Massive Rhubarb Plant

[Wolfpup]

Nice meadmaker, we love the idea of playing with the leftover. Great plan, way less labor intensive. We'll try some different honey and sugar amounts. The sweetened taste (a bit of honey) I had earlier was pretty good. We may have some drinkable wine on our hands.

There must be quite a bit of alcohol in that. Our house smells like a brewery and my head did a fun little dance after all the tasting and syphoning.

Pheew, ok, so we're good to go for about another 3 months? (with this batch). Have a few more obligations (family reunion) and stuff over the next couple of weeks but early July we should be able to get another batch going.

Peppers are coming along nicely and rhubarb just waiting to hop into the hopper.

 

[meadmaker1]

Lol look at my avatar. Imagine racking and tasting all of those. And don't forget the apple rhubarb , cherry, and cranberry blend on a different table, 8 varieties at once right now. I'm having closure issues with my strawberry, cran berry, and bochet. Can't bottle the bochet until I harvest more honey. Need to Caramelize some more to back sweeten with but teachers leaving for summer bought me out, they see my wife bring it to others and exponentially more orders come in.
Currently sold out

 

[Wolfpup]

LOL, just those five sentences exhausted me, not to mention I didn't understand bochet or carmelizing in the wine sense. Your avatar looks amazing. That's a lot wine to keep track of all at once. Like a full time job. I would consider you a professional. Selling award winning wine. Is that 13 carboys I see there and you have 16 total going? Holy....

Hubby and I were talking about how cool it will be when we have all day to play with wine. We love everything about it. A few more years and we'll be there. So glad we picked this year to start getting into it.

I can see this being a very addicting hobby, in a very good way.

 

[meadmaker1]

Not sure how many carboys some are batch extra carboys.
Bochet is a caramelized honey mead.
And I am far from pro, lol I haven't even made a single grape wine yet and nothing bigger than 7 gallons. No selling, just a competitive soul, bigger, faster, better.

 

[wildhair]

Yep, once you get started and a good grasp on the basics - it sort of gets rolling on it's own. Similar to Mr. Mead - I've got about 10 wines in various stages of clearing and bulk aging right now. Small batches all, but lots of variety. A couple months and I should be bottling.

 

[Venatorscribe]

I agree. Play with it. That is how I use my rhubarb wine. Most recently I blended Quince wine, Rose petal and Hibiscus wine with my Rhubarb wine. Naturally the rhubarb ratio was quite low compared to the other two wines added. Pour it into a glass with a segment of orange and mint leaf and you end up with a nice summer wine cocktail. Just like an Aperol. What ever you blend - spend some time working out the ratios. Try not to swallow all your little blends as you'll end up asleep before dinner.

 

[Wolfpup]

OMG Venatorscribe, it’s almost spooky that you mention orange peel. Let me back up, The few sips I had yesterday left my head a little woozy, so needless to say, off to bed early last night and didn't get to respond to Mr. Mead and wildhair. At work this afternoon, contemplating what wildhair had said about the cinnamon (lots of cinnamon in my rhubarb pies) I was thinking that might be a really good idea, to add some

Then my mind started to question.... whether a cinnamon stick would stay intact in an already fermented carboy. Then, as minds do and based on the taste yesterday, it got me thinking about what some orange peel would taste like and is orange peel something you would put in a carboy at this stage.

Then a staff member approached and my wonderful daydream was over. Then to come home and see your post, yeah… very cool, spooky cool.

Another silly thing... poured the remainder of the glass (with honey), it was a fairly good size glass, into the ½ liter bottle with the extra, put a LID on it and put it in the fridge. If there was one thing I didn’t appreciate, it was the fact the wine was warm. Have never drank warm wine and I now know why. Almost like milk, it’s doable but just not right.

As I’m driving home (long commute) thoughts of wine come rushing in, thinking about the extra, in the fridge, with the LID on tight, and now with active sugars in a (hopefully) fully deactivated yeast. Then the OMG, am I going to go home to a bottle explosion in the fridge?

Got home, opened the fridge slowly, like a gargoyle was about to jump out at me and there it was, in all its innocence. When I undid the lid, there was a little decompression hiss, but all was well.

