Saturday 3 January 2015

Rhubarb Mint Wine (22L)

After looking at several recipes online, I decided to try something of my own.  This may or may not work out, so any reader might want to avoid trying this.  Based loosely on this and this.

Rhubarb With Mint Wine

12.50 lb Rhubarb (cubed) (I picked all that I had, but it's probably only about 7 pounds)
12 Cups Mint tea (fresh mint from the garden, steeped 20 minutes.
5.00 gallons of water
4 kg White granulated sugar
    1.25 ts Grape tannin (optional)
    5.00 tsp Yeast nutrient
1pk  wine yeast

 Starting specific gravity should be 1.090-1.095, Acid .60%.
 Day 1- July 11
Pick, wash, cube rhubarb.  Put in primary fermenter.  Pour dry sugar over fruit (2kg) to extract juice.  Cover.  Steep mint leaves 20 minutes, allow to cool overnight.  Pour over fruit next morning.  Stir primary.  Cover.
Day 3- July13
I pulverized the rhubarb in the magic bullet, then poured it back into the primary.  Stirred vigorously.
Day 9 - July 20
Strained rhubarb juice through pillow case several hours.  Poured into carboy.  Started yeast with water and sugar in measuring cup.  Boiled sugar until dissolved.  Let cool.  Added to carboy.  Added yeast.  Topped up with water to neck of carboy.
  Nov 29- Day ...?
Racked wine.  Taste tested.  Beautiful.  Vinometer at 6% alcohol.  Very sweet with definite rhubarb and mint flavouring.  Discarded lees.  Topped up with cold water.
Rack again in 3 months. When wine is clear and stable, bottle. Wine may be sweetened to taste at time of bottling with sugar syrup (2 parts sugar to 1 part water). Add 2 stabilizer tablets per gallon (or follow directions on package if using powder) to prevent renewed fermentation. To preserve colour and flavour add 1 antioxidant tablet per gallon. Age at least 6 months.
Apr 5- (9 months later)
Racked and bottled.  25 bottles.  Vinometer at 6% alcohol.  Very sweet with hint of mint.

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