Another batch of rhubarb wine is in the mix, since the frozen rhubarb is bulky and taking up space in my freezer. Space I need so that I can freeze raspberries which are coming into season and soon plums as well. I’m making a recipe similar to the one I did last year, but with a little more rhubarb (10.5 pounds instead of 9 pounds for the same 3 gallon volume).
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Process:
Harvested and washed 10.5 pounds of fresh rhubarb. I then cut the rhubarb into half-inch pieces and froze them to help break down the cells for better sugar extraction.
7-7-13: Put frozen rhubarb into a 5-gallon bucket to thaw.
7-8-13: Rhubarb has thawed. I strained and lightly squeezed the rhubarb to collect the juice (about 3 quarts), which I put into my 3-gallon primary bucket with some Campden tablets and an airlock. The rhubarb pulp went back into the 5-gallon bucket with 5 pounds of sugar to extract the remaining juices.
7-9-13: Strained off the juice that was extracted (about a quart) into my primary bucket. I then covered the rhubarb with water (about a gallon) to let soak for one more day.
7-10-13: Strained off the liquid and squeezed the juice out of the rhubarb pulp, and put this into my primary bucket bringing the volume up to 2 gallons. I then rinsed the rhubarb with another gallon of water, and added this to my primary too. I measured the OG at 1.078, giving a potential alcohol of 10.3% ABV. Pitched the yeast and sealed the primary bucket with an airlock.
7-21-13: Racked the wine into 3 1-gallon carboys.
6-27-14: Bottled into 31 12-ounce bottles. FG measured at 0.992 giving a strength of 11.4 %ABV.