Christmas is coming and the cider’s coming due, please raise a glass for the New Year too.

The rhubarb wine is still a bit cloudy. Needs more time.

We still have one carboy of cider to bottle. We decided to bottle one of our two carboys due to some type of intrusion that was forming a film on top. It convinced us that we really do need the proper stopper for the carboy. A friend lent us the carboy but it came without a handle or stopper. We tried using plastic wrap. Not a successful substitute.

Bottling rhubarb wine. From the bit we sampled, it has a high alcohol content. Because Michael didn’t get a specific gravity reading when he added the yeast, we couldn’t measure the end product’s alcohol reading.

Someone recently asked why there is no good homemade wine. Part of the problem is due to inexperience. Another part is correct equipment. A third factor is space with good temperature and humidity controls. And then there is the aging and storage factor. Even so, our foray into fermentation seems worthwhile.

Michael isn’t into presentation, so reusing bottles it is. We will see if they seal well enough. All equipment and bottles are sanitized beforehand.

The cider also wasn’t measured when the yeast went in. Even so, we can tell that it has a relatively low alcohol content. The difference comes from the amount of sugar the yeast had to work with. We added no sugar to the apple juice, which was tart, meaning it didn’t have a high natural sugar content. Not much sugar means not much alcohol. It still makes a nice, tart, cider. Michael added about 10 pounds of sugar to five pounds of rhubarb. It is not only very alcoholic but is rather raw. It will get better as it ages, which allows sugars and acids to balance. Michael added tannin to the rhubarb, which will soften over time. It has a wonderfully definite rhubarb flavor.
I can tell that I need to engineer a means of storing odd-sized bottles so we begin to solve at least one of the homemade wine challenges. Then we can keep track of bottling dates, sipping our way into enlightenment as to the time (and other factors) needed to achieve that elusive goal of good homemade wine.