In article ,
Jan Flora wrote:

In article ,
enigma wrote:

Billy wrote in

ct.net.au:

In article ,
enigma wrote:

heh. my 30' row hasn't been divided in at least 10 years,
although i have cut off a couple end of row new crowns to
get my friends started on a rhubarb addiction...
when in the season the tops melt depends on a few factors
including heat & humidity, amount of light, water,
geographical location, luck...
last year my rhubarb flowered & melted before the end of
June. this year it's still growing like mad & i've only
seen one flowerstalk. it's cooler this year.

Your entire row died back or just the flowering plants?
Last year was a cool year for me, and my little cluster
of 'barb flowered and just kept ontruckin'.

the whole row. it literally melts & disappears when it gets
hot. that's when i feed it a load of llama beans, because the
leaves are all gone & out of the way.
lee

Do you make rhubarb wine, by any chance? I'm always in search of new
recipes : )

Jan

No, but it shouldn't be too hard.
Mush up the rhubarb.
Add water (four parts H2O to one part 'barb. Reduce water to concentrate
flavor)
Adjust pH to 4.4 to 4.6 (sour --- flat) with tartaric acid.
Add cane sugar to 21 to 28 brix as measured with a hydrometer. Otherwise,
add 6 oz sugar for each pint of water added.
Add yeast as if you were making a pizza, except the yeasts hydrating
fluid should be about 25% rhubarb mixture. After 20 to 30 minutes, add
to rhubarb mixture.
You'll want to ferment between 65F to 80F. (The cooler, the fruitier)
Press off after 3 to 7 days or around 9 brix.
Then come the nut of the problem. I presume that you want some residual
sweetness.
See article http://www.eckraus.com/wine-making-sweet.html
In a commercial winery, your drop the temperature to about 55F and let
the particulate material settle (1 to 2 weeks). Draw off clear wine and
add SO2 (potassium metabisulfite) to 30 -35 ppm. As long as the SO2 is
in this range, the wine is stable. The next step would be to sterile
filter (.45 micron membrane filter, sterile equipment and bottles) and
bottle.
The Louis Martini in Rutherford used to make a Muscat Amabile which
they didn't sterile filter but they kept it at 50F to 55F at all times.
If you have an unused refrigerator, this might work for you.
I would recommend getting a cylinder of argon gas for displacing air in
containers. Argon is inert, heavier than air, and isn't absorbed by the
wine.

This is a general recipe that should work for any flavoring material.

Good sledding.
--

Billy
Bush and Pelosi Behind Bars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0aEo...eature=related