Strawberry wine is on the menu

Just bought 104 lbs of strawberries. Anyone interested UGO has them for 1.00 a LB

 

They are cleaned and in the freezer, out of 104 lbs we got about 99 lbs of useable fruit. Going to be a good batch.

 

Ea

Eastern Tennessee , and I’m guessing mid season. They were really sweet tasting.

 

Thanks. My last batch was too sweet after aging. Learned a lot since then.

 

Final tally is 99 lbs 10 oz. pretty good for 104 lbs. my 20 gallon fermenter is full along with a 6.5 1/2 full. Plenty of pectic enzyme (guessing 4 to 5 oz), that’ break them down good. Added 3 gallons of apple juice just to have some liquid for the pectic to have some stuff to work with.

 

Checked it this morning, still cold but no longer frozen. Mostly liquid now. Added sugar and yeast. Will update once I have it in the carboy(s) and find out what my yield is.

 

Unfortunately I couldn’t get a good measurement. I added 9 lbs of sugar to begin with an once I am able to rack it into a carboy I’ll be able to take a reading and if low add a little sugar at a time until it’s finished.

 

My starting brix is 21.9

 

Ok, strawberry is in the carboys, 15 gallons. Sure there will be some fallout but if I end up with 12 gallons out of 99 lbs 10 oz I’ll be happy.

The scraps left over was about the size of 2 softballs. Didn’t weight it but guessing 3 lbs at the most.

 

Hand squeeze. And yes pretty dry, when I dump it out it comes out in big clumps

 

Just racked off the lees, ended up with 13 gal, 1.5 bottles. Still has some clearing to do but should end up with 12.5 to 13 gal. Smells wonderful.

 

Racked mine off yesterday and now have 13.7 gallons of clear strawberry wine, super dry right now, going to give it a week before I stabilize and back sweeten.

 

No experience with any red star yeasts. I use lavin on everything