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swillologist

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Hi! I'm new to winemaking. Had an over flow of grapes last fall. My neighbor talked me into making some wine. He has been making wine for sometime. I'm not much of a wine person. So I really don't know if it is good or not. Everyone thatI have gave it to said thatit is good. But they can't beat the price and I think they are justbeing nice. I started a batch of rhubarb a couple of weeks ago. I have had some problems with it. But I think it is going now. This could be an interesting batch. I have enjoyed reading the forum. Sound like a nice bunch of people.
 
Welcome to the forum swillologist, interesting to see how your rhubarb turns out, there's a couple of us getting ready to try a batch of this I think. Have fun with the new hobby, and enjoy your stay here. Plenty of good people here willing to help and share the experience with!
 
Welcome swillologist, I have not made rhubarb but have had it a few
times and do like it. I like making wine more than drinking it.
 
Welcome Swillologist to the forum. Just keep on making it and the compliments will keep coming from the friends.


Where did you get your degree in Swillology?
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Welcome to the forum Swillologist....I have made some rhubarb wine and the acid levels can be a little tricky....3lbs. of rhubarb per gallon seem to come out OK, but at 5lbs. per gallon I had to add calcium carbonate to bring the acid level down. Rhubarb can make a very delightful wine or used as a base with apple or strawberry and others fruits...Good luck and hope you enjoy this new hobby...
 
Welcome Swillologist....hope you make many more batches of wine and share your experiences with us.
 
Hi Swillologist, Nice to have you on board! Rhubarb is by far one of my favorite wines! I hoard it...
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1 of the ways to know if your wine is good or not is if YOU like it. Compliments from others are nice, but there's nothing quite like enjoying something that you produced!
 
Thanks for the welcome everyone. I'm still working on that one appleman. It's going to take a long time to get a PHD. LOL Bert I used 21 lbs of rhubarbin 6 gallons. The recipe I have calls for 2 1/2 to 4 lbs. I don't know if this batch is going to be any good. It didn't start to ferment for13 days. I tried more yeast a couple of days after it didn't start. Being new to this, I have never used a yeast starter yet. Maybe that is what I should have done to start with. Guess the main thing is to learn something from this and I have been learning a lot here. Thanks again.

Edited by: swillologist
 
Bert said:
Welcome to the forum Swillologist....I have made some rhubarb wine and the acid levels can be a little tricky....3lbs. of rhubarb per gallon seem to come out OK, but at 5lbs. per gallon I had to add calcium carbonate to bring the acid level down. Rhubarb can make a very delightful wine or used as a base with apple or strawberry and others fruits...Good luck and hope you enjoy this new hobby...


How much Calcium Carbonate per gallon do you use???? I am nearing time to try another batch and will surely use it this time.


This time I am going to try Pineapple Juice with it.
 
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From Texas


Cool name!!! Great to have you here with us!!!
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And PWP
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Great Avatar!!!!


Ramona
 
Thanks Northern Winos and rgecaprock. This is a great forum. I'm really new at this Northern Winos. I followed the recipe. It didn't call for any calcium carbonate. So I didn't use any. Maybe that is why it took 13 days for itto start to ferment. I'm still guessing on that one.
 
Swill, did you use k-meta( potassium metabisulfite or campden tabs) in the primary and what was the temp of the must?
 
Welcome aboard Swill, do you have initials with that degree and what institution did u go to perhaps we were in the same class together!!! I know Wade and Waldo started their own school of swillology , they are professors of the arts!!
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WadeI used campen tablets 24 hours before i sprinkled the yeast. The temp when I sprinkled the yeastwas 78 degrees. Then it went to 80 and stayed there. I thought it should be around 70 soI shut off the heater. The room temp was 70. I have a small room that I ferment in and I use a space heater to keepit at 70 degrees. I think my heater was blowing on my fermenter and keepingthe mustwarm. When I shut the heater off the temp in the room went down to 66. I temped the must and it was 68. It just took 3 days for the SG to drop from 1.095 to 1.030. I thought that might be to fast. I haven't took any readings today. Thought I would wait a day or two before I took them again. Got a BS with it Trigham. Got something to do with cattle is all I know for sure. LOL Edited by: swillologist
 
Everything sounds fine, how much campden did you use. Just ying to
figure out why it took so long to start. Did you take a gravity reading
during those days as sometimes there are little leaks tht prevent
the airlock from bubbling. Did you have a lid on it that has a rubber
grommet. I had a ot of trouble with those and I re drilled the hole to
fit a rubber bung instead.
 
I used six, 1 per gallon. The gravity stayed the same the whole time, 1.095. The lid wasn't on tight and no airlock. I stirred it a time or two. I thought that might be the problem. It didn't help either. Iwas going to throw it out and start another batch. The wife came up from the basement last Tuesday morning and told me she thought that it had started to work. Sure enough it had. My recipe said to cover the primary loosely. It said to getall the air you can get to it so it will get going good. Here is a picture of what I have now.
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It has certainly started turning to wine. Give it some time and it should be some really good drinking stuff. What's in the little bottles with plastic caps?
 
Ive strayed from using that much k-meta in the beginning as Ive had a
few that were hard to start due to this. Some yeast strains such s Red
Star Cotes Des Blanc are really stubborn about starting and the extra
k-meta (that is called for in most recipes) really puts a strain(no pun
intended) on these batches getting started. Campden tablets also vary
in their strenth as Ive learned from a few people, theyre very
inaccurate. I usually use 2-3 in a 6 gallon batch and only use them in
the beginning as the tablets even when crushed up have a lot of iller
in them to hold them together and this filler doesnt all dissolve very
good and will give you floaties in your wine if you use them before
bottling. Sounds like you did everything right and just had some bad
luck with the campden tabs. What yeast did you use?
 
appleman that is a bottle from the first batchthat I made. It is made from some fredona grape that I grew here. That was a learning experience. It is a metal cap.I will post another picture of it. wade the first yeast I used was red star pasteur champagne. That was the only packet of it that I had. After about three days, when it hadn't started yet. I put in a packet ofLalvin 71B-1122.Ten days later it started. I was about to throw it out. I had to freeze the new batch of rhubarb. So I was just letting it set in the primary until thenew rhubarb was ready to go.
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