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.



About Me.....

Hello, and thanks for stopping by my blog.

I have been making country wines for a few years, and have been messing around with beer kits for roughly a year. It is suprising the results that can come from a few basic ingredients.  I am lucky to live in a rural part of Scotland, so don't have to go far for most ingredients,  but there are ingredients close to all of us, it's just knowing where to look.  I have just started a 2 gallon batch of Dandelion wine.  I have absolutely no idea how it's going to taste,  it doesn't smell too good at the moment, but all that will hopefully change as the process progresses!!

Anyway, I hope to keep this blog updated with the trials and tribulations of wine and beer making, along with some pics, recipes and (most importantly) shortcuts to make life easier.

And for the record, I don't make grape wine.  I'm not a big lover of most grape wines, and certainly wouldn't bother wasting time and effort making the stuff when there are plenty of drinkable wines in the shops.