Strawberry Wine tips suggestions

[Sammyk]

I picked up 12 pounds of fresh strawberries today. They are cleaned and cut up and in the freezer. I would like to make 2 gallons of strawberry wine.

I did look at the recipes here and was wondering if the more experienced vinters have some tips to pass on. I will probably start this in about 2 weeks and can get more berries if needed.

 

[djrockinsteve]

Clean and remove the green, slice in half and freeze immediately.

When ready remove from freezer, add some sugar water (inverted) so they can thaw in a liquid. Once the strawberries are mostly thawed fill remaining space with sugar water. You will need to add extra to compensate for the volume of the strawberries.

Add pectic enzyme. Wait 12-24 hours and add yeast nutrient and yeast. I added several pounds of peaches to naturally sweeten the wine. If you can take an acid reading do so and adjust if necessary.

Starting gravity can be around 1.080 I would suggest Lalvin EC-1118 yeast

 

[Sammyk]

Thank you Steve, I did remove the green and sliced them before I put them in the freezer. I plan to buy more at the market next week to freeze for when peaches are ready later in the summer.

I have never tested for acid. What do I need? And what is added to correct the acidity.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Clean and remove the green, slice in half and freeze immediately.

When ready remove from freezer, add some sugar water (inverted) so they can thaw in a liquid. Once the strawberries are mostly thawed fill remaining space with sugar water. You will need to add extra to compensate for the volume of the strawberries.

Add pectic enzyme. Wait 12-24 hours and add yeast nutrient and yeast. I added several pounds of peaches to naturally sweeten the wine. If you can take an acid reading do so and adjust if necessary.

Starting gravity can be around 1.080 I would suggest Lalvin EC-1118 yeast

I also blended mine with peach wine that i made - tastes really good!!

 

[bob1]

Instead of hastily putting them in freezer you need to set them out on some cardboard in sunlight. When a strawberry is fully ripe and ready to make wine the seeds on them will pop. The little hairs you see are not mold. When you see the little hairs they are ready. When you cut them open there will be hardly any white in them. I use 8 lb per gal and a heat extraction. Mine is red not orange like I here most saying it is.

 

[Turock]

When we make strawberry, we plan on 10 pounds per gallon. This make a real intense-tasting strawberry that will get rave reviews. With fruit purchased at the grocery store, most of these berrries look nice, but many are lower on flavor because they're picked non-ripe. So maybe 10 pounds isn't even enough. We are very critical of the strawberries we buy for wine. We buy them at the fruit auction, and only buy the ones that taste very good. Last year, we had to go back 3 times before we found the ones with intense flavor. The quality of strawberries really makes all the difference in how good the wine will be. That's true for ANY wine, but strawberry is even MORE fussy.

It would be good to buy a PH meter. When you start using high poundage, it's necessary to know what the PH is because you're no longer using water to up the PH and the wines will be too acidic and need more sugar to balance it out. We set our PH at 3.4 which means using calcium carbonate. After the fruit is room temp, get some pectic enzyme in it. Next day, take a PH reading. Breaking down some of the fruit down beforehand gives you more accurate PH readings. After you set your PH, then add sugar, the yeast,nutrient,etc.

 

[bob1]

Agree with Turock the berries must be very ripe. I also only buy fresh from field. The ones at grocery store have usually been refrigerated and will not finish ripening. As with most fruit once you put in fridge it changes.

 

[Sammyk]

They are ripe, not grocery store but from the farmers market.

 

[djrockinsteve]

Sammy, I dug up my notes from the Strawberry and Peach wine. I have never made a straight strawberry wine but you can refer to this for ideas.

As mentioned above it would be wise to boost the pounds per gallon as strawberries alone can be flat tasting. I added peaches to mine to help add natural sugar and flavor.

You definitely need a hydrometer if you don't have one already. @$10-15 bucks Somewhere down the line buy a ph meter to take not only ph readings but acid % readings. They run $100-120 bucks but it is invaluable. For now use your taste as a guide.

Strawberry Peach Wine 5 Gallon Final
Starting Gravity 1.080
Yeast Lalvin 71B-1122
15 Pounds Strawberries, cleaned, green removed, halved and frozen.
20 pounds Peaches frozen
1/2 teaspoon grape tannin
20 drops Pectic enzyme
6 teaspoons yeast nutrient
6 teaspoons acid blend
Inverted Sugar to reach 1.070 gravity
Inverted sugar 20 ounces by weight to back sweeten
Potassium Metabisulfite
5 teaspoons Sparkolloid
2 1/2 teaspoons pot. sorbate (DO NOT ADD UP FRONT)

2 six gallon buckets for fermenting initally

water to equal 5 1/2 gallons
inverted sugar to bring gravity to 1.070
Equally add peaches and strawberries to both buckets

when the majority of the fruit has thawed add pectic enzyme equally-wait 12 hrs.
Add nutrient, acid blend and tannin, stir
check gravity and adjust if necessary to 1.070. Fruit will add more sugar naturally
Add your yeast. Suggest rehydrating it or making a starter. Stir

Stir several times a day. Push down cap (fruit that rises from CO2)

Remove fruit when gravity reaches 1.020-1.010 and combine buckets.
Ferment dry.

If you have any yeast energizer you may add 1 teaspoon when gravity reaches 1.000, not necessary though.
Stir your must well and snap on a lid with an airlock or snap on a lid and crack one of the snaps. This will help to keep oxygen off of your must.

Wait 2 days. Gravity should be .990 Do not stir.

Rack off wine to a carboy.
Add 1/4 teaspoon pot. sulfite, add sparkolloid or other fining agent. Stir well to degass and blend sparkolloid well.

Add an airlock and keep @70 degrees to allow wine to clear. 4-6 weeks.

Rack off of sediment, add a pinch of sulfite and age 6 months.

Back sweeten to taste. I took mine to 1.010 using 20 ounces of sugar inverted. Add potassium sorbate. Let rest a week or two. Bottle.

My acid was .675%
ph 3.35
bottled with 50ppm sulfite

Starting with 5 1/2 gallons will yield 5 gallons when finished plus.
Use the slurry for a skeeter pee-it was awesome!

Keep in mind all fruit is different in acid and sweetness. Best to pick at full ripeness and discard pits, bad areas, stems.

If you adjust for volume, reduce everything proportionally except the yeast.

Here are some tutorials for your knowledge-Basic ferm. guide
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f71/basic-juice-fermenting-guide-14202/

Importance for stirring your must
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f71/importance-stirring-your-must-12040/

How to hydrate yeast
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f71/how-hydrate-yeast-10353/

There are many more on out Home Page>Tutorials

 

[bob1]

I always wonder about removing the green leaf from them. When they run down a shut for a commercial winery and hit the water trough nobody has removed the leaves.

 

[chettd]

Don't over sweeten this. I have some that I made a year ago that was on the dry side of semi-sweet. After a year it has become a semi-sweet wine simply with age.