Rhubarb Wine is one of the early summer wines that we overlook because we are too busy eating rhubarb crumble! You can add a number of extra flavours to this wine, white grape juice, apple juice or just water. Don’t go mad with the sugar, you are not trying to make something that will blow your head off, but a cool refreshing wine.
It is important to be spotlessly clean with all your utensils as this helps to preserve the flavour and quality of the wine.
Ingredients:
Add 500ml of white grape juice or apple juice to the rhubarb juice if you like.
1.5 kg rhubarb, washed and cut into small pieces
1.3 kg sugar
1 sachet of wine yeast
Water, preferably cool, boiled for topping up the fermenting vessel.
Instructions:
1. Put the rhubarb in a large pan and add water to just cover. Bring to the boil then leave to cool.
2. Mash to break down the rhubarb. Pour over 700g of the sugar and cover. Leave for two days.
3. Put a muslin cloth into a colander over a large clean bowl and pour the rhubarb mixture into the
cloth gradually and carefully. Catch all the juice in the bowl and squeeze the pulp as much as you can.
4. Put the rest of the sugar into a litre jug and pour over boiling water until the jug is full. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
5. When all the juice is in the bowl pour into a sterile Demi John.
6. Add the sugar syrup and top up with cool boiled water.
7. Sprinkle in the yeast and add an airlock.
8. Leave to ferment for about two weeks, until the surface looks still and no new bubbles are forming.
9. Rack off into another sterile Demi John and leave for a week. Give the wine a good shake to remove the CO2. This helps the wine to clear.
10. Repeat the racking off and after one more week fill sterile wine bottles and label with the date and type of wine.
Leave for at least 3 months in cool dark place.
Rhubarb wine
The same basic principle can be used to make any number of country wines. The more fruit you have the better, and the stronger will be the final result. You can enhance your wine by adding grape juice or raisins or apple, the world is your oyster. This is an easy recipe and always produces a strong yet refreshing drink. Memories of the summer in January!