Recipe Archives->Drinks->Rhubarb Wine 01

Rhubarb Wine
For about 4 gallons of finished wine, use the following quantities:

20 pounds of rhubarb stalks
12 pounds of sugar
3 1/2 gallons of water
Bakers yeast or wine yeast starter

Lay the rhubarb stalks on a working table and start in the middle
of each stalk and crush it. Put the crushed rhubarb in a large
polyethylene pail, tub or pottery crock. Add 1 1/2 gallons of boiled
water that has been cooled down. Dissolve four grains of sodium
metabisulphite for every gallon of "must" in a cup of warm water
and stir it in well with the "must". Put on a cover or cover with
a sheet of polyethylene with a ball of cotton on one edge and tie
it down with a cotton cord. Leave for five days. Then remove the
pulp and place it in a clean cloth and wring it out. Put the liquid
in a large polyethylene jug or glass bottle. Test the wine liquid
or "must" with your saccharometer to ascertain the amount of sugar
you need for the alcohol content that you want. Include the water
to be added with the sugar. Dissolve half of the sugar in a gallon
of water and boil about two minutes. Cool to lukewarm and add. Put
on a fermentation lock and leave ferment for about ten days. Dissolve
the other half of the sugar in a gallon of water and boil for about
two minutes. Cool to lukewarm and add to the "must". Leave ferment
until fermentation stops. Siphon or "rack" into another sterilized
jug leaving as much sediment behind as possible. Be sure that the
jug is filled right up to the top with no air in the jug. Fit a
fermentation lock and leave until "polished" or clear. Then siphon
into bottles or jugs and cap.

Printable version: rhubarb-wine01.txt.