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.



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???!!!

The Story So Far......

Fermenting/Maturing In Demijohns-

(In Gallons)
2 Wheat (lighter than the Wheat I made before, but nice taste)
2  Barley (Similar to Wheat, but heavier & slightly bitter. Early days yet)
1 Apple (Lovely Cider smell & taste)
1 Pear (Lovely smell, flavour will improve with age)
1 Banana (Only just started, looks vile, smells lovely)
6 Elderberry (2 yrs old in November, 1 gallon drank already, well worth the effort)
1 Elderberry & Raspberry (As above with handful of Raspberries)
1 Rose Petal (Tastes like Turkish Delight, early days, should be lovely when ready)
1 Strawberry (Always a good one, although I used more fruit this time, it has a harsh edge, may mature out)
1 Apricot Sherry (Sherry yeast, fruity but not very Sherry!)
1 Peach Sherry (Lovely Peach flavour, again, not Sherry)
2 Elderflower (Lovely, one of my faves, although this one is quite sweet)
9 Rhubarb (varying ages, fantastic and easy to make)
1 Carrot (Very big flavour, very strong, worth the effort of boiling)
1 Blackcurrant Ribena (Not sure about this, bit sweet, think I topped up with too much juice)
1 Barley Tea (From tea bags, nearly 4 years old, odd one)
1 Plum (won't clear despite being over a year old)
1 Spiced Plum (as above)
1 Plum & Wheat (and again)
1 Mandarin (Another that won't clear, but nice flavour)
1 Citrus (Recipe says sweet, but couldn't be drier, nice though)
1 Spiced Beetroot (Strange one, lost it's lovely purple colour, now brown)
1 Gooseberry (harsh, needs to mature)
2 Rowanberry (Haven't tried this for ages, very bitter when tasted a year ago, must rack off!)
2 Dandelion (Still in bucket, no yeast added, smells of....well....Dandelions)
1 Gorse (Nightmare to pick flowers, too many thorns, hand stills hurts)

In Bottles-

25 Rhubarb (From 5 gallon batch, only 8 months old but very nice, will leave some to mature)
4 Chilli  (My recipe, lovely colour, fruity, very very hot)
1 Wheat  (Lovely, last one left so leaving until 2 years old)
1 Rosehip (Again, leaving longer, lovely wine, be a bit sad to finish it)
1 Marrow (Marrow? Yep, bloody lovely, would make again if I could get hold of enough Marrows)
5 Ribena Strawberry (Too sweet, but nice mixed half & half with Rhubarb)
3 Citrus (Nice, but not sweet as the recipe says, far from it)


Beer-

About 10 pints of Harvest Stout left (Not really my drink, but thought I'd try it.  Made with medium spraymalt. Tastes a bit like Coffee. Better tasting slightly less cool)
40 Pints of Coopers 'Real Ale' (My favourite kit so far, must be made with light or medium spraymalt and NOT sugar)

Other-

About 1 gallon of Plum Brandy (Had spare plums.......)
About half a gallon of Rumpot (Heaps of fruit, bung it all in, lovely but probably won't bother again as no one's drinking it!!)