Bitter Strawberry wine now smooth

[xcaret]

I usually just make wine the old fashioned country hick way . Toss the fruit ,sugar and yeast,and water , into the container ,nothing more added , no bisulfate or any of that fancy stuff!! Seal it for 30 days ,( usually I forget it for a couple of months or more ) strain it through a nylon stocking and start drinking it .
Well I took a sample of my strawberry wine after 30 days or so , and it was bitter like someone said it would be on this forum. I put it out of my mind for a couple more months and thought I'd take a sample and see if I could cut it with soda pop to make it less bitter , I drew a basting syringe off the top and took a sip ,the bitterness had gone . Wow I had made a great discovery, the longer it sits the less bitter it became . I was warned that by not siphoning the must into a carboy in 6-7 days I would get a bitterness. That is correct , it was bitter , but after 3 more months or was it 2 , the bitterness went away .
Have I stumbled onto a new finding ?? I doubt it , the old guys had no camden tablets ( whatever they do ?? ) or anything store bought and they were the originaters or good wine . I doubt that Noah had these chemicals at hand lol. Well neither do I and my wine is usually about 15 % alchohol , All I want to do is get a buzz, I can put up with bitter wine , but now I see I dont have to .

 

[TommBomb]

LOL it was probably me on a rant about my wine... Its great to see and hear what many of the veterans around here have told me already. nice man, enjoy that stuff!

 

[jamesngalveston]

xcaret, you need to make some dragon blood....you can drink in a few weeks, and it is excellent, you will get the buzz, for sure.

 

[Dwbtater2]

I usually just make wine the old fashioned country hick way . Toss the fruit ,sugar and yeast,and water , into the container ,nothing more added , no bisulfate or any of that fancy stuff!! Seal it for 30 days ,( usually I forget it for a couple of months or more ) strain it through a nylon stocking and start drinking it .
Well I took a sample of my strawberry wine after 30 days or so , and it was bitter like someone said it would be on this forum. I put it out of my mind for a couple more months and thought I'd take a sample and see if I could cut it with soda pop to make it less bitter , I drew a basting syringe off the top and took a sip ,the bitterness had gone . Wow I had made a great discovery, the longer it sits the less bitter it became . I was warned that by not siphoning the must into a carboy in 6-7 days I would get a bitterness. That is correct , it was bitter , but after 3 more months or was it 2 , the bitterness went away .
Have I stumbled onto a new finding ?? I doubt it , the old guys had no camden tablets ( whatever they do ?? ) or anything store bought and they were the originaters or good wine . I doubt that Noah had these chemicals at hand lol. Well neither do I and my wine is usually about 15 % alchohol , All I want to do is get a buzz, I can put up with bitter wine , but now I see I dont have to .

thanks for the info. great stuff

 

[xcaret]

Hmmm !! Dragons Blood .. how do you make that ? It sounds like it might have a good kick to it ..
I'm thinking of making another batch of pineapple wine now they are on sale here , Acually I'm being cheap cause 4 pineapples are all i ever used ..

 

[jswordy]

So to recap, if you age your wine it tastes better. Welcome aboard. Let some of it sit as year, and see what happens.

 

[jamesngalveston]

dragon blood recipe is on forum here.
jswordy and the rest is correct.
i just sampled a wine that is 4 weeks out from bottling..and it is by far better now, then when it was bottled...and that was just a month.

 

[xcaret]

yeah what a great discovery we are making lol. I never wondered why age wine was anything special.. I dont like the taste that much and really would never drink it if it had no alchol in it . Id just stick to water ..

 

[jswordy]

yeah what a great discovery we are making lol. I never wondered why age wine was anything special.. I dont like the taste that much and really would never drink it if it had no alchol in it . Id just stick to water ..

If you do not like the taste of your wine, maybe you should modify your winemaking until you arrive at some you do like. That's the #1 reason to make my own - I like it the way I make it. There are plenty of tips you can pick up here just by reading the site, as some of the members seem intent on raising the standards of we drunkards.

There are 3 E-Z things I know from experience you can work on immediately to improve flavor:

1.) Use more fruit or concentrate per batch. 100% is ideal whenever possible.

2.) Lower your SSG to result in an alcohol level of 12.8% or less. This typically puts you in the 1.080 range or so at start. 12.8% alcohol is still a hefty amount but staying below 13% brings out more of the fruit and tannic structure. To get drunk, all that means is you may have to drink a bottle and a half or even two instead of a bottle, but that wine will taste much better. For example, over several hours last Friday evening, I started with a bottle of commercial Norton, moved on to a lower-tier commercial red blend and finished up with a bottle of kit red I had made. I might have been able to git-r-dun with just a bottle and a half of hotter wine, but this was a much better tasting bender. I awoke with no hangover.

3.) Age your wine at least 6 months before you drink it. That's usually a function of making larger batches if you drink heavily. Welch's is my howl at the moon wine that lets me keep my hands off my other stuff. But even with that, I like to make enough so it can sit at least 4 months. It is way improved at 6 months and at a year is even better. I have one bottle that is 2 years, 6 months old in my Vinotemp, waiting for me to get around to trying it on a special occasion.

 

[FABulousWines]

Sorry Jim, I just can't get that picture of you howling at the moon out of my head. Now there's a visual.

Excellent post nonetheless.

 

[jswordy]

Sorry Jim, I just can't get that picture of you howling at the moon out of my head. Now there's a visual.

Excellent post nonetheless.

Here is a visual aid for you.

 

[FABulousWines]

Stop! You are killing me!

 

[weaverschmitz]

Thanks for the tip

I just racked my strawberry wine and it tastes bitter. I moved it outside to cold stabilize it for a few weeks. Hopefully waiting a few months will smooth out the flavor. Thank you for the tip.

 

[Turock]

Enough time spent in bulk aging will remove bitter components.