First fruitwine is bland - looking for advice

[user 34219]

Hello all : this is my first post. I come to you with my tail between my legs, looking for help...

I followed a recipe for RHUBARB wine from a book, which describes the process in not so much detail - and has little advice for when things go wrong. I've been looking up information, but as a complete beginner it's hard for me to pinpoint what is applicable and what is not.

So my first concern is that, after 6 weeks or so in a demi-john with airlock, the wine is pretty bland. There's zero rhubarb taste, it's just a dry, low-alcohol, wine-ish beverage. There's nothing offensive about it, no bad taste, just no taste. I will elaborate on my process below, but my first question is: at this stage, what can I do to potentially improve what I have?

So here's what steps I took:

1) chopped up the rhubarb, put it in a large plastic container (a 20l vat that I got from a home brewing kit for beer, sterilised with a no-rinse product that came with the kit) together with the juice and pared peel of one lemon, poured over 5liters of boiling water, and left to rest.

2) once below 30°C, I added sugar and gave it a stir to dissolve. The liquid had a nice pink colour at this stage.

3) left to cool over night, then strained through a muslin into a 5l demi-john, added yeast and put on an airlock. I put the demi-john in a bucket (in case of spills) and covered it with a towel to block out the sunlight. I left it at room temperature. I took a measure with the hydrometer at this stage, and got a reading of 1075.

4) here's were I ran into some issues: the liquid kept creeping up the neck of the demijohn, into the airlock. It was both clear bubbles and yeast. I kept a close eye on it and rinsed and replaced the airlock several times a day (it was going hard, but this was as the recipe I used prescribed). I then looked up info on the net and found that some people leave it in a primary vat the first week or so, so I poured it all back into the original vat, which I had sterilised again.

5) I left it there for the next week, before going back to the demi-john, where it stayed another 5-6 weeks under the same conditions as before.

6) Once the bubbling had come to almost a halt, I took another measure with the wine-stealer and hydrometer, which read just below 1000. I then racked off the wine into another demijohn to remove sediment. This is where I'm at now.

Questions: considering the above (bland result), what in the process could I do better, should I change? Is it best to leave in the big vat at the start? The vat is much larger than my demijohns, so there is a lot of air in there: is that an issue at the start? I made sure I had the right quantity for the demijohns to be filled to the neck.

I hope you'll excuse me for these questions: I did try to look up information, but there's a lot of conflicting opinions out there....

 

[dralarms]

First question, how much fruit per pound? Most online receipes are IMHO low in fruit required. I've never made rubarb but keep getting told it's a wonderful tasting wine.

Secondly, it may be one that takes time for the fruit to "come around".

Please post your complete receipe.

 

[dralarms]

Also 1.075 is not very high, needs to be 1.085 to 1.095 to have enough alcohol content to protect the wine. I'd take a reading, caculate the amount of sugar to get to 1.085 and restart the fermentation. If it's not clear the yeast should still be viable.

 

[salcoco]

trying to restart the fermentation at this stage will be difficult as the wine is a toxic environment to the yeast. I would suggest bench trials with acid addition at first then with sugar addition second. the firs t will add some zip to the wine the second will bring the fruit forward. future wine should have a starting sg of 1085 to 1092. I would suggest visiting Jack Keller's web site at winemaking.jackkeller.net for guidance on making fruit wines and recipes for making them. Visit www.morewinemaking.com, scroll to bottom of page under resource click on manual, there will be a manual for red wine making. visit the late chapters to determine the bench trial with acid.

 

[Treeman]

IMOP all dry wines lose their fruit appeal that was in the juice preferment. Have you tried sweetening the wine? Often sweetness can enhance the perception of fruit.

Rather than just adding sugar, you might try making a rhubarb sugar mix similar to a rhubarb pie recipe, then use small amounts of this mixture with your dry wine (i.e. 50 mL of wine in 5 different glasses with 1,2,3,4,5 mL sweetener added to different glasses) to find the right mix before adjusting the entire demi. I find ~10% volume of a 30brix sugar juice concentrate brings the sweetness and fruit forward.

If you decide to back sweeten you will need to add potassium sorbate and probably wait for clearing, or add clarifiers to the sweetened wine before bottling.

 

[NorCal]

I'm not familiar with rhubarbs, but it takes a lot of fruit to impart lasting flavor. I have also fermented the wine with the fruit in the must along with an enzyme to help break downs the fruit, which should lead to a much greater level of extraction of flavored.

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi Kronaar and welcome. Rhubarb can make an incredible country wine, but I think the critical issue with any fruit wine is the amount of fruit you use. The less fruit and the more water will result in a more watery flavored wine. And I agree with dralarms - Most recipes for fruit wines are painfully low on fruit and are generally over generous in the amount of water used. Wine ain't beer. But if the fruit (or in this case , the stems) do not provide you with enough juice to make the volume of wine you want , then you need to add the least amount of water you possibly can. Diluting the juice to create the volume you want is not a viable option. The amount of fruit you have should determine the volume of your wine. In my opinion - and many may disagree with me - I think you need to aim for between 8 and 10 lbs of fruit to make a gallon of wine (about 4 liters)
My rule of thumb is to taste the must before I add any sugar and before I pitch the yeast. If the flavor of the juice is bland then the wine will be bland. The addition of sugar that will be fermented will not make the flavor any more concentrated or pronounced.

But note too, that rhubarb is incredibly acidic. There is no need to add lemon juice before you pitch the yeast. Indeed you may need to find a way to reduce the acidity to prevent the yeast undergoing stress. I would also add pectic enzyme to the rhubarb about 12 hours before you add the yeast. The pectic enzyme will help break down the pectins in the stems (you are making wine - not jam and boiling the rhubarb helps set the pectins which then means that the wine becomes very difficult to clear bright before you bottle. That may not be an issue for you - It won't affect the taste, but most people prefer to drink their wines clear.