I'd add less sugar too anbd ferment it all out.

How long does this take ?? Haven't made wine for eons !!

Then what do I do !!

What stage are you at, Flo..?

I'm a day late in straining off the goodies and putting it into a demijohn to ferment

If I have too much left over and not another bottle for fermining in do I keep it and keep topping up the big bottle ??

I also read somewhere that if the pink was not pink enough ... one could add a slice of beetroot !! Has anybody tried this ????

never tried it Flo, but did make beetroot wine once and it wasn't nice

Just for Dave and Tara, this is the recipe I used last year which is less sugar..

3lb rhubarb
3lb sugar
gallon of water
teaspoon of yeast



soooooooo uncomplicated even I can't get it wrong

but it's still the same amount of sugar to fruit....like jam

yup but the first recipe was nearly double the amount of sugar to fruit

I found Rhubarb on my plot last year, when we cleared the weeds I can't stand it, so dug it out (or so I thought!) It's now growing beside the shed and has lots of stalks ..... and now I've come across this thread

So, there's only one thing for it!

I've never made wine before, so have none of the equipment. Do I NEED those demi-john thingies or can I use something else? And what's this fermenting process .. and possible exploding bottles

Think I need step-by-step instructions, if anyone can help, please

Flo, how did your wine turn out?

I saw broad bean wine mentioned too ... what did that taste like? Worth making or yak?

Well ..........................

.............. how do you know if it's any good ???????????

I have 2 of goosegog and 2 of rhubarb, clear as a bell tastes reasonable ... but is there any alchohol in it she wonders ?????????

yup you do really need a demijohn, can usually find em at car boot sales................................first off you need a bucket, if you haven't got one with a lid just cover a nromal bucket with a tea towel, you put the rhubarb and sugar in the bucket with a gallon of boiled water and then leave it for a few days. Then you strain off the fruit and add a teaspoon of yeast and bung the liquid in a demijohn. you need a bung and airlock with a little bit of water in it, and just leave the demijohn until the water in the airlock stops plopping, this bit can take weeks maybe a couple of months. When the plopping has stopped the fermentation process is complete and you can bottle the wine.

The only time the bottle will explode, or pop its cork is if you bottle it too soon and its still fermenting then pressure builds up int he bottle and the cork is released and the wine shoots out everywhere

so.....................you need

bucket
demijohn
bung and airlock
yeast
sterilising solution
rhubarb and sugar

If yo ahven't got a homebrew shop near you, have a google I have got some stuff online before.......oooooooooooooooo I jsut had a quick look on ebay and there are airlocks on there.

GW this all sounds much more complicated than it really is, its a doddle once you've got the equipment

Oh and the fermentation process is when the yeast and sugar are doing a little dance together and making alcohol

it should blow yer little socks off Flo

itsh very nissshhe much better than parshley one

Awww thanks Del, your instructions are brilliant ... so just need to get all the gear now and get going
What kind of yeast? Is there a special one for brewing? And what's the sterilizing stuff. I've had a google and there seems to be loads of different chemicals/ingredients .. pectin, tannin, finings, acidic stuff etc etc ... that bit's a tad confusing I need a shopping list for that kinda stuff

Flo ... drink a few glasses and tell us how strong it was ..when you get up

Shlounds lubbly stuff Dom!

yup you need brewers yeast and the sterising stuff I use is for homebrew stuff, its a powder that you just add to water, as for the other stuff nope you don't need any of it for rhubarb wine, some wines require pectin but the only one I've done that needed it was plum wine.

as for the parsley wine.......................well it was an hexperiment and Icy liked it ......strange fella

The rest of us thought it was YAK YAK YAK YAK - but still drank it when we'd finished the rhubarb, the dandelion, Dave's wicked concoction, the Tetleys.....

Great stuff, thanks guys

@ reedos. Sounds familiar! Drink whatever's left when all else is gone!

Right, I've had stuff delivered now from wilkos. Wish we had that shop over here!

Fermenting bucket
hydrometer
citric acid
wine yeast
yeast nutrient
pectin something or other, can't remember.
some sort of testing jar thingy
camden tablets
sterilizing stuff
Some rhubarb in the freezer and LOADS of raspberries nearly ready for picking

can't remember what else ... oh and a book - cjj berry-1st steps in winemaking!

Just waiting for 6 demi johns to be delivered and I'm set
Can't wait to have a go at this .. will report back as I go along (unless I blow the house up)
Thanks for all the help so far

oooooooooooooooooooo how exciting, I've got that book too GV tis okidokily

Got my demijohns now
I've a couple of pound of blackcurrants in the freezer, some raisins and a litre of (supernmarket) pressed red grape juice ... just don't know how much sugar I should use? Are there any general rules, like X Lbs sugar to X Lbs fruit?

It's roughly pound for pound GV.

Thanks reedos.
I've started it off now ..

2lb blackcurrants
1lb raisins
1litre red pressed grape juice
3lb 80z sugar (used a hydrometer to help with amount)
Topped up to 2 gallons .... really only meant to do 1 .. but with all the dissolving sugar in water malarky

Added 2 campden tabs
2 tsp pectalose
1 tsp citric acid
1 rounded tsp nutrient
Yeast to be added after 24 hrs.

Simmered the fruit and grape juice for about 20 mins then bunged in the bucket (in a straining bag) and added all the above stuff.

So just have to wait now .... ....

Hope it doesn't taste like cats p*ss after all that

erm.... I'm no expert but were you following a specific recipe?

only that seems like an inordinate amount of ingredients and I thought campden tabs only go in at the end because they are to kill the yeast and stop fermentation

Yep, recipe from another site, Tara.
The camden tabs apparently go into fruit wines at the start because fruit, veg etc are likely to have wild yeast and bacteria on them ... so the theory is that the camden kills them off before they spoil the wine must. That's why I have to wait 24 hrs before adding the wine yeast.

The pectic stuff is to help clear the wine, later on. They reckon without it , it'll be really hard to clear, as blackcurrants are high in pectin (so they tell me) .. and nutrient is apparently to keep the yeast going while it feeds on the sugar, same as chucking in vitamin B1. When fermentation is finished I've to add a stabiliser and then another camden tab, to preserve it, and ward off bacteria once it's bottled ...allegedly All very scientificky kinda stuff

So ... here's hoping it works

coooo! bugger that

I bung in fruit, sugar, water and yeast.
then wait