Oh, and the PH meter is on its way. Yes wildhair, from Amazon! To a normal town it would have been two days and my girlfriend didn’t think they would deliver to our place, but she placed the order, put in our address and it said it would be here in 4 days, so that should be Friday.

Probably way to much information but it was a fun wine day. All this, probably predictably so, has led me to a bunch more questions.

So the left over wine, we probably won’t get to the taste testing till this weekend, when we both have the time to leisurely sample our efforts. Is it okay in the fridge, or should it be at room temperature?

Can I keep the lid on it or should it have one of those water bottle plugs? In other words, will it explode in my fridge if I leave it as is?

This extra, with the PH meter coming on Friday, can I test the extra, with the added honey? Will it be reflective of what’s in the big jugs or should I take the sample from the big jugs? Just in case we decide to taste test on Thursday or something, should we save some for the testing? It would be easier than pulling it out of the big jugs.

And, to humor my daydreams, orange and cinnamon, at what stage would you add it and does it dissolve in the carboys or does it just get filtered out during the racking process? We will taste test both the flavors.

Oh my, that’s quite a batch of words. I’ll stop here.

 

[meadmaker1]

Lol where did the Mr. Mead thing come from?
Yes the cinnamon stick will hold up and the orange zest should be fine,
With various sizes of car boys you can pull a gallon and discover. I wouldn't commit the whole batch, some times discovery isn't pretty.
If you think you would like cinnamon orange in a wine
Joe's ancient orange mead is the only recipe I've ever really followed, i'll look for and post it to you. Its quick and easy, after reading the directions I couldn't not make it.

 

[meadmaker1]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/joes-ancient-orange-mead.49106/

 

[Wolfpup]

ha ha, wasn't exactly thinking orange AND cinnamon, was thinking more about trying orange zest in one taste and cinnamon in another. The whole orange and peppermint kind of sounds heavenly too but that sounds more like a topping thing. The cinnamon would be more stand alone with what we have.

And the Mr. Mead, well wildhair said it and it seemed to fit so followed suit. I'm a quick learner, generally.

LOL, that recipe makes it sound so easy. Was it the "ignore the experts" that kept you away? It does seem a bit unconventional to what I'm being taught here but he seems pretty sound in his conviction that it will work. Might be a nice Christmas wine. I will file it in my wine folder. I think I'd like to try it at some point. My older neighbor, the one that used creek water, will love this.

 

[wildhair]

Guilty as charged - I did use the Mr. Mead moniker. In my defense - it was a a show of respect. Perhaps I could have said Mr. Maker1? But seemed a little too...... "deity like" for my comfort. LOL

Confirm that cinnamon sticks will hold up, but you don't need many. I add 2 to a 3 gal carboy when I rack into the secondary (right after the BIG ferment is over) and typically take them out the next time I rack. I want the aroma and mild cinnamon taste to be a secondary flavor note - I don't want it to overpower the apple. There's a very long and informative thread on this forum on using zests and flavor packs - tons of info I intend to use as my own skills improve. WHEN, how much and for how long - you add these extra flavors will determine how much they impact the final flavor profile. And you simply leave it in the bottom with the "sludgy-stuff" (the lees) next time you rack.

Again - this is YOUR baby now - play with it. Make notes and try to do things in measurable ( and therefore repeatable ) quantities.

Keeping it in the fridge with a lid on it is fine - it won't explode. There may still be fizz. Testing the ph on one of the smaller jugs or the sample will give you a very good idea of the ph of the entire batch. My suggestion - test it now, but wait until you rack the next time to make any corrections. Siphon it into a big fermenter, test it - then make any correction TO THE WHOLE BATCH AT ONCE. Then test again and put it back under airlock.

There was a lot in there - did I cover everything?

 

[Wolfpup]

Yes you did, thoroughly. All those niggly details are now settled. So when the meter comes I can do kind of a cursory reading and take the batch reading for adjustments the next time it’s racked.

if you happen to find that thread on zests and flavor packs, are you able to direct me to it. That sounds like an informative thread,

And I agree... Mr. Maker1, while fitting, is quite divine… whereas Mr. Mead is a strong moniker that has the respect I knew you were going for and mirrored my intentions, hence the replication.

