rhubarb

[MKG]

That looks interesting, Dunc. Any pointers to reference material?

Mike

EDIT: Never mind - found it. Now for a good read!

EDIT2: Yep - the act of malting apparently produces (guess what?) amylase. Now that (I think) should open up the possibility of some very different wines.

[frozenthunderbolt]

It should certainly improove some of the vege based wines by my estimation. Your thoughts Mike?

[MKG]

Yes indeedy. I'm already thinking of stuff I normally avoid - beans (broad or dried), beets, carrot, pea and turnip. Some of those I avoid because of the flavour, but now I wonder how much that flavour is affected by residual starch. Carrot and beet look like naturals - already reasonably high in sugars and now can be made more so. Note that I'm still not including potato - I simply cannot imagine why anyone would want to make potato wine unless they were going to make it into something else.

The question, I suppose, is how much malted grain would be needed to be effective. Too much and it will take over the flavour from the other ingredients. Too little and you may as well not have bothered. Some interesting experiments are in the offing.

Anyone happen to know the best stage to use sprouting grains for brewing purposes?

Mike

[Davie Crockett]

Hi,

I'm a little concerned about the potential oxalic acid content of the rhubarb wine. This should really be precipitated out with chalk before the lemon juice is added. (You risk kidney stones if you regularly imbibe wine containing oxalic acid).

It doesn't alter the taste much, in fact it mellows it significantly and it's not so hard on the palate. I'll have to try your recipe and report back.

Thanks
Davie

ps Sprouted grain is soaked for 6-12 hours, germinated for 3-4 days in a warm place then roasted before it is used for "mashing".

I forgot to mention, there are cereal wine yeasts available which will reduce hazy wine. Look for cereal/Sake yeast.

[pelmetman]

Not sure what you mean but love your user name Davie Crockett.

Davie Crockett was the very first song I ever learnt in my Infants School back in the 50's

sue

[MKG]

Hence the high incidence of suicide by rhubarb crumble. Sorry, Davie, but this is an old cherry. Oxalic acid, in rhubarb, is concentrated in the leaves - but you'd still need to eat far more of those than is possible at one sitting to achieve a lethal dose. In the stalks, oxalic acid represents a MAXIMUM 2.5% of TOTAL acidity. Other acids, totally overwhelming in terms of relative amounts, are acetic, citric, fumaric, glucolic, malic and succinic - plus other organic acids in smaller amounts.

You cannot, it is physically impossible, eat enough rhubarb (or drink enough rhubarb juice) as a normal person over the period of your normal metabolic turnover to do you any harm whatsoever. You'd almost certainly get a severe case of the runs if you tried, but that's for reasons other than oxalic acid.

Kidney stones are, as you say, one of the possible results of ingesting oxalic acid - but only in people medically predisposed to such things. To top that, such people would also have to avoid spinach, strawberries, chocolate, wheat bran, nuts, beets, and tea. Strangely, I never see anyone warning the general public about those - and I know a few people on here who would press the "blow up the world" button if anyone suggested they should go without chocolate and tea.

Rhubarb has been grown and used for at least a couple of thousand years - both as a medicine and as a food. The human race is still here.

Mike

EDIT: But thanks very much for the other info

[gregorach]

Anyone happen to know the best stage to use sprouting grains for brewing purposes?

Well, "green" malt has the highest enzymatic potential, which is probably what you're looking for.

If I were malting grain for this, I'd start a small "pilot" batch the day before the main batch. Basically just like sprouting mung beans - rinse it, soak it, and change the water every day or so. When you see visible germination from your pilot batch, your main batch is ready to use. Normally the malt would be kilned at this point, but to use it green, just drain it and crush it. Crushing might be a little tricky though, as I suspect putting green malt through a grain mill would gum it up... Not too sure what to do there. If you don't want to use it that very day, you will need to dry it thoroughly (e.g. in a warm oven) to stop further germination.

As for quantities, I believe a decent green malt should be able to convert at least 10 times its own weight in starchy material.

[MKG]

What an incredibly helpful reply!!!! Thanks, Dunc.

I would have thought (from a basis of complete ignorance) that the right stage was a lot later than that - just goes to show.

Right - time to a) find a local source of sproutable grain and b) start looking at convertible recipes.

Mike

[gregorach]

Or you could just buy some pale malt from a homebrew shop... At least to start experimenting with.

[Sky]

I've just frozen a large crop of rhubarb, mainly for putting in pies, tarts and crumbles but may give the rhubarb wine a go now ... I love rhubarb :)