60 lbs of Strawberries...

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Angelina

Angelina

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My husband and I stopped at a family farm stand while passing through NC today and we came away with 60 lbs of Strawberries. I can't decide what to make with them, and I am looking for idea's??? Mead, wine, dessert wine, maybe mix them with something else???
 
That is quite a find, We will not have strawberries in my neck of the woods for 5 weeks or so.

I am sure you already know this but strawberry wine by itself is a pretty good wine, as is strawberry pomegranate, My last strawberry venture was strawberry mango. It turned out well when I bottled it but it was young. a few more months will tell the tale. with 60 pounds you could make 5 gallons of each. :h LOL I guess what I am saying is you can hardly go wrong with strawberry anything! :br
 
You got me thinking about doing a fruit mix, and I am thinking strawberry rhubarb mead or wine? Runningwolf mentioned rhubarb when I was in PA a few weeks ago as being a great wine so this might be a good combo as well.
I don't think color will be a issue either, but we will see, they are red thorough and through with no white, I can't remember the last time I seen strawberries like that.
I also need to decide if I will freeze the strawberries, use my juice steamer, or chop and mash them. In the past I have always froze my fruit as this seems to be the easiest way to break them down.
 
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I havn't tried it this way, but if I had a bunch of fresh ones I think I would mash them some, add some sugar to them and freeze them for a couple of days. Next, bag em and ferment them. The other way I have done it is freeze them, bag them and mash them a little. It worked fine, but I think you might get more juice with the sugar added. Arne.
 
Arne said:
I havn't tried it this way, but if I had a bunch of fresh ones I think I would mash them some, add some sugar to them and freeze them for a couple of days. Next, bag em and ferment them. The other way I have done it is freeze them, bag them and mash them a little. It worked fine, but I think you might get more juice with the sugar added. Arne.
Click to expand...

That sounds good! I really wanted to try something different and I think this sounds like a good way!
 
You have just enough for 6 gallons of very good strawberry mead, use all the berries and a gallon of good light spring honey. Even add a tiny bit of oak to give it some tannins to help it keep a while longer. WVMJ
 
We got them capped and mashed, 10 gallons of mash is a lot of mash! I had to mash in small batches. My poor back. lol so.... I'm thinking I am going to have much more than 6 gallon being I haven't even added water yet??? I couldn't even get a good sg reading because it is so thick. There is no way I could freeze this much. I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment trying to figure out what to do next. I did split it into 3 fermentation buckets and treated it with k-meta so no wild yeast will kick in and turned temp in the room down to 65° I am hoping tomorrow the mash will settle and I can get a good reading. Any thoughts and advise at this point is greatly appreciated.
 
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Add a gallon of honey to the 10 gallons, some nutrients your favorite red wine yeast like Pasteur Red and let it rip. You have 10 gallons now BUT, you are going to loose a lot of that to sediment. You can strain out some of the pulp thru a stainless steel strainer or a clean pair of leggs to get enough juice for your SG reading. I know your house smells wonderfull with all those strawberries now. You could also add sugar after you get your SG reading but the honey is much nicer and gives some extra body to your strawberry. If you dilute it you are going to dilute the flavors, much better to have an awesome strawberry mead or wine made with 100% juice than to do the 3 lb/gallon a lot of weak recipes call for.

You guys are just down the road from us, any orchards around you selling cider apples or old time antique apples?

WVMJ
 
I decided to go with a Strawberry Melomel. I dumped the 3 fermentation buckets of mashed strawberries into my 32 gallon brute. I had added 5 lbs of sugar while I was mashing and 96 oz (6lbs) of honey when I was done. This morning I took a brix which was to high. So I added 2 gallons of water and brought the brix down to 23.2 my sg was 1.102 it is still very thick but at least I was able to get a good sg reading since this is what I am comfortable with for my starting abv reading.
I then add a little bentonite. Added tannin,energizer, nutrient, and enzyme. I pitch 2 packs of rehydrated ec-1118 since I didn't have any Pasteur red.
I may also make a batch of banana melomel and blend it with the strawberry melomel later down the road if needed for body, we will see :)
 
WVMountaineerJack said:
Add a gallon of honey to the 10 gallons, some nutrients your favorite red wine yeast like Pasteur Red and let it rip. You have 10 gallons now BUT, you are going to loose a lot of that to sediment. You can strain out some of the pulp thru a stainless steel strainer or a clean pair of leggs to get enough juice for your SG reading. I know your house smells wonderfull with all those strawberries now. You could also add sugar after you get your SG reading but the honey is much nicer and gives some extra body to your strawberry. If you dilute it you are going to dilute the flavors, much better to have an awesome strawberry mead or wine made with 100% juice than to do the 3 lb/gallon a lot of weak recipes call for.

You guys are just down the road from us, any orchards around you selling cider apples or old time antique apples?

WVMJ
Click to expand...

There are a lot of orchards here and they sell every variety imaginable it seems. Orr's in Hedgesville wv seem to specialize in the rare ones so you might check with them as well. It has been years since I paid them is visit. Most want a premium price for them. 50.00 bushel if I remember correctly.
 

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