rhubarb wine

[troton]

I am starting a batch of Rhubarb wine. I froze it before weighting it. The recipe is asking for 3 lbs I am assuming that is before freezing and thawing it. I want to put it in a nylon bag and drain in Primary but confused on how much I should put in. About how many gallons of juice should I expect to be starting with. Help Need to start soon before it goes bad.

 

[smurfe]

You don't actually juice the fruit. You put it in a mesh bag and add it to the primary with water to volume and sugar to reach the desired SG. You leave the bag in during primary fermentation until the recipe states to take it out.

 

[Luc]

Don't worry, if it is in the freezer it will not go bad for a long time.

First I disagree with Smurfe (Sorry Smurf)
When the rhubarb is taken out of the freezer you just slightly have to press
it and it will release juice immediately without effort.

Do not pulp-ferment the rhubarb, just ferment the juice.

Mind you rhubarb is very acid so I have written an entry in my weblog
about a way to remove the acid without using chalk (as is the usual method)
Look at :

http://wijnmaker.web-log.nl/wijn_weblog/2007/06/12/index.html

for the story.

Now rhubarb has a relatively high juice gain.
I had 712 grams rhubarb which gained me 550 mililiters (half a liter) juice.
So 1 kilo would gain about 750 ml juice.
Take this as a guideline and use :

http://web2.airmail.net/sgross/fermcalc/

If you want conversion to US measurements.

With this you can calculate the amount of rhubarb needed for the size of
carboys you have.

Luc

 

[troton]

I kinda winged it. Figure use it as a learning experience. Problem now is it day 6 and it still has such a high SG Last night it was 1.075 It should be at 1.040 and it is very bubbly. I should be adding to the Secondary soon. Should I add some thing. Like I said very much learning. Or is it a lost cause??

 

[smurfe]

Luc, I have made a rhubarb and what I did was chop the rhubarb up and mash it a bit to expose the pulp and put it in a mesh bag. I originally tried to squeeze juice out of it but didn't get a whole lot so I basically steeped it in the bag like a tea bag. I did not freeze the rhubarb first though which would of helped release the juice though. Mine did turn out pretty decent though. You are correct. I forgot about freezing the fruit to help extract the juice.