Making Rhubarb Wine

[@mutantryeff]

I use a bit of moonshine in my air locks, and sometimes just StarSan solution.

[@cluckifikno]

Aye I've seen a lot of people use Starsan for cleaning and such, it's bloody expensive over here though. Ah jealous over the moonshine! It's illegal over here to use a still to make alcohol without a license.

[@mutantryeff]

@@cluckifikno One ounce of StarSan makes 5 gallons. I mix up a 2.5 gallon keg and keep it available. I transfer it to a chemical safe spray bottle and use it for lots of stuff. Moonshine is illegal almost everywhere - but only when you get caught.

[@cluckifikno]

@@mutantryeff That is really good to know! No where near as expensive as I thought and I love that it's no rinse, that will definitely go on my wish list. Haha yeah good point, I've been tempted in the past to both buy and make a still but never pulled the trigger. Not much of a spirit drinker anymore although I would love to have a crack at spiced rum!

[@mutantryeff]

@@cluckifikno Having StarSan in a spray bottle is amazing. I can spray my hands, spray a fly buzzing around, quickly sanitize a bowl or whatever. Spray and let it sit for 30 seconds.

[@mutantryeff]

!!!

[@cluckifikno]

😊

[@mutantryeff]

Today I moved my 4+ gallons of apple w/pineapple cider to a secondary 5 gallon keg. I stabilized, carbonated, and chilled it down to 42F. My initial tasting is that I'm not sure the Hornindal Kveik yeast was a good choice. I was also somewhat baffled as to why I could only get to a gravity of 1.013 after 32 days of fermentation. The flavor seemed a bit harsh and I feel that is from the yeast. I'm hoping it will mellow out with some aging. I'm debating on whether to back sweeten or not, as 1.013 was probably what I wanted to minimally back sweeten too.

[@cluckifikno]

That's a shame, it's hard to predict how something will turn out. We can only experiment and hope for the best. I went to bottle my elderflower wine today so tested the gravity and it was 1.042 after a month. The yeast had done a bit then given up, not had that happen before. When I back sweeten I just keep adding sugar until I like it lol. It will definitely mellow out given time. I've got a sixty shilling ale in a pressure barrel that's a year old and I've only just started drinking it. Until now it had a horrible chocolate flavour that's finally disappeared. I've made a dry Irish stout a few times, the first couple of batches took six months to age until it was spot on. Ingredients for the last batch came from somewhere else and the dark roast was far too imposing. A year later it mellowed right out!

[@mutantryeff]

@@cluckifikno Wow. 1.042 is not good. I'm just going to let my cider w/ pineapple age out some to see if it mellows. I'm in no hurry to drink it. I often find myself dumping kegs of this or that, as part of the learning curve.