Strawberry wine

[booboo]

The local grocery store has fresh strawberries on sale so I am thinking of doing an experiment batch of wine by juicing the berries.

I took one pound of strawberries and ran them through a juicer and got 1 cup of juice and 1/2 cup foam on top. I tested the juice and got 1.035 sg and 3.42 pH. I plan to use 32 Lbs. of berries so I should end up with 2 gallons and a lot of foam.

My plan is to juice 32 Lbs. of berries add them to a fermenter (keep foam???)
Add enough sugar to get to 1.07 sg
Add two campden tablets
Wait 12 hours and add Lallzyme EX-V
Wait 12 hours and adjust PH to 3.4 with citric acid
Pitch yeast

I have DAP and Fermaid K on hand, how should I use them to feed this after fermentation starts?

Any yeast recommendations?
Should I keep the foam and stir in prior to fermentation?
Will this be too intense? Should I dilute with water?

 

[seth8530]

This being a fruit wine I would not dilute with water.

For yeast nutrition check out these two threads.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f86/got-off-phone-fermaid-people-38704/

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f86/yeast-nutrients-39655/

I would not recommend juicing the strawberries. Instead, I would freeze them for a few days and then unthaw them inside of the primary vessel to let the juice run out. It is good to remember that the skins of fruits can have good stuff in them. That being said, I doubt you are doing much harm by juicing them....

I would not add water to dilute, most fruit wines need all the oomph they can get. I would consider adding a small addition of something similar to this during the primary to help fix the colour. Strawberry wine tends to turn an organgeish colour after aging.

http://www.scottlab.com/product-120.aspx

I would shoot for a SG to get a little higher up.. Say around 1.075 to bump the ABV up just a bit. One thing to consider would be using honey instead of sugar to bump of the SG for an interesting melomel. I would also ferment this nice and cool to help express the fruity aromas one should want from a fruit wine.

Perhaps conisder using 71 B

http://www.lalvinyeast.com/71B.asp

 

[dralarms]

Seth is correct. No water.

 

[booboo]

This being a fruit wine I would not dilute with water.

For yeast nutrition check out these two threads.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f86/got-off-phone-fermaid-people-38704/

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f86/yeast-nutrients-39655/

I would not recommend juicing the strawberries. Instead, I would freeze them for a few days and then unthaw them inside of the primary vessel to let the juice run out. It is good to remember that the skins of fruits can have good stuff in them. That being said, I doubt you are doing much harm by juicing them....

I would not add water to dilute, most fruit wines need all the oomph they can get. I would consider adding a small addition of something similar to this during the primary to help fix the colour. Strawberry wine tends to turn an organgeish colour after aging.

http://www.scottlab.com/product-120.aspx

I would shoot for a SG to get a little higher up.. Say around 1.075 to bump the ABV up just a bit. One thing to consider would be using honey instead of sugar to bump of the SG for an interesting melomel. I would also ferment this nice and cool to help express the fruity aromas one should want from a fruit wine.

Perhaps conisder using 71 B

http://www.lalvinyeast.com/71B.asp

Great info but I am now more confused than before. Is there a chart or a web page that has simple instructions for people like me who want to make good wine but really don't want to know all of the science behind it.

For example. I am making 2 gallons of strawberry wine with 71 B yeast.

1 - rehydrate 1 package of yeast with x amount of go-ferm at x temp
2 - Use x amount of Fermaid O at X, X and X time.
3 - Use x amount of DAP at X, X and X time.
4 - Use x amount of FT Rouge at x time.
ETC...


What do you think of using the juicer instead of freezing? I could toss the pulp into the must for fermentation.

 

[seth8530]

Not really, not if you want to be able to consistently make decent wine. At the very least you will need to be able to follow the instructions that come with the products you intend to use. Be patient, and do some reading and I promise it will make much more sense.

I doubt their is much wrong with using the juicer.... Just a LOT of extra work.,. You will also end up with a VERY messy must with a good deal of losses.

The basics of what you need to do are...

1) produce your must, measure the SG and calculate how much sugar you need to add to hit desired SG.
2) add sulfite and enzyme to your must in addition to a fermentation tannin to help set the colour ie FT Rouge
3) After 24 hours, rehydrate the yeast with go ferm and pitch it into must. Stir in plenty of air.
4) After visible fermentation activity begins add first dosing of yeast nutrient, add the other half half way through fermentation
5) Keep stirring in air from time to time until fermentation starts slowing down.
6) Rack to secondary somewhere around 1.01-1.000
7) Rack the wine once every few months or so or when the lees start piling up a good bit.


