[Sammyk]

Just got home from the farmers market where we sell on Saturday. This was the last week of NC berries. I actually cleaned them when we did not have customers. Each booth outside has running water so when I got home I put them in gallon zip lock bags and in the freezer.

Final cost for the 28 pound stemmed and cleaned berries worked out to $2.22 a pound. I did not think that was too bad.

Next week he will have blackberries.

Now I have to search to see how many gallons that will make. I may buy some strawberry jam to stretch the batch further.

[Deezil]

Dont use any water with this batch, if you wanna surprise yourself.
Can add jam if you want, but... I'd try a real batch of fruit-only wine, if you havent.
Strawberry is a great candidate for it, too.

Consider bananas for some body, i think golden raisins would work too if you were really light on them - maybe only 1lb..

Probably only have enough fruit for 2-3 gallons, but it's an awesome 10-15 bottles

[Sammyk]

I did not add water to them and don't plan to. How many pounds of bananas? I think I still have some strawberries from last year in the bottom of the freezer......

The thing with jam it is pure fruit (Smuckers) and gives a really good fruit taste. I saw that with the blackberry jam I made. Lots of flavor.

[Midwest Vintner]

When we have done strawberry, we used a very small amount of water and the whole fruit. Had to have something to stir right? lol. This is why we have pushed back on making it for our winery. Even at the best prices (~$2), it ends up being over $20/gal to produce. We don't want to make a light wine, so it's just not possible for us commercially. Who is going to buy a $15-20 of strawberry wine? It's good when you use a LOT of fruit, but not cheap.

[jswordy]

Originally Posted by Sammyk

I did not add water to them and don't plan to. How many pounds of bananas?

Might be too late, but I used 2 lbs/gallon. I just cut them into 1-inch segments - skin and all - and floated them in a bag in primary. Yeast love them.

[jswordy]

Originally Posted by Midwest Vintner

Who is going to buy a $15-20 of strawberry wine?

Monteagle Winery 40 miles up the road from me offers a strawberry at $20 and it seems to sell well. It's very fruity.

[Wiz]

I used 28# of cleaned ripe strawberries along with 4 gallons of water to make a 6 gallon batch of wine. Wine was finished to semi dry and was excellent with a great boquet.

[gordini]

An interesting image from the top of one of our tanks. You can see a small part of the farm in the background.

[dralarms]

My best strawberry was a 6 gal. Batch that started as 41 lbs of chandlers. That's after cleaning.

[dralarms]

Double strike. Sorry