Strawberry Wine

[ffemt128]

Well Aldi's started their sale prices yesterday and Strawberries are $.99 per lb. Yesterday I went up and purchased 32 lbs of berries. People were looking at me like I was nuts....


I have them all de-leafed and cut in half. I packaged them in 4 lb bags and place them in the freezer. Will start my strawberry wine this weekend. I'm thinking a 6 gallon batch. I may have to make another trip to get more for an fpac and pies....

 

[Goodfella]

Sounding pretty good...










Whatrecipe will you be using?

 

[ffemt128]

Found this recipe in the wine makers recipe handbook that came with my equipment kit.

3 1/2 lbs strawberry
7 pts water
2 lbs sugar
1 tsp acid blend
1/4 tsp tannin
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp nutrient
1 campden tablet crushed
1 pkg wine yeast

starting sg 1.090 - 1.095










I was planning on shooting for 1.080-1.085 and bumping fruit to 4 or 5 lbs per gallon

 

[Goodfella]

The 2 changes you made at the end.... Are the exact 2 suggestions I was going to make!!!

 

[Brewgrrrl]

Depending on what kind of finished wine you are looking for, there is also a recipe in "Making Wild Wines and Meads" that makes a fantastic dry or semi-dry wine. I made five gallons last year and I wish I'd made much more.

What a great strawberry sale you found though - WOW.

 

[smokegrub]

That is a fantastic buy on the strawberries.

 

[Tom]

I would go for 6# per gal. Get another 6-8# for a f-pac

 

[Waldo]

I would recommend freezing them for at least a week, preferably two. Will really help in juicing them

 

[Goodfella]

I might suggest using some white raisins also...

 

[Wade E]

White raisins are good but be careful as they are almost always sulfited so go lower on the sulfites when using them.

 

[Tom]

Yes get them @ Sams Club or add banannas

 

[ffemt128]

Well here was my final recipe so far and I may modify the sugar amount after I check SG.


This is for a 6 gallon batch.


30 lbs of fresh strawberries
12lb sugar
5 tsp acid blend
1 1/2 tsp tannin
1/4 tsp k-meta
3 tsp pectic enzyme
6 tsp nutrient
wine yeast 1116 or 1122


After cleaning, destemming, and halfing the strawberries they were frozen. I took strawberries out and allowed to partially thaw. Place berries in straining bag and tied top. Added all ingredients except pectic enzyme and nutrient at this time. Boiled water and sugar to make syrup and aid in disolving sugar. Added simple syrup to strawberries. Filled remaining primary with water to 6.5 gallon mark. (allowing extra for when berry pulp is removed). I squeezed the bag several times to soften the berries and stirred to thouroughly mix everything.


Straining bag will be squeezed twice daily and must will be mixed. When must reaches sg of 1.010 - 1.000 I will rack into carboy and allow to finish fermentaion. Racking will be done as needed. After 2 months I will stabilize and add fpac to back sweeten to taste. Additional rackings will be performed as needed until clear. I'm figuring on bottleing around Christmas.


Starting SG 1.086.

 

[Goodfella]

Sounds perfect....

 

[Tom]

What was the starting gravity?
Just "punch" down the bag. No need to squeeze.

 

[ffemt128]

What was the starting gravity?
Just "punch" down the bag. No need to squeeze.

I'll check that later, want to wait til temp gets down from adding simple syrup.

 

[smokegrub]

Squeezing the bag will result in a very large amount of lees and consequent wine loss at racking. As recommended above, punching down the bag is all that is necessary. For what it may be worth, I have had excellent success steam-juicing strawberries.

 

[Tom]

Yep I resemble that remark..

 

[ffemt128]

Updated original post to include starting sg of 1.086.

 

[Tom]

Thats a good starting gravity. Should come out real nice.

 

[ffemt128]

Thats a good starting gravity. Should come out real nice.

We'll see in a few months Tom.