These are the BASICS... However, I would recommend you do some more reading. It is a lot harder to make wine if you do not understand what you are doing.

 

[booboo]

Not really, not if you want to be able to consistently make decent wine. At the very least you will need to be able to follow the instructions that come with the products you intend to use. Be patient, and do some reading and I promise it will make much more sense.

I doubt their is much wrong with using the juicer.... Just a LOT of extra work.,. You will also end up with a VERY messy must with a good deal of losses.

The basics of what you need to do are...

1) produce your must, measure the SG and calculate how much sugar you need to add to hit desired SG.
2) add sulfite and enzyme to your must in addition to a fermentation tannin to help set the colour ie FT Rouge
3) After 24 hours, rehydrate the yeast with go ferm and pitch it into must. Stir in plenty of air.
4) After visible fermentation activity begins add first dosing of yeast nutrient, add the other half half way through fermentation
5) Keep stirring in air from time to time until fermentation starts slowing down.
6) Rack to secondary somewhere around 1.01-1.000
7) Rack the wine once every few months or so or when the lees start piling up a good bit.


These are the BASICS... However, I would recommend you do some more reading. It is a lot harder to make wine if you do not understand what you are doing.

I have been making wine for many years but am primarily a brewer. I brew most weekends for the last couple years so I have beer making down. I just thought maybe I would get some more detailed information from people who make great wine rather than following manufactures instructions. I have always used Fermaid K and DAP for nutrients but it looks like I need to do some research on Fermaid O, Fermaid A and all of the other new things I discovered today.

BTW, if anyone is interested in having a web page that gives detailed instructions for novice wine makers like I described above. I have a domain we can post it on and I will maintain it, I just need someone to feed me the content.

 

[seth8530]

Honestly, as un-romantic as it sounds, more often than not, the white papers distributed by Scott Labs are actually pretty spot on. They pay a lot of money in research to make sure that their products will work as advertised and they are more than willing to back up their research if you ask them questions.

If you want more detailed information than what is given by the manufacturer instruction sets then you will need to take steps to understand what is going on. Otherwise, you are more likely to hurt than to help by not following the instructions. ie, for the most part, the instructions they give are pretty good so long as you are working with grape wine... But, things change with meads and some lower nitrogen fruit wines.

Good luck, and happy reading.

 

[booboo]

So far this is my plan. Any comments.

1 - add campden tabs to strawberries - 1 per gallon
2 - after 12 hours add Lallzyme EX-V - .75g per gallon
3 - after 12 more hours add Opti-Red and FT Rouge - 1g of each per gallon
4 - adjust acid levels with acid blend to 3.4
5 - oxygenate
6 - rehydrate 71 B with go-ferm and pitch
7 - add fermaid-k after fermentation starts and then at 1/3 - 1g per gallon each time
8 - filter and re-adjust acid if needed.
9 - bottle

 

[booboo]

So far this is my plan. Any comments.

1 - add campden tabs to strawberries - 1 per gallon
2 - after 12 hours add Lallzyme EX-V - .75g per gallon
3 - after 12 more hours add Opti-Red and FT Rouge - 1g of each per gallon
4 - adjust acid levels with acid blend to 3.4
5 - oxygenate
6 - rehydrate 71 B with go-ferm and pitch
7 - add fermaid-k after fermentation starts and then at 1/3 - 1g per gallon each time
8 - filter and re-adjust acid if needed.
9 - bottle

I also plan to take out 25% of the juice prior to fermentation and freeze to back sweeten before filtering.

 

[seth8530]

Your plan sounds pretty good, however, freezing liquid to create syrups is kind of a juice intensive process. It is much more efficient to boil off the liquid.. The question, is whether or not you are willing to accept the change in flavour caused by heating the juice.

 

[booboo]

Your plan sounds pretty good, however, freezing liquid to create syrups is kind of a juice intensive process. It is much more efficient to boil off the liquid.. The question, is whether or not you are willing to accept the change in flavour caused by heating the juice.

My plan was to collect the f-pack juice just before adding the Opti-Red and FT Rouge then freeze it in a zip lock. Do you think it is a better idea to reduce the juice on the stove and keep in the refrigerator until needed? Or are you thinking it would be best to keep some of the berries frozen and create the reduction the day I add the f-pack?

 

[seth8530]

Good question, I would freeze a portion of the juice for later if you are really committed to using an fpack. However, not every fruit wine benefits from an fpack. Me and the GF made a strawberry wine and we fermented it dry and just subtly back sweetened it with honey. As of right now it seems pretty promising.

That being said, Fpacks are rather popular with fruit wines.