Rhubarb Champange

[LandyAndy]

Hi Guys
For you home brewers here is a alternative to beer.Ive just about finished 1 keg(WITH HELP) and it was so good I just put another brew on.
It has about the same alcahol as beer,is sweet with a dry after taste.A few of my mates and the missus who have tested it love it.
Ive done mine in the keg system with CO2 but should work in plastic bottles with a secondary sugar carbonation(too dangerous for glass).
Its cheap as and goes down like the titanic.
1 to 2Kg rhubarb stalks
6 to 8 lemons
2kg sugar
1 pack of GOOD yeast,I use saffale.

Wash the whole lemons and Rhubarb stalks THOROUGHLY
Then pour 2 kettle loads of boiling water over them in the kitchen sink with plug removed to steralise.
chop lemons/rhubarb and throw the whole lot into the fermenter,pour 2kg sugar over.
Tip a kettle of boiling water over and stir.
fill with cold water and add the yeast.
Leave at least 5 days.
Pour liquid into second fermenter (or large steralised container if you dont have one) to remove fruit(it keeps fermenting).
Refit airlock for a few days to ensure fermentations finished,then keg/bottle.
Its my own recipe,worked so well first up Im going to try with apricots/nectarines/peaches from the orchard when they are ready.HICK HICCK IM SLOSHED AGAIN!!!!!
Much like some of those fruit type softdrinks BUT with alcahol.
Now I have to get a second tap so there is a choice of beer or softdrink!!!!! Not a problem.
Andrew
Andrew

[dmdigital]

That brings back memories, none of them good. I had "friends" who used to make the stuff and it was always on offer and bloody terrible. Mind you so was all their other home brews so perhaps it was their technique???

Anyway I'd rather stick with Beer or Ginger Beer!

[Iggy]

Whens the camp over at your place for a play at the secret spot, and the rhubarb champagne.
Cheers Iggy

[Pedro_The_Swift]

i bet the 5 days was a killer;):p



and there HAD to some use for Rhubarb-----:D

[LandyAndy]

Hi Iggy
Winter too hot dry dusty up there at the moment,not very challenging.
Mrs Numpty
Its a 11.5gm sachet,Saffale,got to buy it from a homebrew shop.With normal homebrew beer kits I use this and the supplied yeast.Its good stuff,the spent yeast forms a stiff layer on the bottom of the fermenter,doesnt stir up when emptying the fermenter.(The fruit seems to work differently)
We are just starting to get apricots ripening,so I will try a batch with apricots instead of rhubarb soon.
Andrew

[ladas]

Does it 'Travel Well'


If it does - send some this way:D

[Redback]

Certainly got the attention of the other half, i don't know about it myself as i'm not a big fan of champagne or rhubarb.

Baz.

[ladas]

i bet the 5 days was a killer;):p



and there HAD to some use for Rhubarb-----:D

Rhubarb and apple crumble - with custard, cream or Ice cream ---yum

[Mick-Kelly]

Whatever happened to single malt scotch, Ahhhhhhhhh Lafroig

[Bigbjorn]

A Cooper's home brew made with 2kg of sugar comes out at around 6.2 to 6.5%. The rhubarb wine made with 2kg of sugar and no can of fermentable malt concentrate will be a bit less probably barely 5%. Not really a lethal pantie dropper. Something stronger will be needed when Missus Numpty takes the LR full of blondes around to visit the new Titan shed. I used to get a cherry wine from a retired Italian orchardist at Rocklea which was WOW! so I made some myself to his recipe scaled down. He used to make it in a 46 gallon oak hogshead. I made a home brew fermenter, 24 litres, with wine yeast and 5kg of added sugar to the crushed cherries and water. Worked out at 18%. Falling over juice!

[Bigbjorn]

Whatever happened to single malt scotch, Ahhhhhhhhh Lafroig

I once sailed on a merchant vessel with a Hong Kong Chinese third engineer, whose tipple of choice was Glenmorangie with orange juice and ice, long glass. He survived because there was not a Scot on board. If he had a jock for a chief he would have been shown the empty office and the Webley with the single bullet.

[Mick-Kelly]

Scotch and juice :eek:
I dont think I would have turned my back on him

[Quiggers]

Anyone can make a good scotch...
But we'd have to wait ten years or so....

I'll have a Cardhu... (now, where's Skene?)

There's some stuff in my basement thats so dodgy we'll have to wait another hundred years before throwing it out...

And then there was the 'Lemon Cello' attempt.........

Thermonuclear capable, that batch.

However, Andrew, the juice must work well, good on ya!!!


GQ

[Bigbjorn]

Scotch and juice :eek:
I dont think I would have turned my back on him

It was usually the stewards who were differently oriented, and they were almost 100% and a closed shop. This little Chinese bloke would f--k anything hot, hollow, and slippery bar a bilge pump. The more scotch and orange he got into him the more oriental his appearance became, until, fully primed and legless, he looked like a little fat brown re-incarnation of the Buddha. Any time I have told a Scotsman about the Glenmorangie and orange juice, they looked faint & horror-stricken, called upon the deity and his son, and reached for the decanter with trembling hand. This ship was Norwegian flag and officers, mixed race crew. Norwegian pay and conditions. Very high standard of living. Duty free Carlsberg and Dobbelt Linie akvavit (and the Glenmorangie)

[Bigbjorn]

How much is in a pack of yeast Andrew....is that the 7g size sachet?

Sounds like a good base recipe for any fruit as you say...maybe apricots or peaches
Peach wine is great as is Cherry. I made cherry wine with 5kg cherries destalked and de-pitted, into the home brew fermenter, then squashed with a potato masher, add 5kg. of sugar, top up with boiled water whilst hot, when cool add a packet of wine yeast, and wait for fermentation to stop, allow to settle for a couple of weeks or add finings if impatient, then bottle.
This is very strong, sweet, tasty, and a rich ruby red colour. Could be described as a love potion, or pantie dropper to you crude Land Rover bush going types.

[Quiggers]

I worked on a ship for a bit, the crew was Italian, crikey!!!!

GQ

[Quiggers]

Phil the Greek, eh? NM? He does drive a Land Rover.... The cabin boy obviously had good taste in women (now back to the kitchen!) LOL...

I've just read Sir Humberts Xmas message, we're all in trouble....

GQ

[LandyAndy]

Hey Brian
You are right on the mark,never recomended it as a leg opener.In my original post I did state it has about the same alch content of beer.Could easy put 4 or 6 kgs of sugar or more till you get to the 12.5% that the alcahol starts to kill the yeast and stuffs the whole thing.
It is meant as a lite summer drink not a drown yourself brew.
And the 12 or so test lab rats that have tried it love it!!!!!!
Andrew

[Bigbjorn]

That's why you use a wine yeast. Wine yeast keeps fermenting through an alcohol content that kills beer yeasts. The experts also reckon you should add a Campden tablet to the initial mix before adding the wine yeast. Campden tablets are supposed to kill any wild yeasts on the fruit. I have never used any and have not noticed any bad tasts from wild yeasts so far, touch wood. I have not made any fruit wine for yonks but your post has got me all interested again.

[LandyAndy]

The CO2 keg system sorts them all out too,dont get the nasty taparse syndrome normally assosiated with homebrew dregs.Got an army of "clients" that have been drowned here that will support me:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
Andrew