Beet and Rhubarb Wines

[Xandra]

Howdy All! I've been exploring your forum for half a day now and am really enjoying! Awesome information!

I'm relatively new to winemaking, but my Mom (86 years old) has gotten me interested in exploring and experimenting. I've got two different wines going, thought I'd share and see if you folks might give some feedback and advice. I'm slowly acquiring equipment, started out totally on the cheap but am trying to progress as the budget will allow.

I started a rhubarb on 6/7, with a recipe that called for equal weights of rhubarb and sugar, a couple lemons, a couple oranges, yeast and water. I doubled the recipe, and after primary for 4 days, racked into 4 1-gallon Safeway water bottles (buck apiece). Didn't have airlocks yet, so used balloons, but got airlocks and bung stoppers about a week later. Secondary was prolific, a lot of sludge, so racked again about 10 days later, fermentation was still going strong. Finally it stalled, and I tasted... Not so good, but pretty belly-warming. I don't have a hydrometer yet, that'll have to be out of next paycheck. I read that it needed to be set aside in a temperature-controlled place in the dark to age and clear, so the 3 gallons I ended up with after racking again went to the garage. I guess I was impatient, it cleared a bit but not much, so I added some bentonite. That helped some, so I racked it off that a couple days later. Then I read that if I refrigerate it, it will clear more and the acids will disperse. So it's sitting in my fridge now, a bit more clear and slightly better tasting, with a bit of sludge at the bottom. After reading your forum, I learned that I got too impatient, and now am wondering what I might do to improve whatever the final product is going to be, without adding a bunch of chemicals. Still tastes acidic, a bit bitter even with a sweet taste, and a bit yeasty. I'm wondering if I pull it out of the fridge, let it set with airlocks back on it, if it'll ferment some more and maybe improve?

About 10 days ago I started a beet wine. This recipe called for equal weights of beets and sugar, a lemon, water and yeast... I adjusted the recipe to give me 2 gallons once I racked to secondary. It's still in plastic water bottles, but with airlocks this time, and while it's fermenting fairly slowly, it's steady. Beautiful color, about half an inch of sludge. Used Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast for both of these batches. I'm wondering when I should rack it off the sludge... Should I do it now, or wait until fermentation is complete?

Today I purchased an actual primary bucket (rather than using my stew pot) and a 5-gallon carboy, some Camden tablets, some new yeast (Lalvin Bourgovin RC 212, the fella said it's better for reds), and ran out of money for a hydrometer. I've got a garden full of beets and want to do beets again, but this time I want to do it a bit more "technically correct," still given that I don't quite yet have all the equipment. I'm thinking about using the actual beets in the must, not just the beet water from boiling them, to get a fuller-bodied product, and thinking about adding a hint of clove. Once the primary is ready to rack into the carboy, how long should I plan on letting the product ferment before racking it again?

I'm sure I have questions I don't yet know enough to ask, but after this long of a post, I better leave off, LOL!! Thanks for reading, and for any input you might have to help me learn to make quality wines with minimal additives. Keep up the good posts, I'm really enjoying reading and gaining understanding!

 

[jamesngalveston]

first...you can use just about any kind of container for the primary..
one of my favorites is a 52 quart igloo. has handles on it, and is easily moved.
I do rack into a glass carboy after fermentation is complete.
If you add the raw beet, i would quarter them, put in a bag, like muslin,paint strainer bag etc.
If you add pectin enzyme, which you should, there will be not much of the fruit left after about 5 days, it will have pretty much disolved.
I have not made wine from beets...
Mayber others here have that can give you pointers.
Heres a link to jack kellers beet wine
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques29.asp

 

[Arne]

Welcome to the forum. Next chance you get, pick up a hydrometer. Probably should get 2 as they are pretty fragile. If you run into problems, by having the starting specific gravity and where you are at when the problem occurs, we can maybe help you straighten things out. Rather than just blindly following a recipe, if you follow along here, we can probably help you get the ingredients you want to make a decent wine, but you are going to need a few tools to help you. Good luck with all your wines, Arne.

 

[Xandra]

This is the first batch of beet that I tried, as you can see it's clearing. Of course, needs more. Tasted it, it's um... alcoholic and sour. Knew less of what I'm doing then than I do now, which isn't saying much, but I'm trying. Time will tell

 

[saramc]

Xandra...just give it time. The cold stabilization, go read up on that, will take a bit to do its thing, the clearing aspect would come before any acid precipitation does. Read over adjusting acids with calcium carbonate and potassium bicarb.
If you are heading into cooler weather, weather that approaches freezing, that is a great time to use nature to clear and cold stabilize the wine. A temp drop of just 10F will clear wine but you need a bit colder to use nature to cold stabilize.

The sour you mention is:
1. raw wine
2. acids
**next time you grab a sip, add a bit of simple syrup to the sample just so you can see where that bit of sweetening up takes it.