Rhubarb Wine

My first wine of 2014 is my old favourite, rhubarb.  I have used just under 3 pounds of rhubarb and 2 and a half pounds of sugar.  I am going to boil up a pound of bananas and top up with the strained juice.  This should add some body and, hopefully, a different aroma and flavour.

 

 

Unfortunately, the lovely pink colour will drop out as the wine ferments.

 

I don't have a source of free rhubarb any more so had to buy 3lb for £3.  I'm not sure how this compares to the supermarket price but it's grown locally and, though not certified organic, is grown without chemicals. Add this together with 35p (approx.) for the bananas and £1 for the sugar, it works out at 72p per bottle.  Not as good as 20p obviously, but cheap all the same.

 

More on rhubarb wine can be found here



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???!!!

A Load Of Old Rhubarb

I was reading a forum post a couple of weeks back entitled 'What To Do With Rhubarb'.  There are many suggestions I'm sure, but the amount of ridiculous wine recipes that cropped up  astounded me.  Freeze the Rhubarb to break down the flavours, add this that and the other, boil the Rhubarb etc etc.  I'm sure most of these recipes have their place, but this was not a wine making forum, far from it.  Rhubarb is one of the easiest wines to make, always consistent, and ideal for beginners or non-wine makers (which frequent the forum in question). So, thanks to C.J.J. Berry for this recipe, I'd never do it any other way;

Makes 1 gallon

3lb Rhubarb
3lb Sugar
Wine yeast & nutrient

Wash the Rhubarb under the tap and cut in to smallish pieces.

Put in plastic fermenting bin and cover with all the sugar

Leave for 24 hours or until all the sugar has dissolved.  It may need a quick stir to get more of the Rhubarb covered.

Strain all the juice off into a demijohn.  Fill to shoulder with cold water and add the yeast & nutrient.  After about a week (or once the frothing has subsided), top up with water.

No boiling, no messing around, and makes a great wine.

I recently asked the Scottish fruit wine producer Cairn 'o' Mohr why they stopped making Rhubarb wine and was told that it was too much grief with all the boiling.  I can't understand that as I have made many gallons using this recipe and it is consistently good.

And if you've never heard of C.J.J. Berry, I really do suggest you Google him.