 

[wildhair]

Wow - you're as full of BS as I am! Ahahahahaha

 

[wildhair]

https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/making-a-fpac.44497/ Making an F-pac - tons and tons of info - Thanks Joe!

 

[meadmaker1]

Guilty as charged - I did use the Mr. Mead moniker. In my defense - it was a a show of respect. Perhaps I could have said Mr. Maker1? But seemed a little too...... "deity like" for my comfort. LOl

lol
You pick a forum name " long " before you discover there will be a " long ".
Nick names are chosen for us.
Titles are truly earned.
Mr. Mead, as nice as it rolls of the tongue, simply leaves me over rated.
Perhaps in a few years after a few more shows and state fairs I can earn it but for now Keith works quite well.

 

[wildhair]

Keith it is then. And I generally just go by Red - the wildhair relates more to my inclination to pursue ideas beyond the realm of common sense. Occasionally.

 

[meadmaker1]

And let's give credit where it's due.
Pup has raised the wine knowledge factor in her area by asking ordering and buying.
In a couple years she will become the go to person in her territory.

 

[wildhair]

Indeed. And actually - the folks helping and explaining things to her - also helped me understand and clarify things in my mind. Never stop being a student - we all have more to learn.

 

[Wolfpup]

Wow - you're as full of BS as I am! Ahahahahaha

Well he asked, we had to say something. And while throwing you under bus for leading me astray, I didn’t want you fully taking the blame if he was at all put out by our spin.

Never been labeled “full of BS” before though, but if this is what it’s about, so be it, guilty as charged as well.

I was actually very sincere in my comments though, you simply provided the words to springboard from. It’s been over a month now, that I’ve been following your directions/lead. That was an easy one to pick up on when you have been desperately trying to grasp wine directions.

Sounds like great teamwork to me. Hee hee.

"Never stop being a student - we all have more to learn"

Love this. My motto has always been that wonderful saying by the Buddha, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. But as you say, it’s important to never stop being a student, or that teacher will never have the opportunity to appear. Good stuff.

Meadmaker has been there for me since day 1, sharing my frustration, offering knowledgeable advice and inspiring encouragement, some really fun articles and making me laugh when I thought all was lost.

And you too wildhair. When I first joined, with only a massive rhubarb plant and a “desire” to make wine, I did not have a clue what was involved. I couldn’t understand any of the responses people were giving me and almost did a 360, heading out of the forum, thinking I was in way over my head and must sound really stupid. Was thinking maybe I needed to take a course at the college or something.

But both you guys have stuck it out, repeated yourselves over and over again until the smallest details have finally sunk into this blonde skull, enabling us to perform the actions needed to get this first batch of wine on its way.

For this gentlemen, I will always be grateful. People will know of the great Keith and Red, fondly known as meadmaker and wildhair, that had the wisdom and patience to give us our start.

Oh and since we’re moving on to a first name basis, friends and family call me CJ, hubby is Bob. Kids often refer to me as wolf lady due to the 186 lb timber wolf that has graced our presence for the past 9 years. He came to us as a butterball but the wisdom he has displayed has left me in the dust, hence, the pup part. Our 114 lb working line shepherd looks kind of wolfy too, well to kids anyway, so there’s the easily wearable forum name.

You guys both need to give yourselves a pat on the back, you make learning fun! And not forgetting each and every other person that has jumped in to help straighten out this mess. I read every word over and over, until I understand what's being said. Such a vast amount of knowledge has brought us a long way in a short time. A very impacting experience to say the least.

 

[Venatorscribe]

And let's give credit where it's due.
Pup has raised the wine knowledge factor in her area by asking ordering and buying.
In a couple years she will become the go to person in her territory.

So 'wolfpup' is real ? No offence CJ, but there were occasions when I thought you didn't exist and that someone had started this thread to take the mickey. Or possibly (as happens these days) someone undertaking academic studies to monitor how people interact on the internet. Good on you for sticking with it. I hope you pH meter arrives soon. Then you have another little challenge - checking it’s calibration with the standard solutions. Cheers