Strawberry Wine Recipe.. trials and errors

[RkyMtnWine]

First attempt at wine... you can see errors made in the process

STRAWBERRY
Two Gallons


Recipe used was from "Winemakers" recipe handbook by Raymond Massaccesi.


All recipes in the bookare for one gallon. Multiplied the ingredients for the gallons desired except for the yeast (one packet good for up to 5 gallons).


Ingredients:


6 ½ # of fresh ripe strawberries from the garden.. 1# fresh strawberries from the store (these were not as ripe as the garden ones).


14 pints of water (used bottled spring water)


4# sugar


2 tsp Acid Blend


½ tsp Tannin


1 tsp Pectic Enzyme


2 tsp Yeast Nutrient


2 campden tablets crushed


1 wine yeast... used 71B-1122


Harvested the strawberries 6/20/08, washed and drained. Left in fridge until the next day.





6-21-08


Washed all equipment with dish soap, rinsed well and used bleach mixture to sterilize with numerous hot water rinses to remove all bleach.


Washed and drained strawberries again. Used potato ricer to mash and put the pulp into nylon straining bag and placed this in the primary (used a stainless steel pot). Added all of the ingredients except the yeast and stirred well until the sugar was dissolved. Initial sg reading was 1,080


6-22-08


Waited 24 hours and added the campden tablets. Sg reading still at 1,080


6-23-08


Sg reading still 1,080 ... No yeast action. Temp of must 75


6-24-08


sg 1,080. Temp 78 No yeast action... 30 hours ... added another yeast packet.. Instructions from wine shop. Did not have the expertise knowledge from members of the finevinewines forum. Should have waited longer before adding more yeast.


6-25-08


sg 1,079. Temp 78. Finally yeast doing its job



6-26-08


sg 1,050. Temp 77.


At this point I had to leave town... Wine shop said it would be ok.


6-29-08


Sg dropped to 998 and no visible yeast action. Instructions from book stated to transfer at 1000 sg. Transferred to a three gallon secondary (was not aware of headspace issue) and attached airlock.


7-3-08


Sg 996. Visited wine shop and showed them a picture of the secondary.. They advised to put into one gallon secondaries.


10-22-08


Racked four times since 7-3-08. Racked and added 2 oz of vodka/water mix to top off. Added 1 tsp stabilizer (sorbate) and 2 campden tablets.


11-01-08


Backsweetened with 1/4 cup sugar to sg 1,001.


11-02-08


Added 1/4 cup Red Grape Concentrate. To bring the sg up to 1,004. Filtered using the vinebrite filter. Wine was clear but the filtering really polished it nicely. Left bottles standing for one week and put on side after that.

 

[NorthernWinos]

You got some nice colored wine there....
Is that the bottle your grand daughter painted in the middle back row???? Was it your grand daughter????

 

[RkyMtnWine]

thanks you... yes, my 3 year old grandaughter painted it,she did better than I could... think I would try to make a design.. she just dabbed... I finished it off with clearcoat.. She has done a couple others since.

 

[Wade E]

Looks good rcky.