Pressed Rhubarb Wine

[ChuckD]

I’m going to pull my rhubarb from the freezer tonight. I have about 35 pounds When is the best time to press? Should I ferment first (like grapes) and press when nearly complete, or press as soon as they thawed? Also, should I use straining bags in the press or just dump it in?

One more thing? I have about 5 lbs of frozen wild grapes left. I kinda like the foxy taste if not too overpowering. I was thinking of combining them
To make a rose. Thoughts?

 

[Neb Farmer]

My thought is to make the wine seperate, and when the wine is done, blend them according to how they finished out.

 

[Rice_Guy]

my process is to thaw and then press using a press bag, I may then keep some frozen in half gallon milk jugs or even ten liter cubes. ,,, Most juices are processed using a bag or filter. If I haven’t done this on the juice it will get filtered when the gravity is down to 1.010 but then oxygen is a bigger problem.

Mixing? The second best wine at Wisconsin Vinters last weekend was a 60% rhubarb/ 40% Edelweiss blend sweetened to 1.015. The big question is dealing with acid, both are high. If you want more info, you could drop a note to our treasurer and ask how she made it. , , , I like 5% black raspberry in my rhubarb.

 

[ChuckD]

Thanks @Rice_Guy. It’s thawing very slowly in a ten gallon brute so I probably won’t be able to press until tomorrow. I plan on using calcium carbonate to bring the pH up to 3.2 before fermentation. With post-ferment adjustments if necessary.

Interesting about the grape mix. I’ll have a much lower percentage of grape, but wild grape is pretty strong so I think it will add enough flavor and color. I’ll crush and keep those in a bag so I can remove them if needed.

Next time I find a good wild blackberry patch I’ll try a blackberry rhubarb mix too.

 

[winemanden]

Luc Volders from the Netherlands showed a way of reducing acid in Rhubarb, on his website. He froze Rhubarb juice in a plastic bottle. Photos of the frozen juice showed a definite distinction between the top half and the bottom. He cut the bottle in half and thawed them separately before titrating the juice. One half was definitely lower in acid than the other.
I haven't looked lately, but he has some interesting ideas, one of which is that he writes in Dutch then repeats it in English.

 

[meadmaker1]

Thaw in a press bag. Simply freezing causes rhubarb to juice out more than you’d expect to get already. Not dealing with pulp later is priceless.
Mix away.
Many of the plentiful wild blackberries have a flat flavor. The addition of rhubarb can/does fill that hole.

 

[ChuckD]

Luc Volders from the Netherlands showed a way of reducing acid in Rhubarb, on his website. He froze Rhubarb juice in a plastic bottle. Photos of the frozen juice showed a definite distinction between the top half and the bottom. He cut the bottle in half and thawed them separately before titrating the juice. One half was definitely lower in acid than the other.
I haven't looked lately, but he has some interesting ideas, one of which is that he writes in Dutch then repeats it in English.

The same sort of thing happens with wild grapes. If you juice them and refrigerate, you will get tartaric acid sludge to drop out. I haven’t tried autumn berry (olive) yet but it separates into a clear and colorful part with different tastes.

 

[ChuckD]

Thaw in a press bag.

Too late! I will scoop into the press bags with a kitchen strainer though to save some press work.

 

[ChuckD]

Well I pressed the rhubarb today. I pressed it HARD and all those bags of chunks ended up filling an ice cream bucket when I was done! I got 4.5 gallons of juice. I wanted to stretch it to 5 gallons so I boiled three quarts of water and dissolved my sugar in it.

The 5.7 lbs of wild grapes in the freezer were calling out to me so I tossed them in the must too (in a mesh bag). Added 1.5t tannin and 3t pectic enzyme. pH was 2.98 so I adjusted with calcium carbonate to 3.26. OG is 1.082 and it tastes wonderful

Tomorrow I’ll add D47.

ETA: I only had 71B, EC1118, or Premier Rouge… so I picked the Rouge because it’s going to be a rose.

 

[ChuckD]

Where can we find information on nutrients in juices? How do you know how much nutrients to add if you don’t know what you’re starting with?

Keller calls for 5g per gallon but his is mostly sugar water.

 

[Rice_Guy]

I have not run YAN on my rhurbarb. Probably will in May. I would assume stalks are low in nitrogen and good for mineral content. If I was using a TOSNA 2 calculator I would assume 25 to 50 ppm YAN (white buckets in the club were 75 to 90 ppm YAN last fall) The Vinmetrica YAN test is easy but take about 30 minutes apiece, not bad if you run three but adds up if the club is testing twenty samples.
Organic nitrogen acts as if there is more there than chemical nitrogen. As a result I could see doubling Fermaid without much risk of infection.

 

[winemanden]

Where can we find information on nutrients in juices? How do you know how much nutrients to add if you don’t know what you’re starting with?

Keller calls for 5g per gallon but his is mostly sugar water.

Take a peek, these may help!

 

[ChuckD]

@winemanden Thanks. Very interesting. What publication? Is to here a link where we can find the book? The problem is I don’t know how to interpret the nitrogen numbers… is 0.1% low? I see grapes are also listed at 0.1% so I would assume it’s not low-nitrogen? I guess I need to do more research.

