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The campden was added 3 days ahead of time with the sugar and water. I just didn't wait the 12 hours after adding the concentrate, PE, nutrient and tannin, to add the yeast.
So i'm a noob that's been lurking for awhile to brewing and i've got apflewein under my belt...Just racked my first batch of rhubarb to a 1 gallon jug and this stuff smells incredible! But...the rhubarb totally stained my primary bucket yellow... Is this an ok time to soak with some bleach? The forums seem split on it? I just know that the rhubarb is so pungent I didn't want to contribute any flavors to the mead I'm making next? Thoughts
Just racked this again tonight. I'm so lazy. How many times do you typically need to to rack it? I had very little sediment. I'm thinking I'll be able to rack it on more time, then rack to a bottling bucket. I'm going to pick up some wine bottles and borrow a corker from a friend for this stuff.
It's definitely clear. I thought you had to keep racking until it no longer dropped anything after racking. I'll give it two weeks then and bottle. I'm a little concerned about the nose burning whatever it was while leaning over the carboy. I'm thinking it was vinegary, but not sure.I'm hoping that I'm just not used to the chemicals in wine making and what they add until aging. I racked onto 5 campden tablets. Perhaps it was the combo of the starsan foam, the campden and the wine.
It's definitely clear. I thought you had to keep racking until it no longer dropped anything after racking. I'll give it two weeks then and bottle. I'm a little concerned about the nose burning whatever it was while leaning over the carboy. I'm thinking it was vinegary, but not sure.I'm hoping that I'm just not used to the chemicals in wine making and what they add until aging. I racked onto 5 campden tablets. Perhaps it was the combo of the starsan foam, the campden and the wine.
Atek said:Ok, so here's a question before it gets out of hand and irrepairable. I started my rhubarb wine 8 days a go now. I had an issue getting the ferment to start with just rehydrated yeast, so I took a sample out and diluted it and got a starter going with that, then pitched that once it was going really well. This got the main ferment started. I stirred once every two days or so to aerate. I racked it into carboy on the 5th day and added airlock, this was last night. I noticed some sulfur egg smell so I sloshed it around a bit to try and get this out. I'm noticing today I can still smell it pretty noticeably coming out the airlock. Another detail is that I used a plastic bucket from home depot as the primary. Its a general use bucket and it was brand new. I sanitized it as I normally would but my concern here is that is not food grade plastic and the acids from the rhubarb may have pulled unwanted compounds out of the plastic. My rhubarb wine is also milky white, the same color as the fermenter. I know the color could simply be from the large amounts of yeast in solution and the relatively colorless ingredients. What should I do from here? My thoughts are to rack it again over a copper mesh and hope that pulls the sulfur out.
Ok, so here's a question before it gets out of hand and irrepairable. I started my rhubarb wine 8 days a go now. I had an issue getting the ferment to start with just rehydrated yeast, so I took a sample out and diluted it and got a starter going with that, then pitched that once it was going really well. This got the main ferment started. I stirred once every two days or so to aerate. I racked it into carboy on the 5th day and added airlock, this was last night. I noticed some sulfur egg smell so I sloshed it around a bit to try and get this out. I'm noticing today I can still smell it pretty noticeably coming out the airlock. Another detail is that I used a plastic bucket from home depot as the primary. Its a general use bucket and it was brand new. I sanitized it as I normally would but my concern here is that is not food grade plastic and the acids from the rhubarb may have pulled unwanted compounds out of the plastic. My rhubarb wine is also milky white, the same color as the fermenter. I know the color could simply be from the large amounts of yeast in solution and the relatively colorless ingredients. What should I do from here? My thoughts are to rack it again over a copper mesh and hope that pulls the sulfur out.
I only have a few batches of wine under my belt but they all stunk at first. Just wait it out and give it time to do it's thing.
So some comments:
I made a 1 gallon primary and a 5 gallon to give it some room.
The SG was only 1.060, so the little guy I bumped a bit with some maple syrup.
I have nothing in the house to bump the 5 gallon and felt I had to pitch yeast today, so I was wondering what would happen if I plopped a can of white grape juice concentrate tomorrow night if that would be cool.
Thoughts?
Bottling mine tonight. Started the batch on 7/26. I added 4 oz of strawberry extract because wifey liked that sample much better. Just in time to give a few bottles for xmas.
View attachment 40665
Yooper said:Wow- that's really beautiful! It seems crystal clear and a nice golden yellow color. I'm glad it came out so well!
Well, it looks good. It's tart and the strawberry is not very obvious. I'm bringing you and Bob a bottle tomorrow to judge before I give any away. I need the feedback. I know when my beers suck but I am no judge of wine.
Bottling mine tonight. Started the batch on 7/26. I added 4 oz of strawberry extract because wifey liked that sample much better. Just in time to give a few bottles for xmas.
View attachment 40665
Well, it looks good. It's tart and the strawberry is not very obvious. I'm bringing you and Bob a bottle tomorrow to judge before I give any away. I need the feedback. I know when my beers suck but I am no judge of wine.
IrregularPulse said:Just bottled mine tonight. It's definitely not sickening sweet like the guy's I had last year. It's still kind of sweet for my tastes, but I'm not really a sweet wine fan. I think if I do it again next year, I'll add something for some tartness. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised when tasting. Much better than I thought it'd turn out. This stuff looked like water while bottling. The tiniest tinge of gold wen poured.
Mine had plenty of tartness. I wish it had been a bit sweeter. Maybe we should have got together and blended them. My OG was much lower 1081 I believe. That must be the difference.
Malarky said:So my rhubarb is a little more than 5 months old, it's completely dry and it's been racked at least 3 or 4 times. it's not really throwing lees anymore and I'd say it's kinda clear light pink with a haze though, so I can't really see through it. I haven't used any type of finings, I DID use pectic enzyme pre-fermentation. I have not stabilized with kmeta/sorbate yet.
Any thoughts about how to be rid of the haze.
1-put in wisconsin garage to cold stabilize for a couple weeks?
2-assorted finings?
3-more time/racking?
4- or just stabilize it rack it and bulk age it for another 6 months or so before I bottle it?
Thanks for the help in advance
Yoop, what is (are) your preferred yeast(s) for this recipe? Do you crush the fruit or squeeze the bag at all? I've never worked with rhubarb, but I just processed 15lbs of it yesterday & it's freezing as I type.
Regards, GF.
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