Massive Rhubarb Plant

[Wolfpup]

The neighbor lady is pretty funny. Thank gawd! She had me laughing.

She said….When I used to make wine, it was creek water (we are currently on a health department boil water advisory - no brushing teeth with it, washing vegetables, etc, so everything is being done with bottled water - you can imagine that challenge as well), none of these toxic water concerns and if the yeast didn't work we just adjusted things to make it ferment. None of these fancy testers and boy we made some good wine. Just get your yeast going and go for it.

I had to thank her for the history but it sounds like it's done a little differently these days. She said either way, its going to be a fine batch.

Thank you wildhair and thank goodness for family and friends. Gosh you try and do something new and well….

Ok, having a cup of coffee and patiently waiting for a proper hydrometer to fall out of the sky…

 

[Kandy]

wildhair,

I am planning on starting a rhubarb wine soon and I want it to be, as you stated "white wine that unmistakably says - " I REALLY LOVE RHUBARB" ?" I have two different recipes, would you be willing to post yours that has heavy rhubarb flavor? Please?

 

[wildhair]

Sure - when I get back. I'll look thru my notes and see what corrections/changes/substitutions/mistakes I made.

For the record - I thought I had really messed up my first batch of Dragon's Blood. Thanks to some ideas from the folks here, doing some reading on various sites - I was not only able to salvage it, but my wife says -"I love it - make it just like this next time".
Sooooooo ...... I have to try and repeat my mistakes to do that.
The moral of the story - Take notes, because even your mess ups can produce good results sometimes.

 

[Kandy]

Sure - when I get back. I'll look thru my notes and see what corrections/changes/substitutions/mistakes I made.

For the record - I thought I had really messed up my first batch of Dragon's Blood. Thanks to some ideas from the folks here, doing some reading on various sites - I was not only able to salvage it, but my wife says -"I love it - make it just like this next time".
Sooooooo ...... I have to try and repeat my mistakes to do that.
The moral of the story - Take notes, because even your mess ups can produce good results sometimes.

Thank you in advance. I have a batch of DragonBlood (raspberry) on the shelf clearing as we speak. Beautiful color, I hope it has a fabulous taste!

 

[Wolfpup]

Hey guys, Bob is in town looking everywhere, nothing so far, but there is a honeymaker here with a refractometer. Says it has a brix reader that is excellent for measuring sugar. Will this do to start or does it have to be the SG?

 

[wildhair]

I'm not familiar with the Brix scale - it's on my hydrometer , but I don't really use it. It looks like 21.5 Brix is close to 1.090 sg.

 

[meadmaker1]

Them merit badges just keep coming.
We all get them and the wine still gets made.

 

[meadmaker1]

Brix should work to start. But not after yeast.

 

[Wolfpup]

Ok guys, just got off the phone with the honey-maker (award winning apparently) and he's an old wine maker from way back. When I misused the term "mead" instead of "must", he said whoa, whoa, back up here. Mead is with honey... blah blah blah. What a wealth of information this man was. He did say his honey reader would not work with wine.

He said if you followed the recipe, don't worry about the reading right now, make sure the must is at at least 70 degrees, which it is, and get your yeast in there. The reading isn't that important at this stage. Get you meter tomorrow, get the one with the 3 different readings you need, blah blah blah.

I did ask if he has honey for sale right now and he's just bottling a bunch and has invited me to come up in a couple of days. We discussed the next batch of rhubarb wine with honey. Award winning honey and blonde blunders might make some kind of "special" wine. OMG.

So, I called hubby, his search has ended for today, he's to buy himself something special for dinner and come home.

I put the yeast in 2 oz of 104 degree water and poured it in the must. Gave it a little stir, put the cheese cloth back over it and am finally breathing normal and relaxing.

Oh boy, this wine making business is not for the feint of heart.

 

[wildhair]

LOL When I started down this path, I thought "how hard can wine making be? Sugar, fruit & the yeast do all the work. It's been done for centuries, right?" HA!
Then I learned and entirely new foreign language, bought tools I never knew even existed, chemicals I never heard of and found books & places and people on the Internet that had more information than I could absorb. I'm still absorbing. And learning. And experimenting. And that's part of the fun of it.

That - and drinking a bottle of Apple-Cinnamon wine you made with own 2 hands. And all that stuff you bought!

Cheers!

 

[wildhair]

I'm gonna miss all the fermenting Q's that are just about to start! Maybe ...........Wednesday?

 

[Wolfpup]

You know, just sitting here thinking, sometimes the universe does work in some very mysterious ways. A couple of weeks back when I first posted about this I was wondering about honey and how much to use and thinking what kind would I buy.

Now today, not only has the day been filled with wine talk in our small rural community, but I have been put in contact with a honey maker that knows about wine making.

This batch may not make it thru all my blunders, despite the incredible advice I am getting from you wonderful folks, but I now also have some nice resources for the next batch.

 

[Wolfpup]

Ha ha wildhair, you have been here! Very well said.

I'm gonna miss all the fermenting Q's that are just about to start! Maybe ...........Wednesday?

And this, just give it a couple of hours, I've already checked on it, not much action yet. Should there be?

 

[wildhair]

LOL No, not yet. It's sort like getting pregnant - not much apparent change in the beginning...............but just you wait!

 

[Wolfpup]

Aha! Sitting in front the brute, twiddling thumbs, big grin! Waiting for action to start!

 

[meadmaker1]

Would have liked to known starting gravity
It gives us potential alcohol
And answer a question. Next week when sg is stuck at 1.015, will it be stuck or has it maxed alcohol threshold for your chosen yeast.
Not the end of the world to not be able to answer but, what will you change next batch if anything. How much will you change it if you don't know what it was in the last batch.
In the future when you break the next hydrometer pull a sample out to test later when you replace it.
I 'll jinx myself but I bought 2 last time I broke 1. That has kept me from breaking another so far. Its been a couple years

 

[Wolfpup]

Morning meadmaker, woo hoo, we have action in there. Question, should I be stirring it.

And your question. If it is stuck on a certain number am I still able to add sugar afterwards? And oh boy, just thinking now. I did pull some out to fill the wine stealer but it sat on the counter for over 5 hours, waiting for the proper hydrometer, so I ended up pouring it down the sink when I added the yeast. I should have kept that for when my new hydrometer comes today. Oh boy, that would be handy to know.

The recipe says to let it ferment for 48 hours then remove the pulp bag and squeeze out the as much just as you can. Then stir twice a day for 3 - 4 days or when the hydrometer reading is 1.030. Will that tell the alcohol at that point?

 

[sour_grapes]

Congrats on the lift-off!

Will that tell the alcohol at that point?

Only if you know the specific gravity when you started.

 

[mainshipfred]

I'm not familiar with the Brix scale - it's on my hydrometer , but I don't really use it. It looks like 21.5 Brix is close to 1.090 sg.


View attachment 48807

I just did some math. That potential ABV is if you take it to SG 1.000. If you go down to .995 it's 13.76, .992 it's 14.15. But remember that reading is potential alcohol.

 

[meadmaker1]

Alcohol will be a calculated estimate at this point, but we are more concerned with completeness of fermentation.
If it stops short of 1.000 you may not need to add sugar.
However ec 1118 will handle fairly high alcohol so if you added all the sugar in your recipie it should go dry and have plenty of power.
We 'll deal with that in a couple months, if it needs delt with.