Welcome to our plot!

I'm Hazel, and in Nov 2006 my friend Jane and I took on a half plot at Hill Allotments, Sutton Coldfield - we want the satisfaction of growing and eating our own fruit and veg, and to improve our diet (and fitness!).

This is the story of what happened next...........

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Rhubarb Wine - 3 Months

The rhubarb wine has now been sitting quietly for a couple of months - it stopped fermenting ages ago & it has been happy to be left to its own devices to sloooooowly clear, leaving a slight layer of pale sediment on the bottom of the demijohn.

The sediment will taint the wine if it's left in the demijohn too long, so it's time to siphon off the good clear stuff into a bucket & discard the yuck.

Once the clear wine has been safely siphoned through the tube into the bucket, the next stage is to de-gas the wine - when CO2 gas is locked in the wine, it is said to affect both the taste & appearance of the wine, although it does dissipate over time.

De-gassing wine involves shaking it all about vigorously & splashing is back & forth between demijohn & bucket a number of times in order to release any carbon dioxide gas present.

The wine ends up back in the demijohn with a teaspoon of potassium sorbate & a crushed campden tablet - a belt & braces measure, these chemicals stopping any possibility of further fermentation in the bottles.

Any sediment should appear & settle out quickly, & it will be ready to bottle in a couple of weeks.

Oh - do remember to have a taste, but don't be surprised if its not perfect at this point - it will need a good six months in the bottles where further magic will transform it from simply alcoholic fruit juice into something really rather good.

7 comments:

  1. Beautiful colour - sort of like diluted Ribena but with a very grown up 'punch'. Can't remember what you said the booze percentage was?

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  2. I enjoyed reading about the rhubarb wine making process. I have never tasted rhubarb wine, but it does have a very nice color and I am sure it is delicious.

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  3. Must rack my wine - repeat after me...!

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  4. That is an amazing colour! I seem to remember that we filtered our wine before bottling some times. Some contraption like a funnel with a filter paper and some white chalky powder to take away the impurities. A wine of that colour deserves to be sparkling clear! Hope you enjoy it, but not all at once.

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  5. It's 13.5%, Bilbo, and now ready to bottle - time to fiddle about with steralising bottles & corks.

    For a home wine maker, it's a good one to start with, Keewee - it doesn't take an age, clears well without much faffing about, and tastes good too! Shame I can't do a 'taster-net'!

    Not my favourite job, either, Flum - although once you're set up you can rack a whole lot of batches with little extra fuss than just the one.

    They don't always clear as easily as the rhubarb wine, Matron - and I have resorted to using finings before, although patience is generally all that's needed.

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  6. Thanks for posting the rhubarb wine process. Really helpful. I'm now at the bottling stage. I used red grape concentrate instead of white to get the nice pinky colour. If you are interested, have a look. http://www.didithinkorsaythat.co.uk/?p=142

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  7. I'm glad that you found it useful, Kelly!

    Oddly enough, I opening the first bottle of this wine just yesterday evening. Very light and fruity!

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