Owly055
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- Feb 28, 2014
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I'm making 2 gallons of rhubarb wine, or more accurately strawberry rhubarb wine for a friend. The basic rhubarb wine recipes call for about 3 lbs rhubarb and 3 pounds sugar per gallon, which works out to about 24% (roughly off the top of my head) potential alcohol. You ferment to 12% approx, and kill the yeast with campden tablets (potassium or sodium metabisulfite).
I followed the basic proportions for rhubarb wine in terms of pounds of rhubarb per gallon, then added two cartons of Costco strawberries. Everything was run through my Omega auger juicer. I calculated the amount of sugar for 12% ABV, and my OG came out virtually on the money per Brewer's Friend.... about 3 pounds of sugar for 2 gallons (6 pounds rhubarb). The result would be completely undrinkable of course.
I ordered 5 pounds of xylitol while it was fermenting... about $23 on Amazon. The wine fermented out to about .097 SG, which put me over my 12% target.
Yesterday I racked it off, and added xylitol for back sweetening. The reason for xylitol of course is that it not only is completely unfermentable, but also has antibacterial / antifungal properties, and effectively zero carbs in terms of it's effect on blood glucose. It also has exactly the same sweetness as sugar, and looks and acts the same except that it will not brown.... no malliard reaction. It also has no negative health effects except that due to being indigestible may cause similar effects to beans if consumed in quantities... effectively a resistant starch that is consumed by the microbes in the colon. Xylitol is the oldest artificial non-nutritive sweetener. Discovered and extracted from birch wood during the war by a German scientist, when there was sugar shortage. It is naturally occurring, but is now mostly synthesized from soy....... isn't everything?
I discovered the properties of xylitol when making low cal kombucha........ or rather trying to... it simply killed all bacterial and yeast activity. Needless to say I had not read up on it before doing this ;-(
H.W.
I followed the basic proportions for rhubarb wine in terms of pounds of rhubarb per gallon, then added two cartons of Costco strawberries. Everything was run through my Omega auger juicer. I calculated the amount of sugar for 12% ABV, and my OG came out virtually on the money per Brewer's Friend.... about 3 pounds of sugar for 2 gallons (6 pounds rhubarb). The result would be completely undrinkable of course.
I ordered 5 pounds of xylitol while it was fermenting... about $23 on Amazon. The wine fermented out to about .097 SG, which put me over my 12% target.
Yesterday I racked it off, and added xylitol for back sweetening. The reason for xylitol of course is that it not only is completely unfermentable, but also has antibacterial / antifungal properties, and effectively zero carbs in terms of it's effect on blood glucose. It also has exactly the same sweetness as sugar, and looks and acts the same except that it will not brown.... no malliard reaction. It also has no negative health effects except that due to being indigestible may cause similar effects to beans if consumed in quantities... effectively a resistant starch that is consumed by the microbes in the colon. Xylitol is the oldest artificial non-nutritive sweetener. Discovered and extracted from birch wood during the war by a German scientist, when there was sugar shortage. It is naturally occurring, but is now mostly synthesized from soy....... isn't everything?
I discovered the properties of xylitol when making low cal kombucha........ or rather trying to... it simply killed all bacterial and yeast activity. Needless to say I had not read up on it before doing this ;-(
H.W.
