Rhubarb and rhubarb wine

[Janulka098]

Hello. I have done two batches of rhubarb wine side by side. Cut up stalks left in sugar for few days - one I squeezed all the juice and made up to 1090 in gallon demijohn (added a bit of apple juice to top up) - I could not believe how fast it fermented. Took two weeks and by the end of third week it started to clear so I racked off onto campden (lost the lovely pink colour and it’s now yellow) into another demijohn and another week it was ready to bottle. (Not really drinkable yet but waiting for at least half a year before trying again)
The other one - I left fermenting on the pulp for 5-6days and then strained Into another demijohn onto campden topped up a bit with apple juice and this one is still bubbling, cloudy and is pink...
Is leaving to ferment on the pulp better?

 

[TheBigWoo]

For my rhubarb wines I don't ferment on the pulp.

Wines that I do ferment on the pulp are,
Blackberry
Blueberry
Redcurrant
Blackcurrant

Wines that I don't are,
Rhubarb
Plum
Damson
Sloe

I find it easier to strain these wines without the yeast.


Niall

 

[Janulka098]

For my rhubarb wines I don't ferment on the pulp.

Wines that I do ferment on the pulp are,
Blackberry
Blueberry
Redcurrant
Blackcurrant

Wines that I don't are,
Rhubarb
Plum
Damson
Sloe

I find it easier to strain these wines without the yeast.


Niall

Thank you very much. That might be why the other one is still slowly bubbling away and the second one that was in sugar for three days and then squeezed out Is already finished fermenting and cleared.
Can I just ask is it normal for rhubarb wine to taste quite bitter when young and will mellow out in half a year-years time? These are my first two batches... not sure how they supposed to taste like

 

[stan.distortion]

Mine tastes crap for 6 months at the very least, it starts to get drinkable after that and after a year it's getting pretty good. That's for a really basic recipe, 2kg chopped rhubarb, 1.5kg table sugar, white wine yeast. More complex and developed recipes might well be drinkable sooner, your addition of apple juice might help there.

 

[Janulka098]

Mine tastes crap for 6 months at the very least, it starts to get drinkable after that and after a year it's getting pretty good. That's for a really basic recipe, 2kg chopped rhubarb, 1.5kg table sugar, white wine yeast. More complex and developed recipes might well be drinkable sooner, your addition of apple juice might help there.

Glad to hear that :) I knew you need to leave it for a long time but did not expected it to taste that bad :)
Thank you very much.

 

[Applesnmore]

The first wine I made was Rhubarb, one in June and another in July. Both to the same recipe, much as per @Janulka098 . The intriguing thing was how different they were and how they matured differently
The July was tarter and took longer to mature and ended more white wineish whereas the June batch was ready quicker and more dessert wine like.
Which I think is similar to @stan.distortion experience.

My take on it was that it was something to do with the change the acid profile & sugar content of the stems.
As a result I find early pickings make better wine.
Not made any this year as the crowns objected to the floods and have only grown a little this year.

 

[Janulka098]

The first wine I made was Rhubarb, one in June and another in July. Both to the same recipe, much as per @Janulka098 . The intriguing thing was how different they were and how they matured differently
The July was tarter and took longer to mature and ended more white wineish whereas the June batch was ready quicker and more dessert wine like.
Which I think is similar to @stan.distortion experience.

My take on it was that it was something to do with the change the acid profile & sugar content of the stems.
As a result I find early pickings make better wine.
Not made any this year as the crowns objected to the floods and have only grown a little this year.

That makes sense.
Both of mine turned up completely different - the first one still slowly bubbling away and the second is done and put away in cupboard. My rhubarb is still growing like mad...

 

[stan.distortion]

If you've got loads of rhubarb maybe pick up some 5l bottles of water and keep banging them out. It's a very cheap wine to make and the longer it stands the better it gets. I usually do primary fermentation in 10l buckets for about 3 days (when the foaming is dying down) before transferring to demijohns and use the dregs from that as yeast in the next batch. It means you're making up another batch every few days but 1 pack of yeast did 8 gallons for me this year, the rhubarb is going still strong but I ran out of space for more. Keeping it away from the light helps keep the pink colour, some you see is really vibrant and I'm pretty sure that's from always keeping it in the dark.

 

[Janulka098]

If you've got loads of rhubarb maybe pick up some 5l bottles of water and keep banging them out. It's a very cheap wine to make and the longer it stands the better it gets. I usually do primary fermentation in 10l buckets for about 3 days (when the foaming is dying down) before transferring to demijohns and use the dregs from that as yeast in the next batch. It means you're making up another batch every few days but 1 pack of yeast did 8 gallons for me this year, the rhubarb is going still strong but I ran out of space for more. Keeping it away from the light helps keep the pink colour, some you see is really vibrant and I'm pretty sure that's from always keeping it in the dark.

Making third batch already... mine looses colour as soon as add campden - that bleaches it right to dishwater colour. The one that cleared ended up nice straw colour but never got the pink back from the starting juice! Or maybe my rhubarb is not pink enough and is a different variety. Well to keep this one pink I added raspberries so see how that turns out. With this and banana I am running out of space too.

 

[stan.distortion]

I get loads of variation in colour, usually I'll chop up about 4 kg and split it between 2 buckets and even then the colours are always completely different. I don't use campden at all btw, everything goes together cold and I've never had any issues. Some folks boil to sterilise instead, tried it once and it worked fine but it was much more difficult to strain iirc.

 

[Janulka098]

I get loads of variation in colour, usually I'll chop up about 4 kg and split it between 2 buckets and even then the colours are always completely different. I don't use campden at all btw, everything goes together cold and I've never had any issues. Some folks boil to sterilise instead, tried it once and it worked fine but it was much more difficult to strain iirc.

Might try that. Looks like the rhubarb just keeps going (it’s next to compost heap). Good idea with the plastic Water bottles :) doing my second banana wine in one of those and rack to glass after finished for conditioning. Think will probably manage to get another one on in couple of weeks. Look forward to next year tasting them all!