Making a Strawberry Rhubarb Wine - need some help.

[TattooCelt]

Hello everyone! Had a quick question I hope you all would chime in on - I'm lookin' at you Yooper!

I started a Rhubarb wine last Saturday using Vintner's Harvest Rhubarb base - the recipe is as follows:

One can of Fruit wine base product

6 cans warm water (4.5 gallons)

11 lbs white table sugar (or 14 lbs corn sugar)

7 tsp Acid Blend

3 tsp Yeast Nutrient

3 tsp Pectic Enzyme

1/2 tsp Tannin

5 Campden tablets, crushed or 5 liquid tsp SOLUTION of bisulfite

1 package of Red Star Cote de Blancs wine yeast


I have it covered with a cheese cloth and am patiently taking readings with the hydrometer. (Note: I normally brew mead, beer and cider/cyzer, so the lack of bubbles and activity from wine has been a learning curve for me.)

Now, I'm wondering if using the same principles applied to adding fruit to the secondary in Mead (Freezing it to kill any wild yeast and break down the cell structure of the fruit) would work with this Rhubarb wine. Currently I'm pondering using three pounds of thawed strawberries, for this five gallon batch, in a mesh bag in the secondary to produce a nice pink color and get the strawberry flavor to compliment - not cover - the rhubarb...much like the flavor of a strawberry rhubarb jam or pie.

Comments, suggestions or pearls of wisdom are appreciated and solicited!

Thanks in advance!

 

[jgmillr1]

Hi TattooCelt.

I'm not sure what you may be looking for comments on, though I'm glad to offer some thoughts.

One concern I have with the recipe is the initial sugar level. I have not used the vintner's harvest juices, but I wonder whether they are already sweetened. It sounds like you have 5-6gal of must. The 11lbs of sugar alone would put your brix in the 22-26 range. If the vintner's can had a significant level of sugar, your overall brix may be quite high and that would make it a challenging environment for the yeast. If you have a hydrometer or refractometer, you may want to check. If it is high (>28 brix), you may need to dilute it down some more or use a more robust yeast such as EC1118.

I've made a number of batches of strawberry wine using frozen berries. The berries tend to disintegrate into pulp in about 5 days. I use straight berries and do not dilute with water, and even doing that the resulting wine is a mild pink color. If you want them to contribute significantly to the color or flavor, you may want to use more. Maybe 10lbs or so.

I would also suggest you consider protein-fining the wine (I like to use bentonite for this added to the secondary). Although you have added tannin which will stabilize the color, you may find that excess tannin does not compliment the strawberry-rhubarb wine. You can soften the tannin by fining with gelatin.

Cheers!

 

[TattooCelt]

Awesome! Thanks for the reply. The Vinter's Harvest products are set up with the fruit in the fruit juices - with no preservatives...so I'm not too concerned about the sugar levels. I made a strawberry wine last year with their product, and it was delicious!

I'll be using some type of fining agent in secondary for sure...the rhubarb wine so far is cloudier than even the banana mead I made last year - and that was cloudy!

So, you think that 10 pounds of frozen strawberries in secondary would compliment the rhubarb? I don't want it to dominate the flavor profile, but enhance it. Does that make sense?

 

[jgmillr1]

You will have to taste the must and judge the strength of the rhubarb flavor when deciding on how many pounds of strawberry to use. The strawberry flavor compliment to the wine is your artwork for this batch and there is no wrong answer.

My personal approach to fruit wines is to use less (or no) water and more fruit since that concentrates the flavors. This means I would use 50lbs of frozen strawberries to make 5gal of strawberry wine. With that reference in mind, 10lbs is not too much. However, that must be balanced in the context of the rhubarb flavor profile that you will want to come through. You will be glad the strawberries are in a bag after they fall apart.

If the fermentation is still proceeding slowly, be sure the temperature is warm enough, like around 70.

Happy fermenting