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.



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.