactly!....what do you think?
I would make a kind of thick rhubarb puree.

[shirley]

You could experiment with rhubarb and orange, and use a biscuit base like a cheesecake instead of pastry. That sounds great

[shirley]

Just had another thought...how about cooking the rhubarb in ginger cordial before making it into puree...another thought is to use crushed ginger biscuits as the base mixed with melted butter. Rhubarb and ginger go well together.

[Headfry]

Mummy in law made rhubarb triffle at the weekend....
sounds lovley, she use cooked rhubarb, sponge, custard and cream
hmmmmm yummy!

[olive tree]

I have tonnes of Rhubarb and can't keep eating whips and crumbles! Does anyone know if you can make a cordial or wine and where I could get a some recipes?

Thanks

Rhubarb cordial= 2lbs red rhubarb 1/4 oz root ginger 4ozs sugar 2 cloves 2 pints water. Chop the rhubarb coarsley and put into saucepan with sugar,cloves and bruised ginger.Cover with the water,bring slowly to the boil and simmer until rhubarb is tender.Strain off the liquid[discard the fruit pulp for cooking purposes] and leave to cool.Can be taken diluted or undiluted.

[Two_Sheds]

sweet Rhubarb wine

Sweet Rhubarb wine, Sauterne Style

from Award Winning Wines, by Bill Smith

13 floz white grape concentrate
1 litre apple juice
2 floz glycerol
32oz rhubarb, chopped & frozen, then thawed (to extract the juice)
8oz clover honey
4oz strawberries
21 oz sugar
nutrient
pectolase
yeast: Gervin no.6, strain 8906
Campden tablet

There is a fascinating history of the development of this wine in the book: they went through many, many recipes to make a wine equivalent to a commercial Sauternes. It's a bit fussy, but worth a go.

Make a yeast starter with apple juice
Press rhubarb lightly through a sieve to extract maximum juice, into a fermenting bin. Treat with pectolase and Campden tablet, add white grape concentrate, sugar and yeast starter: ferment at a volume of 5 pints.

When most of the sugar has been used, add honey, strawberries, glycerol and more pectolase: pulp ferment for 2 hrs. Adding the strawbs & honey later like this improves the bouquet of the finished wine

Strain into a DJ, make up to 1 gallon and ferment to dryness.
When clear, sweeten to an SG of about 1020 with sugar and/or white grape concentrate to a final SG of about 1030 (final alcohol about 14%)

The wine improves after a year in the bottle.

[Two_Sheds]

Medium Dry Rhubarb wine

Medium Dry Rhubarb white wine, German style

from: Award Winning Wines by Bill Smith

2 litres white grape juice
500ml apple juice
18 oz rhubarb, chopped & frozen, then thawed to extract the juice
5oz honey
14oz sugar
7g tartaric acid
pectolase
nutrient
yeast: Gervin D, strain 71B (or a suitable white wine yeast)
Campden tablet

Start a yeast culture with white grape juice.
Next day, place rhubarb in a fermenting bin with 1 litre water & a Campden tablet. Then strain rhubarb through a sieve, into another fermenting bin, pressing lightly to extract the juice. Add apple juice, pectolase & pasteurised honey (?).
After 2 hrs, add the yeast starter, dissolved sugar and acid.
Ferment to dryness.
Rack and clear.
Alcohol content is about 11% ... sweeten to taste with 50-100ml of white grape juice per litre of wine.