strawberry wine color

I just made strawberry wine for the first time so I'm not sure what to expect. When I racked it the second time, I noticed the color had an orange hue to it. I was expecting a pink color. I took precautions to prevent oxidation and the taste is good. I've not seen strawberry wine before. Is this a normal color?

Huh? said:

I just made strawberry wine for the first time so I'm not sure what to expect. When I racked it the second time, I noticed the color had an orange hue to it. I was expecting a pink color. I took precautions to prevent oxidation and the taste is good. I've not seen strawberry wine before. Is this a normal color?

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100% normal. My batch last year started a brilliant red then through the fermentation process it ended an orangish color also.

I agree - mine did the same thing. I think i am going to try and add more fruit in for an f-pac to aid in the color.

I've heard of some people using sugar free Kool Aid to add color to wines that otherwise have little or no color.

Mine turned orange too. Tastes like strawberry. I'm glad someone asked this so I feel better now too.

My strawberry wine had an orange tint to it, as well. I always attributed that to using dark brown sugar.

Learned something new! Thanks!

I've never seen true red strawberry wine... it's always been orange!

Debbie

couldn't you add red food coloring if you were trying to make it red?

dukesbb37 said:

couldn't you add red food coloring if you were trying to make it red?

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That's what I did and I swear it tastes much better! Just be careful because it is very concentrated. Try a 2-3 drops first, you can always add more later (week or months) if needed for presentation purposes.

I'm glad you asked this question, because I was just trying to figure out if I had did something wrong myself. Mine is a gallon.. used 3.5 pounds of berries and 1/2 cup of raisins. Fermented for a week and racked to a jug which it's been in for about two weeks now.

Bill, with 3.5# of berries, I'd recommend a flavor pack. Maybe another 3 pounds, and simmer the juice down to concentrate it.

Adding a f-Pak will also add great color. I f-paked my strawberry today and it went from orange to RED. Have another 40#s and will use all 40 in a 6 gallon batch with 5 pounds left for an f-pak

I just made the must for my first batch. My must does not seem to have any color at all however. When I took the hydrometer reading (1.12, way too high for what I was aiming) the liquid didn't even have even a faint trace of pink, though the fruit bits floating appear to have had all of the color leached out of them from sitting. The recipe I followed called for 8 lbs of strawberries (came out to about a gallon mashed), 6 lbs of sugar (a lot in my opinion), and a gallon and a quarter of water. I've added yeast and the other additives (yeast nutrient, pectic acid, tannin{which was enough to turn the whole thing more brown than it was red btw}) this morning on the off chance that it's not a complete fluke, but i'm worried that the color is gone because it's so diluted by water and sugar.

from what I've seen the must should have at lease a little color, even this early on, especially since the fruit seems to have lost almost all of it's color. Any clue as to what is wrong, and is it even worth continuing? or am I just fermenting sugar water?

The most natural way to add color without a lot of fuss is to use some Dark Sweet cherries in your initial must. I did this with a peach wine last summer. I wanted to get that reddish/gold color of a peach so for a 4 gallon batch I used 20 dark sweet cherries. It didn't change it a lot but it did move it closer to a darker golden color. AND that many cherries are not going to alter the taste at all. (That works out to 1 cherry per bottle) If I'd known I would have doubled the number. Just pit the cherries and mash them well before adding to the must/

just double your fruit, mine comes out red but I use way more pounds of fruit then the recipe calls for
Dawg

Got 15 gallons of strawberry going now, true it will be somewhat orange in color. But this year made and F-pak out of 5 pounds of berries per 5 gallons of wine and color is much better. Also hopeful for more of fruity strawberry taste. Using F-pak made with sugar to back sweet with.

For you guys adding fpac's, are you all adding them during the primary or secondary or after stabilizing? I just took 4 lbs frozen strawberries, added 1cup sugar and some pectic, put that in a nylon bag and let the clear juice run out for about 36hours. Added that back to my 6gal after I stabilized it. So far so good, but would like to try other methods on fpacs.

Why did you add raisins?

Just an update, racked into carboy from the primary fermenting bucket. went from a brownish orange to an almost koolaid red within just 2 days without adding or altering anything else. standard gravity has gone down slightly, but I think fermentation had been stalled due to the high sugar content.

I think the loss of color when making strawberry wine highlights a couple of flaws.
1. If the pH is too high (the must is too alkaline) then I think that the color becomes unstable whereas if the wine is more acidic the molecules that provide the color (anthocyanins, I think they are called ) are more fixed in place... https://winemakermag.com/1226-late-malolactic-color-question-wine-wizard (it's the second question ).
I also think that a lack of tannin in this wine allows the color to shift. So
2. If your must contained more tannins (strawberries, I think, are tannin poor) then you might find that the color would be more stable. Adding color removes the symptom (the poor color) but that in and of itself won't make the wine more acidic or more tannic..