Rhubarb Wine

For about 4 gallons of finished wine, use the following quantities:. Lay the rhubarb stalks on a working table and start in the middle of each stalk and crush it. Put the crushed rhubarb in a large polyethylene pail, tub or pottery crock. Add 1 1/2 gallons of boiled water that has been cooled down. Dissolve four grains of sodium metabisulphite for every gallon of "must" in a cup of warm water and stir it in well with the "must". Put on a cover or cover with a sheet of polyethylene with a ball of cotton on one edge and tie it down with a cotton cord. Leave for five days. Then remove the pulp and place it in a clean cloth and wring it out. Put the liquid in a large polyethylene jug or glass bottle. Test the wine liquid or "must" with your saccharometer to ascertain the amount of sugar you need for the alcohol content that you want. Include the water to be added with the sugar. Dissolve half of the sugar in a gallon of water and boil about two minutes. Cool to lukewarm and add. Put on a fermentation lock and leave ferment for about ten days. Dissolve the other half of the sugar in a gallon of water and boil for about two minutes. Cool to lukewarm and add to the "must". Leave ferment until fermentation stops. Siphon or "rack" into another sterilized jug leaving as much sediment behind as possible. Be sure that the jug is filled right up to the top with no air in the jug. Fit a fermentation lock and leave until "polished" or clear. Then siphon into bottles or jugs and cap.