Rhubarb wine with steam juicer

[Andro907]

So I went and picked like 60 lbs of Rhubarb from my sister's house, I've got about half of it run through my eurocuisine steam juicer. The color is so lovely and it's pretty clear. I've gotten about about 2.5 gallons in the first 25 lbs of rhubarb, so I'm thinking I will end up just shy of 6 gallons of juice. The gravity is obviously very low at 1.010 with no sugar added, and the pH looks to be just a bit under 3.
At first I was thinking I would add sugar to the 6 gallons of juice to get the gravity to where I wanted and pitch some kv1116 but I am second guessing myself now. Will it just end up being insanely tart with that much Rhubarb?

 

[hawkwing]

Well you should likely bring the pH up if it’s less than 3. Either neutralize or dilute. But maybe sweeten a sample in a glass and taste to see what the flavor it like.

Also I’ve read that rhubarb wine doesn’t age well and should be consumed young. Can’t remember if the flavor disappears or changes for the negative.

 

[Andro907]

Well you should likely bring the pH up if it’s less than 3. Either neutralize or dilute. But maybe sweeten a sample in a glass and taste to see what the flavor it like.

Also I’ve read that rhubarb wine doesn’t age well and should be consumed young. Can’t remember if the flavor disappears or changes for the negative.

Yeah I had considered adjusting the pH up half a point, but I need some more precise strips. The ones I'm using now are 0-14.

The juice itself tastes great when it's sweetened a little.

 

[hawkwing]

How does it taste if you dilute it a bit with water? Just to get in the pH range.

 

[Andro907]

I thought I had replied to this. Diluted it tastes like you could drink a glass of it, I'll have to try making some lemonade with it at some point.
But back to the wine, I ended up with 4 and a half gallons, which I split in half for 2 different batches. I gave half to my sister.

For my batch, I ran 16 lbs of strawberries through my steam juicer(steeped 5 bags of black tea in part of it when it was hot) and got almost 2 gallons), added that juice to the ~25lbs worth of rhubarb that ended up being just over 2 gallons, for a total of 4 gallons. I added water and sugar till I had 6 gallons of juice at 1.090 OG.
I bought some actual wine making pH strips and found that the pH was actually 3.8 all said and done.
I was not really following a recipe so I just kind of winged it. I added 2.5 grams of DAP and 2 tbsp of Fermax. Could find my oxygenator pump so I just dumped it back and forth between my Kettle and fermentor a bunch. I scooped off the foam from that and dumped in 2 packets of kv1116.
My sister is babysitting it since I had to go out of town the next day, but the morning I dropped it off it was extremely active. I had an airlock on it the 1st night and was able to switch it to a blow off just in time, it was starting to foam out.
She's going to whip it for me a few times the first week and that should pretty much be all it needs before I swap it to an airlock for a few months.
Hopefully it turns out nice, I'm hoping it attenuates completely.