strawberry wine recipe wanted

[LaurieL]

I just purchased 50# of cleaned and de-stemmed frozen strawberries today and would like to make a 6 gallon batch of wine. Does anyone have a good recipe with complete instructions?

 

[Tom]

Here is a strawberry - Kiwi one. Just take out the Kiwi and add the #'s in Strawberry.
I made the Strawberry-Kiwi
Strawberry/Kiwi Wine
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<DIV id=post_message_13470>6 Gallon Recipe
25 lbs – Fresh Strawberries diced up
12 lbs – Fresh Kiwis skinned and cored
1 – White Grape Concentrate
12 lbs - White Table Sugar or gravity to 1.085
1 tsp – Ascorbic Acid
7 1/2 tsp – Acid Blend
6 tsp - Yeast Nutrient
3 tsp – Yeast Energizer
1 1/2 tsp – Tannin
1/4 tsp - Liquid Pectic Enzyme or 3 tsp powder Pectic Enzyme
1/4 tsp – K-meta
5 1/2 Gallons - Water
1 Sachet – Red Star Cotes Des Blanc Yeast

Pour 1 gallon of warm water in 7.9 gallon primary bucket or bigger.
Add K-meta, Tannin, Yeast Energizer, Yeast Nutrient, Grape Concentrate, and Ascorbic Acid and stir well. Put all fruit in fermenting bag and squeeze over primary to extract most of juices and then put bag in primary. Pour the 1 gallon of boiling water with all dissolved sugar over fruit. Fill the rest of the way with remainder of room temp water and check SG, it should have a SG of around 1.085 give or take a little, if more then add a little more water, if less then add a little more dissolved sugar in small amount of water as sugars from fruit can vary a little. Let sit for 12 hours with lid loose or with a cloth covering bucket with elastic band or string tied around so as that not to sag in must. After those 12 hours add your Pectic Enzyme and wait another 12 hours while also adjusting your must temp to around 75 degrees. After those twelve hours, pitch your yeast either by sprinkling yeast, dehydrating yeast per instructions on back of yeast Sachet, or by making a yeast starter a few hours prior to the 12 hour mark. At this point either leave primary lid off with the cloth again, place lid on loose or snap the lid shut with airlock. Punch down cap twice daily to get all fruit under the liquid level. When SG reaches 1.015, rack to 6 gallon carboy and let finish fermenting with bung and airlock attached. When wine is done fermenting, (check a few days in a row to make sure SG does not change and SG should be around .998 or less) you can stabilize by adding another ¼ tsp of k-meta and 3 tsps of Potassium Sorbate and degas your wine thoroughly. You can now sweeten your wine if you like by using simple syrup which consists of 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of boiling water or by using a juice or frozen concentrate. I typically take 2 quarts of an alike juice and simmer on stove at medium heat with lid off until its 1/3 its original size and let it cool to room temp and then add slowly to taste. Be careful not to over sweeten. At this point you can use a fining agent or let it clear naturally. Once clear, rack into clean vessel and bulk age more adding another ¼ tsp of k-meta at 3 month intervals or add ¼ tsp k-meta and bottle age for at least 3 months and enjoy. Longer aging will give you a better wine so save a few bottles till at least 1 year mark so you can truly see what this wine can aspire to.

 

[hannabarn]

That is a good recipe. I was going to suggest Jack Keller's web site. But I don't always agree with his instructions. You da man!!!

 

[Tom]

Jack does NOT use enough fruit per pound. Resulting in a "thin" body wine withlittle flavor. It is however a good basic recipe for the beginner. I like to use 5-6 #'s per gallon PLUS a big f-pac. All that = award winning wine. Plus its like drinking liquid fruit.. Hmmm.....

 

[LaurieL]

so 37 lbs of strawberries for this??

 

[Tom]

Start with 30# and use the 7# for a f-pac.
It will come out great. Then backsweeten

 

[LaurieL]

Sounds great. I will let you know when I get started and I am sure I will have more questions since this is my 1st home made batch of wine.

