TasunkaWitko
Well-Known Member
It's that time of year, and I've got a bunch of rhubarb coming up in various corners of the yard. The other day, my youngest son picked seven pounds of it, so I plan on making at least one 1-gallon batch.
I got this recipe from Yooper; she knows her beer and wine, and I'm grateful for her guidance!-
I went ahead and got started with this last night, June 4th; My goal is for a wine that is drinkable (not too sour), but also tastes of rhubarb.
When I got started, I realised too late that I was a little unclear about the amount of "sugar water" in the first step, and a couple of other things; however, I did my best to follow a (hopefully) good interpretation of the instructions in Yooper's original post.
First, I cleaned and sanitized everything, then put the fruit in a strainer bag (it was still frozen but thawed pretty quickly). My dad keeps insisting that more rhubarb is necessary (he is making a batch now too, and is using 4.75 pounds), so I decided to throw caution to the wind, and used 3.5 pounds of rhubarb for this first attempt. I brought the sugar up a little, to 3 pounds, to compensate for the extra rhubarb. It looked to me as though the rhubarb was taking up a lot of room in the primary bucket, so I went ahead and heated the full 7 pints of water hot enough to fully dissolve the sugar - close to, but not quite, boiling.
Once the sugar was dissolved, I let it cool a bit, then poured it onto the strainer bag and a crushed campden tablet. If I would have been thinking, I would have dissolved the campden tablet in a little water, but that slipped my mind. The rhubarb was still partially frozen, so the water cooled very quickly to something close to room temperature.
I stirred the water and rhubarb around in order to dissolve the campden tablet and get everything together. Even with the full 7 pints of water, it seemed like part of the rhubarb was floating on top in the bag, but maybe it just needs to absorb the water.
If I read the instructions correctly, I'll now stir the rhubarb and water for a couple-three days in order to extract the juice, then squeeze, strain and discard the fruit solids from the bag. After that, I will add the pectic enzyme and the rest of the ingredients, except the yeast, which will come 12 hours after that. After adding the yeast, the procedure looks like it will pretty much follow in similar fashion to the wine I've made before.
Tonight, 5 June, I stirred and squeezed the rhubarb that is juicing in my primary bucket. This is a pretty routine operation, and went without incident for the most part; however, one thing that I noticed right away is that my rhubarb produced a LOT of liquid. By the looks of it, I might have as much as a quart over a gallon of juice now in the primary bucket.
This goes back to my original confusion above over the amount of sugar water to use in the first step; the rhubarb appeared to take up a lot of room in the fermenting bucket (more that half-filling it, by appearances), so in my ignorance, I used the full 7 pints of water for the sugar water. Well, the rhubarb evidently had a lot of liquid of its own so I am over a gallon total by a little bit, but we'll see how things shake out. I'm not too worried about it, since I have extra rhubarb and sugar in there anyway, and I'm guessing that I will lose some juice in the process. What I might do is keep any extra in the refrigerator and use it to top off as I rack over; or perhaps I'll simply have a little rhubarb juice on hand for a refreshing drink after mowing the lawn on a hot summer day - it's all good. One thing is for sure - next time I'll remember that it is NOT necessary to use the whole 7 pints for sugar water.
All in all, it looks like I went off the rails a little bit, but not in any significant way that will affect the final outcome.
Speaking of tart rhubarb on a warm summer day, I've got a recipe for a rhubarb-strawberry strong ale that I will be trying for the first time in a couple of weeks. If anyone is interested, let me know - it's in .pdf format, so shoot me a PM with your email and I'd be more than glad to send it over.
Ron
I got this recipe from Yooper; she knows her beer and wine, and I'm grateful for her guidance!-
I went ahead and got started with this last night, June 4th; My goal is for a wine that is drinkable (not too sour), but also tastes of rhubarb.
When I got started, I realised too late that I was a little unclear about the amount of "sugar water" in the first step, and a couple of other things; however, I did my best to follow a (hopefully) good interpretation of the instructions in Yooper's original post.
First, I cleaned and sanitized everything, then put the fruit in a strainer bag (it was still frozen but thawed pretty quickly). My dad keeps insisting that more rhubarb is necessary (he is making a batch now too, and is using 4.75 pounds), so I decided to throw caution to the wind, and used 3.5 pounds of rhubarb for this first attempt. I brought the sugar up a little, to 3 pounds, to compensate for the extra rhubarb. It looked to me as though the rhubarb was taking up a lot of room in the primary bucket, so I went ahead and heated the full 7 pints of water hot enough to fully dissolve the sugar - close to, but not quite, boiling.
Once the sugar was dissolved, I let it cool a bit, then poured it onto the strainer bag and a crushed campden tablet. If I would have been thinking, I would have dissolved the campden tablet in a little water, but that slipped my mind. The rhubarb was still partially frozen, so the water cooled very quickly to something close to room temperature.
I stirred the water and rhubarb around in order to dissolve the campden tablet and get everything together. Even with the full 7 pints of water, it seemed like part of the rhubarb was floating on top in the bag, but maybe it just needs to absorb the water.
If I read the instructions correctly, I'll now stir the rhubarb and water for a couple-three days in order to extract the juice, then squeeze, strain and discard the fruit solids from the bag. After that, I will add the pectic enzyme and the rest of the ingredients, except the yeast, which will come 12 hours after that. After adding the yeast, the procedure looks like it will pretty much follow in similar fashion to the wine I've made before.
Tonight, 5 June, I stirred and squeezed the rhubarb that is juicing in my primary bucket. This is a pretty routine operation, and went without incident for the most part; however, one thing that I noticed right away is that my rhubarb produced a LOT of liquid. By the looks of it, I might have as much as a quart over a gallon of juice now in the primary bucket.
This goes back to my original confusion above over the amount of sugar water to use in the first step; the rhubarb appeared to take up a lot of room in the fermenting bucket (more that half-filling it, by appearances), so in my ignorance, I used the full 7 pints of water for the sugar water. Well, the rhubarb evidently had a lot of liquid of its own so I am over a gallon total by a little bit, but we'll see how things shake out. I'm not too worried about it, since I have extra rhubarb and sugar in there anyway, and I'm guessing that I will lose some juice in the process. What I might do is keep any extra in the refrigerator and use it to top off as I rack over; or perhaps I'll simply have a little rhubarb juice on hand for a refreshing drink after mowing the lawn on a hot summer day - it's all good. One thing is for sure - next time I'll remember that it is NOT necessary to use the whole 7 pints for sugar water.
All in all, it looks like I went off the rails a little bit, but not in any significant way that will affect the final outcome.
Speaking of tart rhubarb on a warm summer day, I've got a recipe for a rhubarb-strawberry strong ale that I will be trying for the first time in a couple of weeks. If anyone is interested, let me know - it's in .pdf format, so shoot me a PM with your email and I'd be more than glad to send it over.
Ron