My first wines I just followed the recipe. Now I’m venturing out on my own. I look at similar recipes but they are all over the place

I find it interesting that the nitrogen calculators I have used don’t even ask what is in the must… just an OG and maybe a low, mid, or high nitrogen???

 

[ChuckD]

Rhubarb update

I was trying to adjust the pH slowly so I was only at 2.89 when I pitched the yeast starter Monday morning. Came home from work and no activity at all! The starter wasn’t very active so I made another one with 71B. I added more Calcium carbonate (pH 3.02) and the next morning there was a little bit of foaming so I pitched the new starter as well.

It’s really chugging along now. Today the Sg was down to 1.34. And holy do those wild grapes have color. It will be rose in name only! It’s only 1lb of grapes per gallon of rhubarb and the color is deep purple.

 

[Rice_Guy]

The problem is I don’t know how to interpret the nitrogen numbers… is 0.1% low? I see grapes are also listed at 0.1% so I would assume it’s not low-nitrogen? I guess I need to do more research.
I find it interesting that the nitrogen calculators I have used don’t even ask what is in the must… just an OG and maybe a low, mid, or high nitrogen???

* nitrogen consumption depend on how much sugar there is to use, more sugar takes more nitrogen
* not all yeast are equally efficient therefore commercial yeast are ranked as low/ medium/ high nitrogen requirement
* not all nitrogen sources are equal, organic nitrogen (killed yeast) has a flatter response/ longer growth curve which produces less off flavor
* not all nitrogen sources are equal, organic nitrogen acts as if there is more measured YAN than a lab test of nitrogen. Basically DAP and urea require the cells to synthesize everything they need from scratch and yeast use them up quickly. This is an argument favoring staged nitrogen addition.
* the old references based on urea/ DAP recommend 200 to 300 ppm for most must. (200 to 300 mg per liter).
* looking at 34 juice buckets from California and Italy the whites tested at 75 to 100 ppm, reds tested at 125 to 150 ppm last fall, the club plans to provide test numbers on buckets you order in 2023 also. I know some buckets get trucked to Wausau folks but don’t think any are going to GreenBay members. The Vinmetrica test is easy, but a pain to run/ about 30 min per sample.
* a low nitrogen ferment will produce reductive flavors, meat like/ sulfur like/ bitter notes that hide fruity aromatics. Also, ,,, The sulfur compounds are detectable at low levels like .1 to 2 parts per trillion, significantly lower than fruity aromatics.
* the Scott Lab handbook is a good reference with details as some nitrogen requirements for yeast they sell and efficiency for YAN numbers for different nutrients they sell.
* excess nitrogen can encourage bacterial infection/ off flavors, organic nitrogen acts as if there is more YAN available so it offers less actual nitrogen to encourage infection.
* cell population is flat after 1/3 sugar reduction, adding nitrogen late in a ferment is useless. It is useful to break up additions into two or four doses to maintain a uniform growth response over the first third of the ferment

 

[winemanden]

Rhubarb update

I was trying to adjust the pH slowly so I was only at 2.89 when I pitched the yeast starter Monday morning. Came home from work and no activity at all! The starter wasn’t very active so I made another one with 71B. I added more Calcium carbonate (pH 3.02) and the next morning there was a little bit of foaming so I pitched the new starter as well.

It’s really chugging along now. Today the Sg was down to 1.34. And holy do those wild grapes have color. It will be rose in name only! It’s only 1lb of grapes per gallon of rhubarb and the color is deep purple.

 

[winemanden]

@winemanden Thanks. Very interesting. What publication? Is to here a link where we can find the book? The problem is I don’t know how to interpret the nitrogen numbers… is 0.1% low? I see grapes are also listed at 0.1% so I would assume it’s not low-nitrogen? I guess I need to do more research.

My first wines I just followed the recipe. Now I’m venturing out on my own. I look at similar recipes but they are all over the place

I find it interesting that the nitrogen calculators I have used don’t even ask what is in the must… just an OG and maybe a low, mid, or high nitrogen???

I'm not really into Chemistry, I was given the book by a chap who was giving up winemaking. The book was published 1982. Gerry Fowles was a respected home winemaker as well as being Professor of Chemistry at Reading University UK.

 

[ChuckD]

The wine blew past the 1/3 sugar reduction yesterday so I added the third nutrient addition (6g Fermaid O) but won’t be adding the fourth. Tonight the sg was 1.020 so I pulled the grapes out. You can definitely taste the rhubarb and a nice fruity flavor from the wild grapes.

 

[ChuckD]

I racked and put it under airlock today. The Sg =1.004 with a pH of 3.21.

Those wild grapes gave it an amazing color. My wife isn’t a fan of rhubarb but loves the foxy taste of wild grapes. So far the grapes added just enough of that, but you can still taste the rhubarb up front. It’s still very tart.

 

[Dwerth]

I racked and put it under airlock today. The Sg =1.004 with a pH of 3.21.
View attachment 99462
Those wild grapes gave it an amazing color. My wife isn’t a fan of rhubarb but loves the foxy taste of wild grapes. So far the grapes added just enough of that, but you can still taste the rhubarb up front. It’s still very tart.

That color is truly amazing. Its color is like a summertime cocktail that should come with an umbrella and lots of ice.