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



It's Been A While.....!

I've not really made much wine or beer over the last year or so, only managing a couple of gallons of Rhubarb wine and three gallons of Blackberry (plus one Blackberry and Apple which smells delicious!)

 

It's a great time of year to be starting again too, with Dandelions almost ready for wine.

 

I have also decided to have a go at all-grain brewing and I'm just getting the gear together

to start my first brew.

 

There's a lot to learn and I'll keep you posted with the ups and downs of the process.

 

First things first;

 

Buy some books and read them.  Then read them again.

 

Visit one of the online forums like this one

 

 

This is going to be my new 'brew shed'

 

 

 

 

Over the next couple of days, I will give it a coat of paint and add some electrics.

I'll also stick a worktop and some shelves up too.



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.

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???!!!

Oz & James Drink To Britain

I recently borrowed this whole series from Lovefilm and enjoyed it.  Except, that is, Oz going on and on about French wine makers coming to the south of England, buying up acres of land to grow grapes, and making the most fabulous champagne style wines etc (or whatever other pretentious descriptions he came out with).  Wasn't that all covered in the very first series, albeit in France?

Anyway, other than that, I am very disappointed that there was absolutely NO mention whatsoever of fruit wines. Fruit (or Country) wines have been made in England for many, many years, as grapes weren't grown.  So, wine was made with whatever ingredients could be found or scrounged.  There are numerous good fruit wine producers in the UK from Cairn 'o' Mohr in Scotland, to the Lurgashall Winery in Sussex. 

Another disappointment was the lack of homebrewers.  They did pop in on a lady that brews beer in her garage, but she produced gallons of the stuff each week and it was sold in pubs local to her.  That's nice to see, but if they'd edited out all the boring French wine nonsense, they could have found room to fit in a homebrewer that makes beer in his or her shed like me, and many others like me, for the fun of it. 

I believe the programme would have been a fairer representation of Britain's ability to produce it's own quality drinks, rather than aspiring to be something it's not (and never will be).

Rack Off!!!

Sounds like an Antipodean insult, but is actually a necessary process in wine making, and to a lesser extent in beer making.  Racking off is basically the process of siphoning off the nice clear liquid from a demijohn, while leaving the sediment behind.

The first racking is normally done once fermentation has ceased (about 3 months) but the wine does not need to be clear.  This will stop the sediment from giving the wine off-flavours, which can ruin a good wine if left for too long.  The next rackings are to make sure the wine is clear for bottling.  Some wines only require a couple of rackings, others need 3 or 4.  There is no limit to the amount you can do, and it won't spoil the wine.

It is also a good time to have a little taste of each wine to see how it is progressing.

Today, I racked off 2 gallons of Rhubarb, 2 gallons of Elderflower and 1 gallon of Gooseberry.  These will all be ready to bottle soon, so I'll leave them to see if any more sediment drops over the next month or so, just to make sure.  I often don't bottle straight away as wine is supposed to mature better in bulk, as there is less temperature fluctuation than in a bottle.  For me personally, I don't have enough empty bottles lying around so tend to only bottle a wine when I have spares (it also takes away the temptation to drink a wine before it's matured, unless of course you drink it straight from the demijohn, in which case you've got a serious problem and probably shouldn't be making wine in the first place).

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!!) 

If You Dare......

At the end of 2009 I had the idea of making Chilli wine but couldn't find a decent recipe anywhere.  So I came up with my own (which basically equates to bunging everything in and seeing how it turns out).

Chilli Wine

Makes 1 Gallon;

250ml Tinned Pineapple (blended with juice)

350g  Raspberries (frozen pack)
1 Tin White Grape Concentrate
6  Cloves
2 Tablespoons dried Chillis
3 oz Root Ginger
1 Teaspoon Citric Acid

1 Cup Strong Tea

1.5 lb Raisins

2.5 lb Sugar

Yeast & Nutrient

Mince or chop the raisins, bruise the Ginger.

Put everything in a fermenting bin and add boiling water (to make up to  just under a gallon).

When cooled, add the yeast & nutrient.

Cover bin with a towel and leave for a week or so, stirring daily.
Strain off into demijohn and place under airlock.

This wine has a lovely fruity taste to start with, but soon becomes very hot!  The heat is in the throat rather than the mouth, so it seems the Ginger is creating more heat than the Chillis.

A fierce wine, best served in shot glasses.

Does not mellow with age.

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.