Inventing a white wine

[SarzWix]

I've just been given a load of frozen gooseberries, I have a bag full of rhubarb, 500ml of white grape concentrate, and a small bag of dried elderflowers. I reckon that should make a couple of demijohns of half decent white with the addition of some extra sugar and some tannins?

[Hazel at the Hill]

Yep - sounds like a plan to me. But I reckon you might need quite a bit of sugar - goosegogs are tart little monkeys.

[SarzWix]

I'll probably work it as a bag per gallon, less a bit for the grape concentrate? Although the gooseberries were ripe rather than green, so slightly less sharp

[VirginVegGrower]

Corr that sounds nice. I love elderflower and that sounds like it could be a very nice combo. In fact I'm salivating at the thought.

[Hazel at the Hill]

I'll probably work it as a bag per gallon, less a bit for the grape concentrate? Although the gooseberries were ripe rather than green, so slightly less sharp

If you have an aldi/lidl, you could bung in a litre of white grape juice, which would lessen the amount of sugar you'd need. A bag per gall sounds like a good benchmark, though.

[Dotty Sarah]

That sounds like a lush combination, very tasty.

[daviddevantnhisspiritwife]

I would aim for an SG of no more than 1080 for a white.

I found this info on wines at home forum - the guys there are pretty full on and hopefully these tips from them will help you out.

With the elderflowers:

Dried elderflowers, these are often very harsh and can give a 'cat pee' smell if overused. I have found that just 10 grams of dried flowers added at the start works well, the fermentation process seems to blow off any 'cat pee' smell or harshness. Strain the flowers off through a flour sieve when transferring to d/j for secondary.

Also, with the Rhubarb:

Rhubarb previously frozen then thawed in a colander over a pan to extract the juice only, 1 litre of juice per gallon works well. (no added acid)

Gooseberries:

You will need pectic enzyme or you will not get it to clear (1/2 tsp per gallon).

This link might help also:

Gooseberry Wine

Sounds like you could make a really tasty wine!

[SarzWix]

Elderflowers, 1 dessertspoon per gallon. Pectic enzyme is already in. Rhubarb is being squished by hand for 3 days, before adding everything else, as per dear old CJJ

[Hazel at the Hill]

Elderflowers, 1 dessertspoon per gallon. Pectic enzyme is already in. Rhubarb is being squished by hand for 3 days, before adding everything else, as per dear old CJJ

Did you freeze the rhubarb? Easier to squish the juice out! I'd add a couple of tsp of strong tea per gall for balance too.

[Warwick Lad]

One of the best ways to make rhubarb wine is the dry sugar extraction method. Top and tail your rhubarb, cut it into one inch chunks and freeze it over night. Next day pop in your fermenting bucket and then add the sugar, leave for 24, 36 hours with a lid on, the sugar draws all the juice out of the barb. I made 25 liters last year and I have around 11 or 12 kgs of barb in the freezer as I write which will be in the bucket later today ready to start the next batch.

If anyone wants the recipe I post it up later....

[SarzWix]

That sounds like a good idea - I use the same method when jam making, never thought to use it for wine! Although, if I'm honest, I'm hoping the gooseberries and elderflowers will have more of a 'presence' than the rhubarb

This one is being strained into demi-johns today, as the initial ferment has died down a bit (it's in a bucket with an airlock at the moment) and the last bit of syrup/grape concentrate being added.