1st wine from scratch so be prepared for stupid questions

I've already mentioned I've some kits either bottled or fermenting at the min, they've turned out real nice. Also my mother in law is giving me some of this years rhubarb (she can't use it quick enough) and other fruits.
So rhubarb wine is first up as she gave 2kg frozen from last year
Here's my plan, I've borrowed from HBT (credit to yooper) and upped to 5litres
I'm going with raisins as there easier to get and using EC-1118 as I have a few packs

1.76 kg rhubarb
160 ml white grape concentrate or 294 grams light raisins
4.29 L water
1.3 kg sugar
1/3 tsp tannin
1.5 tsp yeast nutrient
1.5 campden tablets
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 pkg yeast ec-1118

Any words of advice or changes would be appreciated
Hopefully all goes well.
Cheers

My only change would just be to add a bit more fruit. You should post this in our May 2015 Wine of the Month Club! We are always looking for new recipes and especially those that are experiments for us.

Jericurl said:

My only change would just be to add a bit more fruit. You should post this in our May 2015 Wine of the Month Club! We are always looking for new recipes and especially those that are experiments for us.

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How much more do u recommend? I have 2 kg but. Can get as much as I want

I'll post it as soon as I get it on

Duplicate post

You may want to try a less vigorous yeast. EC-1118 is very aggressive and can blow off a great deal of the aroma and flavor that is otherwise available from the rhubarb. The other thing is that rhubarb is very acidic and while the tartness may be to your liking, the amount of acidity in the rhubarb itself may stress the yeast. Can you check the pH of the must? There are some posts going back a few years from a fellow called Luc (very astute wine maker from Holland) who developed a technique to remove some of the acidity from rhubarb (by freezing and then cutting out and removing areas where the acids were more concentrated...

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7289&highlight=rhubarb

Interesting article.
The rhubarb is already chopped and frozen, so half the battle done, can extract the juice as per the normal methods? then freeze again and cut out the spots he talks about.
Now about the yeast what one do you recommend?

As Jeri mentioned, I would up the fruit.
Probably closer to the 2.5-3kg range per gallon.

wineforfun said:

As Jeri mentioned, I would up the fruit.

Probably closer to the 2.5-3kg range per gallon.

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Ok I'll do that

Going with Lavlin Qa23 as it seems to have the qualities I'm hoping to get hopefully being the word

Well no turning back now [emoji12] started this this morning. Currently 2.5kg frozen rhubarb thawing in primary....I've stepped onto the slippery slope, my crab apple trees and plum trees are full of blooms so here's hoping for a decent crop...

All went well making this and I've had to rack already as there was approx 1/2' lees already.... Looks and smells great I've gone and made 3 gallons of dragon blood as well.

Congrats on your first wine! So far so good. A little tip: you don't have to rack off of the lees so often. You can definitely wait more than a month before any concern of the gross lees imparting off-flavors. This way, you can save time and messes. Transferring to the secondary container is usually the first opportunity to rack, with the second after a month or so.