Rhubarb Wine

CornyKegs 728
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I just started to drink the 6 gal. batch i made in the spring of 2013, and it is awsome. Only had to rack twice and used sparkaloid then bulk aged for 14 months.
So good i started anothr 6 gal. this week only thing i changed was to use Cote de blancs yeast, and 20 lbs instead of 24 lbs of rhubarb.
 
Rambunctious said:
I just started a 5gal batch. Let 10 lbs of frozen chopped rhubarb stems sit on 4lbs of sugar for 4 days, pressed the juice out and added 6 lbs sugar and 3gal of water for full volume of 5.5 gal O.G. 1.080 also added 5 tsp ea. yeast nutrient and energiser. Yeast lavlin EC-1118. Plan to rack into carboy from bucket off the lees in 1mo. Est. A.B.V. 10%


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Just racked the above S.G. 0.995 math says 11.16 A.B.V. still needs time to clear but flavor is awesome dry slightly tart with hint of rhubar. I could not have asked for a better product.


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Rambunctious said:
I just started a 5gal batch. Let 10 lbs of frozen chopped rhubarb stems sit on 4lbs of sugar for 4 days, pressed the juice out and added 6 lbs sugar and 3gal of water for full volume of 5.5 gal O.G. 1.080 also added 5 tsp ea. yeast nutrient and energiser. Yeast lavlin EC-1118. Plan to rack into carboy from bucket off the lees in 1mo. Est. A.B.V. 10%


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
Click to expand...


Just racked the above S.G. 0.995 math says 11.16 A.B.V. still needs time to clear but flavor is awesome dry slightly tart with hint of rhubarb. I could not have asked for a better product on my very first attempt at this with last years frozen chopped rhubarb.


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I just racked the batch I started 11/14 @ O.G. Of 1.080 today it tested @ 0.994 calc. A.B.V.= 11.16
Flavor is awesome, dry, slightly tart, hint of rhubarb. I could not have asked for a better product from last years frozen chopped rhubarb harvest. Cannot wait for it to clear and get bottled.


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Rambunctious said:
I just racked the batch I started 11/14 @ O.G. Of 1.080 today it tested @ 0.994 calc. A.B.V.= 11.16
Flavor is awesome, dry, slightly tart, hint of rhubarb. I could not have asked for a better product from last years frozen chopped rhubarb harvest. Cannot wait for it to clear and get bottled.
Click to expand...

Good job, now try and forget about it until early next summer when you can finally bottle it :)
 
solbes said:
Good job, now try and forget about it until early next summer when you can finally bottle it :)
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I've been wondering about this. Mine doesn't seem to be in a hurry to clear either. Are you guys drinking 1 year after starting or 1 year after bottling?
 
I rack it three times. Once after a fairly short primary, once after 2-3 weeks in secondary after it ferments to dryness, and then one final time after a long tertiary. It sits in tertiary for 5-6 months and does most of the clearing in there. I always think its ready to bottle at that point (say by month 7 or 8), but leaving it in the final carboy for another month or two makes it brilliantly clear where you can read a newspaper easily through the carboy. I made the mistake of skipping the last racking in my first batch and had a small amount of sediment in the bottles (aesthetic mostly).

So it generally takes 8-10 months for all of the rackings before I bottle. And then I wait another couple of months before opening the first one, so 10-12 months total from start to finish. Its a long process, but its really only an issue in year #1. From then on you have a supply of wine from last years batch, assuming you make it every summer.
 
My rhubarb peach is 1 1/2 years old and still hazy I guess it will never clear. I put it in refrigerator and cold crash still not clear
 
johngottshall said:
My rhubarb peach is 1 1/2 years old and still hazy I guess it will never clear. I put it in refrigerator and cold crash still not clear
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You didn't happen to boil the fruit to sterilize did you? Another thread here where someone reduced his cranberries, thereby creating pectin haze.

I always use pectic enzyme with my rhubarb wine, about 12 hours before I pitch the yeast. Seems to work, though haven't tried it without it.
 
So far mine appears to be settling out well so far will rack again in a mo. I can wait I have some sunshine "dandelion wine" ready to bottle. 3 gal.
 
Love this wine. I bottled mine last night as I want to be able to give some away at Christmas. I only had to rack once and it was clear then. When I bottled there was just a slight haze of sediment on the bottom of the carboy. It was about 6 months old total. I did use pectin enzyme.

I can really taste the rhubarb, taste like eating a fresh stalk. Nice blush color with a fresh, rhubarb aroma.
 
Ok, I will admit to being a noob and I just winged it. No I did not boil the rhubarb just used sugar to help extract the juices and pressed. No I did not use pectic enzyme. My problem here is the very top half of the carboy and 1/2 gal of cold crashed top off wine has separated and cleared nicely but has stratified with a cloudy layer below. Not really bad just not as clear as the top 2.5 gal. Any suggestions. I plan to try to siphon off the well cleared stuff. I was just hoping to get suggestions how to clear the rest. It. Tastes great. I could try racking the whole thing off the lees and give it more time but I do not think it will help as the cold crashed 1/2gal has done the same as the carboy.
 
Try a double dose of pectic enzyme. It doesn't work as well in the presence of alcohol, which is why a larger dose. You could also try a fining agent like Sparkelloid or SuperKleer.
 
I took a taste of mine today and racked it off the lees. It might be the best wine I've ever made. It was really good. Planning to let it bulk age til spring then into bottles.
 
