Strawberry Delight

[ffemt128]

The Strawberry Delight is looking very clear at this point. I know there is still sediment to fall out. I snuck an early taste the other day. Although it has fermented dry, the strawberry flavor is very prominant right now. This is likely due to using 30 lbs of berries for 5 gallons of wine and the fact that there was no where near the recommended water added as I was shooting for a 6 gallon batch and ended with a little over 5.

I will likely rack and stabilize this weekend, maybe today. I thawed out 1.5 ltr of juice that was left over from when I made pies. It's tart since it is pure juice. Will likely simmer down, add sugar and use that to back sweeten next week. I'll shoot for 1.000 - 1.004 for initial back sweetening. I need to check acid today also.

Next week I may look to getting another carboy. They are $20.00 for better bottles and $27 for glass. Right now I have it in a 3 gallon carboy, 2-1 gallon jugs and a 750 ml bottle. Would like to age all together.

 

[ffemt128]

Tonight I created my fpac for the Strawberry delight. I took 8-9 lbs of strawberries and steamed them for the juice. After steaming I had close to a gallon or more of juice. I then simmered this down to just under 1/2 gallon. I siphoned off 3/4 gallon of juice and added to the 1/3 gallon o wine I already had extra. I added the fpac then finished fillig the better bottle with the extra (now) gallon of wine. Ended up with 5 1/2 gallons of wine after adding the fpac. I will check sg in am and back sweeten then.

It's pretty damn tasty now but I think SWMBO (love of my life) will like it a little sweeter. I'll post sg as it stands now and where we sweeten to in the coming days.

This will make a nice addition to the Christmas gifts.

 

[countrygirl]

i have only one thing to say...
i wish i was on ur christmas list

 

[ffemt128]

Right now I have it back sweetened to 1.006. To me it tastes pretty good. I tried it at 1.01 and I thought it was too sweet but that was before I added the fpac. I tried a 500 ml sample at 1.010 just to see the sweetness since that is where the bottle of strawberry we bought was. We will let this sit and have my wife try it and she can let me know what it needs.

 

[ffemt128]

My wife tasted it last night and said don't do anything else with it. It's off to sit in the carboy for a few months before bottling. Whooo Hooo.. Now I have to figure out how to make jelly with the rest of my berries.

 

[ffemt128]

Anyone else that has made Strawberry notice the lees being really fluffy? I racked it off last night and unfortunately picked up some sediment that was in the rings of the better bottle plus some from the bottom. I added KC Super Clear to it last night and the lees seem to be really fluffy. They were this way before and packed down so I'm not too worried. Just wondered everyone elses thougths on the fluffy lees.

 

[ffemt128]

After the racking on 9/1 I thought I would add that I ended up with 4 gallons of wine and the lees are nicely compacted now. I didn't want to mess with the fluffyness of the lees so I stayed well above them when racking and hence the reason for only 4 gallons. I'm happy with the clarity and the quantity considering it was my first attempt at strawberry. I will be making this again next year when strawberries are ripe again. I anticipate bottling this sometime in November. I'll rack one more time soon then likely run through the filter I recently bought to polish the wine since it will be mostly gifted.

 

[ffemt128]

Well I checked and everything looked good, I racked into a bucket and then filtered the Strawberry Delight. All I can say is WOW, does filtering really add a sparkle to your wine. It was clear before, but now it is amazing.

Since I had the filter out and I had only run 4 gallons through it I decided to filter my son's batch of mead. It too was clear but now it shines.

Glad I picked up the filter when I had the chance.

 

[Tom]

Another filter convert!

 

[ffemt128]

Another filter convert!

Big time after see the difference. The $50.00 paid for it will be well worth it for fruit wines and white wines. I'll gladly pay for the filters.

 

[ffemt128]

My wife has been asking if we had any of this ready so I broke down and bottled the gallon batch after topping up the 3 gallon carboy as much as I could. I ended up with 4 3/4 bottles so I bottled 4 - 375 ml bottles and 2 - 750 ml bottles and have the 3/4 - 750 ml bottle in the wine cooler for later.

Here is the results of my efforts thus far. For being my first strawberry experiment I am quite happy to say the least and I will be doing this in a larger quantity next year. (excuse the crappy cell phone pic). This will make a nice Christmas gift for our sisters.

 

[Runningwolf]

Doug, nice clean labels ad super clear wine! Awesome job.