With the wine in the bucket having calmed down somewhat from it's wild frothing earlier in the week, it's a safer bet now that it can be transfered into a sterilised demijohn without fizzing up & out through the airlock.
It's worth checking the SG at this point - it will have dropped fairly dramatically.
The reading for this batch has fallen from 1086 to 996, which means that in the space of a week, the sugary rhubarb juice has fermented into something opaque containing 12% alcohol, & it is still working away.
(I know this because the difference in the start & finish SG readings divided by 7.36 gives the percentage of alcohol)
The lower the SG at the end of the ferment, the drier the wine will be, & I think that this batch will end up rather sharp if I leave it as it is, so I added 2oz sugar to the bucket (watch it FIZZZZZZZZZZZZ!) & gave it another stir.
I then poured it into a demijohn (use a funnel) & fitted an airlock (half fill airlock with water) - actually, with rhubarb wine being so exuberent, I used two demijohns, half in each.
The wine will finish fermenting soon - it gets to a point where level of alcohol is too high for the yeast to survive - so when there are no more bubbles moving in the airlock, it can be put in a cool room where it will start to clear.
It's worth checking the SG at this point - it will have dropped fairly dramatically.The reading for this batch has fallen from 1086 to 996, which means that in the space of a week, the sugary rhubarb juice has fermented into something opaque containing 12% alcohol, & it is still working away.
(I know this because the difference in the start & finish SG readings divided by 7.36 gives the percentage of alcohol)
The lower the SG at the end of the ferment, the drier the wine will be, & I think that this batch will end up rather sharp if I leave it as it is, so I added 2oz sugar to the bucket (watch it FIZZZZZZZZZZZZ!) & gave it another stir.
I then poured it into a demijohn (use a funnel) & fitted an airlock (half fill airlock with water) - actually, with rhubarb wine being so exuberent, I used two demijohns, half in each.The wine will finish fermenting soon - it gets to a point where level of alcohol is too high for the yeast to survive - so when there are no more bubbles moving in the airlock, it can be put in a cool room where it will start to clear.
Fabulous colour isn't it? I love a 'sharp' wine!
ReplyDeleteIt is a fabulous colour, sadly my rhubarb refused to turn pink this year lol
ReplyDeleteI stumbled here looking for allotment blogs. What a lovely site you have *Smiles*
Dee
What fun! I remember my Dad used to make wine when I was growing up. What a brilliant colour! Look forward to seeing your progress!
ReplyDeleteI wish you'd all stop telling me what a great colour the rhubarb wine is - now I've come over all guilty & have to confess to the addition of some left over redcurrants from the freezer.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't going to mention it, as it would only confuse the step-by-step of wine making, which is the point of this series of posts, but you clever lot have found me out!
Thank you for dropping by, Dee! I love to have a wander through blogs linked from blogs linked from blogs - I have to leave a trail of crumbs so I can get back!
ReplyDelete