Helly said:
I took a taste of mine today and racked it off the lees. It might be the best wine I've ever made. It was really good. Planning to let it bulk age til spring then into bottles.
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Awesome. Just make sure you give it enough time to FULLY clear, which might be into mid/late summer. I made the mistake of bottling early with my first batch and ended up with a little bit of sediment in the bottles. Pissed me off, so I de-bottled into a carboy to let it clear again and then rebottled. Generally my rhubarb wines take 8-10 months to fully clear (so you can easily read a newspaper through the carboy).
 
Thanks for the tip. I will err on the side of bulk aging and/or work another racking into the schedule. I made two gallons last year but we drank most of it pretty quickly.
 
We just drank a bottle from 2013. It really is great now, after being pretty good before that. It was just delightful, and really not strong in rhubarb flavor- more like a pinot grigio with non-specific fruity aromas.
 
Yooper said:
We just drank a bottle from 2013. It really is great now, after being pretty good before that. It was just delightful, and really not strong in rhubarb flavor- more like a pinot grigio with non-specific fruity aromas.
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I like the rhubarb flavor but I guess I need to put a couple of bottles in the pit (and by pit, my shop has a mechanics pit allowing one to more easily work under cars. I closed off and insulated one end as a place to store wine and mead at a stable temperature)
 
Looking good Helly! Our rhubarb patch will be off and running as soon as the low's stop bouncing off the freezing mark. Which should be tomorrow as I look at the extended forecast. They are all about 6" tall at the moment.

Racked our 2014 Berry rhubarb batch for the final time. Hoping to bottle in a month or so when it drops completely.
 
IYAOYAS said:
has anyone tried putting the rhubarb in a juicer after freezing?
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I have not and see no reason to or not to. Except maybe that we don't own a juicer as far as I know. Only reason I am commenting is that I was amazed at how little pulp was left in the bag after a few weeks in the fermenter. Yeast seems to like to eat rhubarb. I hope I can gather a good crop this year (I have some from last year still in the freezer). I mixed some green and red a few years back and it was my favorite wine I have ever made.
 
lschiavo said:
I have not and see no reason to or not to. Except maybe that we don't own a juicer as far as I know. Only reason I am commenting is that I was amazed at how little pulp was left in the bag after a few weeks in the fermenter. Yeast seems to like to eat rhubarb. I hope I can gather a good crop this year (I have some from last year still in the freezer). I mixed some green and red a few years back and it was my favorite wine I have ever made.
Click to expand...

My rhubarb is coming up. I'm going to have tons, so when you stop over bring a bag and take all you want from my house!

I have the red strawberry rhubarb in the back of the garden, the big regular stuff in the front, and then a ton of really green rhubarb by the garage next to some of my hops.

I'm only going to use about 20 pounds of it, give or take, besides making one pie for my daughter.
 
My mother in law has decreed that, this year, I have to use her rubarb to make wine with :) It is green rhubarb, if that makes a difference
So as yoopers recipes always have great reports why not use hers[emoji12]
Just one question regarding volume, I want to make 5 litres..is there a simple way of up scaling the recipe slightly?
On another note she also told me to use her elderberries when ripe and also her cooking apples, I'll be busy :)
Edit: whoops I didn't look hard enough, found the conversion earlier in the thread, wish Me luck :)
 
OhCrap said:
My mother in law has decreed that, this year, I have to use her rubarb to make wine with :) It is green rhubarb, if that makes a difference
So as yoopers recipes always have great reports why not use hers[emoji12]
Just one question regarding volume, I want to make 5 litres..is there a simple way of up scaling the recipe slightly?
On another note she also told me to use her elderberries when ripe and also her cooking apples, I'll be busy :)
Edit: whoops I didn't look hard enough, found the conversion earlier in the thread, wish Me luck :)
Click to expand...

You could just scale up by 1.25 or whatever you need and that would work fine (except for yeast- that stays the same).
 
Cheers for that, she just handed me 2kg of last years rhubarb already frozen so I'll be at this before Friday :)))
 
Just about to start this... Do I need to do anything with the raisins? Other then chop then. Boil them or anything to remove any things?
 
OhCrap said:
Just about to start this... Do I need to do anything with the raisins? Other then chop then. Boil them or anything to remove any things?
Click to expand...

No, but chopping them is a bit of a pain as they are sticky. Just follow the directions exactly, and it'll be great!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
 
Yooper said:
No, but chopping them is a bit of a pain as they are sticky. Just follow the directions exactly, and it'll be great!



If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Click to expand...


Ok no extra steps required... I like that. I will follow instructions and report back with my success :) thanks for all your help.
 
I forgot to make sure my raisins weren't sprayed with mineral oil. Wine tastes great, but never cleared, it is still hazy. Definitely gonna make this again.
 
One question about temperature... During primary Do I need to keep this around 70?
 
Everything added yesterday evening and just added yeast this morning (15 hrs later) hit 1.093 gravity so look good :) also the sample tasted great, I know it'll change but still nice to start with good flavour
cheers for the recipe yooper
 
On the temp question, I generally don't do active temp control on my wines. They stay in the basement where ambient temp is in the mid-60's. I may be off in my thinking but I figure if something is going to age for a while I don't worry as much about the temp.
 
Bottled our 2014 batch up last night. It had 4 lbs of mixed frozen berries along with the 12-13 lbs of rhubarb. I thought it tasted pretty darn good when I was sampling last night. I added 2 1/4 cups of sugar to sweeten it up a tad (previously stabilized).

Summer has now begun in our household!! This stuff goes fast when we have family and friends up at our lake place (thus the eight 1.5L bottles).

rhubarb.jpg
 

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