strawberry wine

[sully]

so it appears that i have made a 100% dry wine. I just moved to secondary. when the time is right i want to sweeten. any suggestions on the best way to do this. i have also read that banana is a good fruit to give strawberry wine more body. not sure what i will do or even how to do it so any advice would be appretiated

 

[ffemt128]

Let is sit in secondary for a while, there is no need to rush the process. I usually transfer to secondary then rack after 30 days. At this point you have dropped out most of the heavy lees from the juice. Check your sg and if it remains stable for 3 days in a row you can add kmeta and sorbate to stabilize. I usually don't stabilize until I'm sure the wine is clear. I will wait a week or so after stabilizing to back sweeten. When getting ready to back sweeten I determine where I want to be and how much sugar to add using the program winecalc(can be found on the forum). I'll add slightly less sugar needed into the wine and make a simple syrup. Add this to the wine, mix thourougly then sample. I'll allos this to sit and see if it is to taste, if not add some more simple syrup.

 

[tonyandkory]

like Ffemt said ... make sure its done... stabilize with sorbate then make an F-pack with more strawberries, (which is concentrated fruit juice), they are sweet by themselves.

 

[Scott]

And then if the F-pack doesn't do it enough make some simple syrup and add to your liking. Enjoy!

 

[djrockinsteve]

Let it clear 30-45 days. Rack off sediment and age 4-6 months. At this time add a pinch of sulfite before it ages. Then take about a cup or two and invert some sugar. A ounce or two. Mix some of that with some dry strawberry in a beaker w/hydrometer. Shoot for 1.000 at first and take a taste. Adjust up or down to your liking.

Then calculate how much sugar you need to get all to that reading. Mix up 80% of the sugar needed. You can always add more. Take another reading and repeat to get it right on. Add sorbate 1/2 teaspoon per gallon and a pinch of sulfite. Blend. Wait a few weeks. If it doesn't referment bottle.

Remember to degas and always top off. Check out the tutorial section for more help.

FYI. 4 ounces of sugar by weight raises 1 gallon of wine .010