How To Make Rhubarb Wine

(approx 20p per bottle)

Yesterday, I was kindly given some Rhubarb.

After weighing it, I discovered there was 30lb of Rhubarb, which is enough to make 10 gallons of wine.

Although I am making 2 x 5 gallon batches, the method is the same as for making 1 gallon. 

The basic recipe is 3lb of Rhubarb & 3lb of sugar per gallon, water, yeast & yeast nutrient.

Sterilise a fermenting bucket, rinsing thoroughly. 

Wipe the Rhubarb, or rinse it under the tap.

Cut or slice the sticks into smallish chunks and put them in the fermenting bin.

Cover with all the sugar and leave for 24 hours.

It should now resemble this picture ====>

It's worth getting your (clean) hand in and making sure all the sugar is off the sides of the bin and there are no lumps underneath the Rhubarb. 

Give it all a quick mush round and leave for a few hours longer if necessary.

Once all the sugar has dissolved, strain off the juice into (sterilised) demijohns or a larger fermenting vessel, depending on what volume you have made.  You don't actually have to strain the juice, just try not to let any Rhubarb into the fermentation vessel.

Once all the juice is strained off, add some water to the Rhubarb , swill it round and strain again.  Do this until you have filled your fermentation vessel with the desired amount.

Add all purpose wine yeast and nutrient to a small amount of lukewarm water, and leave for a few minutes to rehydrate.  Add this to the juice and stir.

After about 3 months, the wine will have finished fermenting.

At this stage it should be racked off into a fresh vessel, and again a couple of months later once clear.

It can then be bottled. It will be ready to drink when 9 months old but will improve if kept for a year or so.



Start Up Costs For Making Beer

Having been quite surprised by the final figures for starting up in wine making, I thought it only right that I should find the cost for making 40 pints of beer.

Again, my figures are based on buying everything from new.  I use King Keg barrels, which are more expensive than other barrels, but I have read that they are one of the best barrels for homebrew.  You can, of course, buy a cheaper barrel, or even a secondhand one.  Also, the price of beers kits can range from £8 to £22 or more, but most kits are around the £12 mark.

I use Spray Malt, as it gives a better flavour and more body, but if you are on a budget you can use 1kg of sugar instead.

King Keg Pressure barrel  £45.99

Fermenting Bin  £8

Beer Kit (incl yeast)  £12

Spray Malt  (1kg)  £9.50

Sterilising Powder  £2.75

So, that’s £78.24 for the lot, which is £1.95 a pint!  Still as cheap as buying a bottle of beer from the supermarket.  Subsequent brews will cost 53p per pint. 

It certainly beats paying the government MORE money, surely?

Equipment

It’s strange where bits & pieces come from.  I have picked up demijohns from charity shops and free ad papers.  I saw a pressure barrel in a charity shop once, but decided against buying it as the seals looked dry and cracked and it may be difficult (or impossible) to get more.  It’s always worth keeping your eyes open though.

I recently got the offer of a fridge, that a friend knew of which was going to be thrown out.  I said I’d take it, with the intention of using it as a fridge (what else?)  But, by the time it came into my possession, it was no longer working. So, I decided it would be a great place to store bottles of wine.  It now stands in the garage, keeping all my bottled wine at a near-constant temperature.  Wine (apparently) tastes better if kept constant, so this is ideal.

It is well worth putting the word about to friends and family if you start up this hobby.  I have received countless offers for free fruit that people are glad to see put to a good use rather than rotting.  It’s always appreciated if you hand over a bottle of wine made with the fruit once it’s ready!  And often, people will notice demijohns etc in the charity shops that I don’t look in.  Just the other day, I got 2 free demijohns given to me.  I always appreciate this, and you can never have too many as you don’t know when one may break, or you need another one for that bumper crop of Apples.

Starting Up Costs For Wine Making

I was wondering earlier, how much would it cost to actually start wine making, starting from scratch and buying everything from new?  It seems like an expensive hobby to start, but the figures below suggest otherwise.

What you will need to produce 1 gallon of Rhubarb wine (not including wine bottles which you can save instead of recycle, and not including the cost of Rhubarb, which a kind neighbour gave you for free)

Fermenting Bin    £8

Glass Demijohn    £6

Sterilising Powder    £2.75

All Purpose Wine Yeast    £1.99

Yeast Nutrient    £1.09

3lbs of Sugar    £1.48

Bung & Airlock    £2

TOTAL           £23.31

So, you'll get 6 bottles out of 1 gallon.  This means a grand total of £3.88 a bottle!! 

This means that if you don't enjoy it, and you never touch the equipment again, you've still only paid £3.88 for a bottle of wine.  This is comparable to a cheap bottle of plonk from the supermarket (to which your Rhubarb wine will be far superior, of course).  If you were to compare this to a commercial bottle of Rhubarb wine, you'd be saving roughly £2.12 on each bottle.

Also, bear in mind that you will have plenty of yeast, nutrient and sterilising powder for later use.  You'll even have over half a bag of sugar left for making the tea.  The equipment, obviously, can be used again and again and again.

Your second batch of Rhubarb wine will only cost you the price of just over 1 bag of sugar (if you don't have some left over from last time).  This gives a rough total, per bottle, of 20p, as will all subsequent batches until you need to buy more yeast, nutrient or sterilising powder (they should give you around 20 gallons from a pot)

Don't forget that demijohns can often be found for free (try Freecycle etc) or for a pound or so at your local charity shop.  Most of mine have come from this source.  Those that have been bought from other sources have cost maybe £2.50, try your local free ad paper. Always check that they haven't been used for cleaning paintbrushes, and they are not cracked.  A chip on the top edge is not usually a problem.  I have never paid for a new demijohn, and never will!  Of course, fermenting bins can also be found from sources other than new, again, make sure they are in good order and don't smell dodgy.

So, it begs the question, WHAT'S STOPPING YOU???!!!