Strawberry time again

[pwrose]

Its been a while since I have been here to post and it looks like things have changed a bit.
Last year bout this time I started my 2011 strawberry wine. It went a little like this
100 lbs of strawberries (never frozen)
Cleaned and sliced in at least half
Put into an 18 gallon tote and the exploding berries took off, really all over the wall and floor.
However when said and done, it made only 6 gallons of wine, I didn't add any water it was all strawberry juice. If I had not hid a bottle or two it would all be gone now, but I have my stash.

On to this years strawberry. I hated cleaning and slicing 100 lbs of berries last year, so this year I am looking for a new way to accomplish the mission.

MISSION:
200 lbs + (depending on what I can get, Im at 45 lbs right now.
Obtain the juice without having to top or slice the berries.

Suggestions welcomed,
I was thinking steam juicing but that might take just as long as topping and slicing.
The other thing I was thinking was I have a 10 gallon deep fryer for turkeys, Put that over a flame and cook the berries down to a juice and strain.

What do you think??????????

 

[winemaker_3352]

I would at least core them.

If not the core taste could run into the wine.

Pretty easy to do with a straw - stick the straw in the butt end of the strawberry - push it up through the top.

 

[pwrose]

Have any idea how long that will take with 200 lbs of berries.
I more or less did that last year with them and it was only 100 lbs, took about 6 hours.
that was without any help.

 

[winemaker_3352]

I have always have my family come and help out.

We did 304#'s this year and it took about 7 hours.

Get a few people 200#'s you could knock out in a 2-3 hours..

 

[Luc]

Have any idea how long that will take with 200 lbs of berries.
I more or less did that last year with them and it was only 100 lbs, took about 6 hours.
that was without any help.

So ???
Its a hobby.........

Six hours is nothing.
When I made my plum wine I was busy every evening (after work) from 6 to 12 for a week to mash and pit them.

Picking dandelions got me every evening going for about 2 hours for about 2 weeks.

6 hours work is nothing in my point of view.

Luc

 

[Turock]

We work with 100# of strawberry every year and just pull the green part off--goes pretty fast,actually. We run them thru the grape crusher to get the juice going,bag them,and toss them into the primary.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

We crush them with a grape crusher also, add enzymes and let them set overnight then strain through a paint filter bag (dont squeeze), the treat like juice. You can add some water with sugar at your target SG to the pulp, stir up real good and strain again for a little more juice (we like to use this for a topping off batch). No slicing, no cut fingers, no pulp to keep from blocking your racking, no seeds to add bitterness.

We are making a strawberry mead with 50 pound of strawberries in ~5 gal of must and 1.5 gal honey. Just before racking into a better bottle, we added 10 pounds of sliced strawberries to boost the flavor for a couple of days, restrained into the secondary, smells great!

Crackedcork

 

[corntassel]

I just stim the berries put them in galloon bags and freeze them. After the season or any time after2 weeks take some out steam juice them then while the juice is hot put them in ssterilized jars and store for later. That way you don't have to process all at once. The caned juice will last for a year or more. I do all my fruit this way and can make all juice wine all year at my convenience.

 

[rogerb]

When I worked in restaraunts(years ago) we had a tool that looked like a small melon baller with little teeth for coring the stems out of tomatoes. If you could find one or even a small melon baller it could increase the speed of preparing them.

 

[pwrose]

Luc its a hobby but with the amount of work I do these days I am lucky I have time to run down to the strawberry place and get the berries in the first place. I wish I had the time I did a year ago.

I like the idea of popping on the tops and mashing. Steaming a little as I go wouldn't be a bad idea either.
Keep the suggestions comming.

 

[brewski09]

Luc its a hobby but with the amount of work I do these days I am lucky I have time to run down to the strawberry place and get the berries in the first place. I wish I had the time I did a year ago.

I like the idea of popping on the tops and mashing. Steaming a little as I go wouldn't be a bad idea either.
Keep the suggestions comming.

ug: agreed, hobby time is well spent

 

[jswordy]

Have any idea how long that will take with 200 lbs of berries.
I more or less did that last year with them and it was only 100 lbs, took about 6 hours.
that was without any help.

I did 150 pounds plant-ripened all the way through by carefully removing all green in 9 1/2 hours. There was no white in my berries. My wife took pity on me and helped for the last couple hours. Hobby or not, that was real work.

 

[brewski09]

I did 150 pounds plant-ripened all the way through by carefully removing all green in 9 1/2 hours. There was no white in my berries. My wife took pity on me and helped for the last couple hours. Hobby or not, that was real work.

