Strawberry Wine Journal

[skiboarder72]

So I started my first fruit wine a few days ago. Found some very sweet strawberries on sale and decided to take the dive into fruit wines. I stopped by my local wine making store, picked up some extra chemicals, a 2gal primary, and a 1 gal glass carboy.

I'm starting a 1 gallon batch.

Added 3lbs of fresh strawberries, chopped and deleaved
1/2tsp pectic enzyme
1tsp acid blend
1 campden tablet
2.5lbs of sugar (sg 1.10)
Tap water up to a little over 1gal

I added the strawberries, pectic enzyme, acid blend, and crushed campden, and just enough water to cover the strawberries (which are in a grain bag). Let that sit overnight. I guess the higher concentration of pectic enzyme helps breakdown the fruit? Then the next day added sugar, and EC1118 yeast. It's fermenting away now at a decent rate after I punch down the fruit. Hope it turns out good!

Anyone have any tips or suggestions?

 

[Green Mountains]

I've yet to make wine directly from fruit so I'll leave suggestions to others.

I will say that what you are doing is JUST what this forum needs to really add some visuals to wine making. I'm a visual guy and really learn better by seeing photos. And Josh, being a professional photographer you have the tools and drive to do some great threads.

Awesome photos.

Keep this stuff coming.

Darren

 

[skiboarder72]

already down to 1.04 sg today!

 

[Newbie]

Great pics!
I started a batch of strawberry in Jan and it's clearing nicely but still has a ways to go. It's the prettiest wine that I've made so far.

 

[Leanne]

Hmmmm, well at least you didn't do what I did. I went to make strawberry wine and had a blonde moment so I dutifully added all the onions I'd chopped for chutney making.

 

[Newbie]

Funny! Well, it's only funny when it happens to someone else.

Do you bottle the chutney? Can you post the recipe in the preserves section?

 

[Leanne]

I do bottle them. I will post some of my recipes asap.

 

[Tom]

Some thing to change
Bump up the #'s of fruit to 5-6# per gallon especially for small batches
Google WineCalc and download
Use this to figure how much sugar you need to get 1.085 for fruit wines
1010 is high and the alcohol will overpower the fruit.
everything else is OK . Consider to back sweeten the wine.
Patience.. It may take a while to clear.

 

[Wade E]

I agree with Tom, more fruit and less sugar will result in a wine that is much more pleasant and will have a better taste and will be more balanced. Looks good though.

 

[skiboarder72]

Wow newbie, that really kept some great color! I noticed that over the past week that nice red color slowly faded on me. Its kinda a brownish red now.

Anyways, its down to a 1.01 sg so I decided to rack her over to a gallon jug and a 750ml glass. It's tasting and smelling kinda fizzy/fruity/alcoholic now.

Leftover pulp

 

[Newbie]

Wow newbie, that really kept some great color! I noticed that over the past week that nice red color slowly faded on me. Its kinda a brownish red now.

Anyways, its down to a 1.01 sg so I decided to rack her over to a gallon jug and a 750ml glass. It's tasting and smelling kinda fizzy/fruity/alcoholic now.


I used 5 lbs of strawberries for the 1 gallon batch and I followed a tip from another forum member... about half of the sugar added was brown sugar. Maybe that helps keep the color??

 

[skiboarder72]

The color has improved a lot as fermentation has died down, it was tainted by the recent racking and yeasts going wild

 

[skiboarder72]

Not a picture of my strawberry wine... but a random photo of the chianti I just drank

 

[skiboarder72]

Alright got around to doing something with this tonight

1. Took SG Reading... it was off the chart... very close to .990
2. Tasted... nice strawberry up front, alcohol after, a little young
3. Racked over from 1 gallon to another, topped up
4. Added a finger coating of sulfite
5. Shook up 1 gallon jug very well to degas
6. Added 10mL wine conditioner for slight sweetness
7. Shook again
8. Put on airlock and into storage

So far so good!

 

[skiboarder72]

Still clearing... looking beautiful though

 

[St Allie]

Not a picture of my strawberry wine... but a random photo of the chianti I just drank

ooh!!

Josh? would you mind if I used your photo to make a painting?

that one would lend itself well to a large canvas.

Allie

 

[skiboarder72]

ooh!!

Josh? would you mind if I used your photo to make a painting?

that one would lend itself well to a large canvas.

Allie

Thats fine... as long as you show me the end product!

 

[St Allie]

Deal.!!!.

Any chance you would send the full photo file? ( not reduced for web)

I'll get better definition that way.

Allie

 

[texaswinemaker]

Thank you for this post, I love it. Doing this type of post takes time and effort. I just wanted to say that I appreciate it.

 

[Weddingshooter]

Great pics!
I started a batch of strawberry in Jan and it's clearing nicely but still has a ways to go. It's the prettiest wine that I've made so far.

You can really shine that wine up by using Bentonite to clear it. It works amazingly fast and is very cheap. I just Bentonited a 5 gal batch of strawberry and will bottle in a couple of weeks. I'm debating whether to keep it dry or sweeten a bit.
Wally