It's a Learning Curve

For a number of reasons, I waited until today to rack and stabilize the rhubarb wine.  This was partly due to just being busy, and partly a conscious decision to let this fermentation go to virtually 100% completion.  This afternoon, the bubble rate was about one every four minutes.  If that's any indication, then this fermentation was awfully close to being 100% complete.

The racking went smoothly.  I took a specific gravity reading (0.990), which would correspond to 16.3% alcohol.  Hmmm.  This is pretty strong stuff!  I also took a small amount in a glass for tasting...

Oh dear.  It's rhubarb mouthwash.  The last time I tasted the wine, at the first racking, there was still some sugar present, and it was delicious.  The acidity of the rhubarb and the residual sugars balanced each other and gave some nice flavours.  At this point, all the sugar is gone.  There is no more sweet!  It's just pure acidity.  This is a dry, acidic wine, probably only good for marinating fish or something like that.

So, what would I do differently next time?  In hindsight, I should have stopped the fermentation and stabilized it a few days after the first racking, when there would have been some sugar left to balance all the acid from the rhubarb.

In any case, I went ahead and stablized the wine.  When I added the potassium metabisulfite, I noticed a colour change.  This compound certainly appears to be causing a bleaching of the colour (see below).  It remains to be seen whether this is reversible, like it was the first time:  http://randomfermentations.blogspot.ca/2014/05/rhubarb-wine-beginning.html

(1) Rhubarb wine after racking and addition of a small amount of postassium metabisulfite (left).  The photo on the right was taken about 1 minute after the first one.  Notice the colour change.

This really is a bit of a bummer.  I put a lot of work went into making this rhubarb mouthwash!  On the other hand, I learned a good lesson:  Listen to what your taste buds tell you!  If the alcohol level is close to where it should be, and it tastes good, then it's time to rack and stabilize.

Just like many things in life, there is a learning curve to this.  It's important to continue and try to get it right the next time.  My rhubarb plant has grown back (it's gigantic), so I have the materials to start again.  Next time, I'm going to listen to my taste buds.