So, it sounds like its about 3.5 pounds of strawberries per minute, per person... Now for the real question. How much of the previous batch did you consume per hour per person while prepping said strawberries?

 

[jswordy]

So, it sounds like its about 3.5 pounds of strawberries per minute, per person... Now for the real question. How much of the previous batch did you consume per hour per person while prepping said strawberries?

Zero. I bought an extra gallon of berries for snacking, but didn't even touch them. I basically sat there and worked strawberries from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Stopped long enough to eat two pieces of toast late morning. That's why I prefer to use pie filling. But it will all be worth it.

If you have a nice sharp paring knife, it makes the work go much easier.

 

[pwrose]

Well here is what I have decided, I got 100 lbs right now however I am in Maine on business. When I get home Friday I will take what I have right now and make the first batch. I will dump the bags of berries in my cooking pot (5 gallon) and cook them down to juice. This will have everything except the bad berries in it, including the green tops. Then I will strain the juice off and squeeze the pulp for any extra juice.
On the next 100 lbs I will cut the tops out as I am baggin them. I have been averaging about 16-25 lbs each time I get the call to come get them. That should not take that long to top them before I freeze them, if I do it as I get them. Then I will try the same process as I did with the first 100 lbs.
I will post it up as it happens.

 

[pwrose]

Well its finally official 160# of strawberries in the freezer.
I am going to take some of the posted advice mainly due to time factors and juice a few at a time.
I have some gallon jugs that I can put the juice in to freeze until I am ready to use it.

I am wondering though should I put the pectic enzyme in before I juice them or after but before I freeze them?

 

[tonyandkory]

I have a Good grips Strawberry Huller

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0017106FA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

it cores the berries and there is a push button on the back to eject them and it goes very fast

 

[Turock]

If all the berries are frozen, there is no need to steam them. Dump them into a container, let them thaw to room temp. Get some meta on them while they thaw. When they are approaching being all thawed, get some pectic enzyme on them. Next day, take PH reading, set brix, etc. and go for it. You might want to bag them too---if not, be sure to strain out the seeds before going into secondary. Add no water---really don't need it because you'll have tons of juice. You've never had a better strawberry than one made with no water additions. You should end up with around 16 gallons of wine, so you can use that estimate to know how much of your chemistries to add at the primary. Good luck.

 

[pwrose]

Turock,
I made my strawberry that way last year, no water and basically 100 lbs made 6 gallons. I just dont have the time that I had last year to deal with them that way. Therefore I will be juicing them and freezing the juice until time to use it. I also dont want the mess I had last year with the pulp still in the bag. The other thing is I am not going to destem them this time. One of the oldtimers around here does it that way and has never noticed the difference. He adds water to his though and I dont.
He actually made two 50 gallon barrels last year and said he used around 400 lbs of berries.
Oh and I doubt I get 1 gallon of juice from 10 lbs of berries, I might but like I said it took right at 100 lbs last year to get 6 gallons. I will be happy if I get to the 10 gallon mark.

That huller probably would not work on half the berries I got because they are so small. You have to know that the berries I get are the reject berries from a commercial strawberry farm, not a u pick deal. The only thing I have to watch out for are green berries for the most part.

 

[jswordy]

Turock,
I made my strawberry that way last year, no water and basically 100 lbs made 6 gallons. I just dont have the time that I had last year to deal with them that way. Therefore I will be juicing them and freezing the juice until time to use it. I also dont want the mess I had last year with the pulp still in the bag. The other thing is I am not going to destem them this time. One of the oldtimers around here does it that way and has never noticed the difference. He adds water to his though and I dont.
He actually made two 50 gallon barrels last year and said he used around 400 lbs of berries.
Oh and I doubt I get 1 gallon of juice from 10 lbs of berries, I might but like I said it took right at 100 lbs last year to get 6 gallons. I will be happy if I get to the 10 gallon mark.

That huller probably would not work on half the berries I got because they are so small. You have to know that the berries I get are the reject berries from a commercial strawberry farm, not a u pick deal. The only thing I have to watch out for are green berries for the most part.

I got 10 1/2 gallons out of a double-pressing of 150 pounds of berries, if that helps you any in your planning. I did use a sharp paring knife to knock off the greens from the top of each one. These were field ripened berries, red all the way through. I did freeze them first.

I put my berries into a 5-gallon paint strainer bag and then into the press. Ran through the whole load, saving the pressings in a bucket, then ran through the pressings one more time. I saved back and froze the very first gallon of juice to come off, for back-flavoring later.

It is now in first secondary, and in one week it has cleared great so far! I am impressed at how quickly it has begun to clean up.