 

[Tom]

Any more questions ASK! thats why we are here.

BTW where U from?

 

[hannabarn]

OK! So now how about blackberry. They are getting ripe fast here

 

[Tom]

Now maybe Wade will come into this. I am collecting (slowly) Bleckberries now. I am guessing 30#'s blackberry + f-pac 6# and backsweeten

 

[Tom]

Here is a ONE gallon recipe




Winemaking Ingredients: Blackberry Wine - Wine Making Guides

6 pints fresh or frozen blackberries (3#'s)
3 lbs / 1,350 grams granulated sugar or to 1.085
1 teaspoon acid blend
1/2 teaspoon pectic enzyme
Cote des Blancs Wine yeast
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient / energiser
8 pints / 1 gallon cooled, boiled water
1 campden tablet

Winemaking Method: Blackberry Wine - Wine Making Guides
Roughly press blackberries and add to clean, empty winemaking fermentation bucket. Next, add the cooled, boiled water, together with sugar, wine nutrient, campden tablet, acid blend and pectic enzyme. Stir well until all of the sugar has completely dissolved and allow to stand for up to 24 hours.

Add activated wine yeast and then stir twice a day for five days. Thoroughly strain the blackberry wine mixture and add to demijohn, with suitable airlock. Rack after approximately one month, and then again at three monthly intervals until clear and approximately 12 months old. Bottle blackberry wine and then leave to stand for a minimum of 12 months.

 

[Wade E]

Blackberry Wine. I prefer 6 lobs per gallon on the blackberry. I too dont care for Jack Keller's recipe's even though mst arent even his but recipes given to him ny friends and most are thin and have very high starting sg;s which will hide most fruits taste for years.

 

[LaurieL]

Tepe,


I am from the LaCrosse, WI area.

 

[jeepbabe]

Ok- question here. This is my first fruit wine. I used Tepe's recipe and used 35#s of frozen strawberries. The problem is I used a 7.9 gallon fermenter and couldn't add any extra water outside of the 2 gallons (1 for the sugar and 1 for the initial ingredients) because there was just no room. Will this be a problem? I didn't even take an SG gravity reading yet because I don't think everything is thoroughly mixed and I worry if I stir then I will have a big mess. I am hoping that once the strawberries sit for 12 hours they will break down and I can get a good reading.

I know I don't have any more room in my bucket for water if my SG is too high...what should I do?

 

[Rocky]

Jeepbabe,


I would get another bucket real fast and divide the strawberries. You will need room in the primary for fermentation and if you are at or near the top now, you could have a real mess. Try to find a food grade plastic pail e.g. as for ice cream. Clean it out very well with Oxyclean and lots of hot water for rinsing and then sanitize it with a K-meta solution.

 

[Rocky]

Jeepbabe,


Thinking further, if you can't find a food grade plastic pail, perhaps you could find a ceramic crock from a friend or neighbor. Try to be sure it was not used for pickling because that could cause problems. On the food grade plastice, many restaurants get food in plastic pails. I would hit some of them in your area. Many are 5 gallon pails.

 

[Tom]

Ok- question here. This is my first fruit wine. I used Tepe's recipe and used 35#s of frozen strawberries. The problem is I used a 7.9 gallon fermenter and couldn't add any extra water outside of the 2 gallons (1 for the sugar and 1 for the initial ingredients) because there was just no room. Will this be a problem? I didn't even take an SG gravity reading yet because I don't think everything is thoroughly mixed and I worry if I stir then I will have a big mess. I am hoping that once the strawberries sit for 12 hours they will break down and I can get a good reading.

I know I don't have any more room in my bucket for water if my SG is too high...what should I do?

Yes you will need TWO buckets

Put them in 2 straininbg bags

 

[jeepbabe]

Thanks for the quick advice! I am going to divide the batch into two buckets. I'll let you know how this turns out.