humble beginnings

So, I've never really thought about or considered a blog but having been laid up following surgery, I have decided to write about my delve into the ancient art of winemaking. Now being a student, many have already teased me about making illicit liquor to inebriate myself and my fellow students on the cheap! Sadly as good an idea as this is, the wine probably won't be ready for another 14-15 months, by which time I (touch wood) will have graduated with a 1st class degree in the exhilarating subject of sociology and criminology. A riveting thought I know.

As previously said, I have been laid up the past few weeks following some minor surgery. After mum collected several kilos of rhubarb from the garden, the idea came about we would attempt rhubarb wine. Now, I'm no stranger to homebrewing as four years ago, I made cider which worked out around 9% and was rocket fuel!! I am however a newbie to winemaking. After doing a bit of reading online, and trying to determine which method to follow, (there was literally hundreds of variations on add fruit, water, sugar and yeast and leave to ferment!) I finally settled on a fairly straightforward method. Cue raiding the attic to find the equipment I stowed away after the cider several years earlier.

The fruit was cut up and placed into boiling water along with raisins and 3lbs of sugar and left for a week to steep in order to extract the flavour from the rhubarb. After finding a homebrew shop in stirling, the yeast, a new airlock and a demijohn were bought. My first experience with plastic and have to say i'm not impressed. Anyway, i stirred the fruit twice daily for the week and once the 7 days were up it was strained to remove the pulp and then I added the yeast.

Now, at this stage I was beginning to worry. Having read numerous articles by now, I was expecting a frothy, vigorous fermentation. Sadly this was not the case. The yeast had barely made any effect on the wine after two days and according to the recipe i should have experienced a good frothy fermentation by now. I decided to move the wine to the kitchen near the cooker and after 2 hours hey presto! I had a good frothy wine in the bucket! 'Appy days!!!

After another 7 days and the wine was to be transferred to the airlock. This simply means that I exclude al air from the wine and allow the yeast to really convert the sugar into precious alcohol! Well, fair to say this was a far from simple adventure. Filling the demijohn with the wine it began to froth up again and at one point resembled a scene from Dante's Peak. Not good. After getting it calmed down, the demijohn was fitted with bung and airlock and left to ferment in a cool place.

And that was it. I was now hooked on winemaking. Suppose if uni doesn't work out I could alway be a Vintner!!