When will my strawberry wine clear?

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

FreedomTea

Junior
Joined
Mar 16, 2013
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
I have made some strawberry wine in the past and forgot to add pectolase, the end result was a very cloudy red wine, a lot like in the picture.

This time I added 5 teaspoons of pectolase (as per the instructions on the carton) to the must, then another teaspoon to the 23L primary fermentation container for good measure.

It's been a week and I have just siphoned it into 5 demijohns. It's looking really, really dark - will this clear? Slightly worried as I have spent £40 on strawberries and I am wondering if I should add some more pectolase to it now.

I am using this recipe for 5 gallons of dessert strawberry wine:
http://www.eckraus.com/wine-making-strawberry/

Here is the picture of it two days into secondary fermentation:
Te0964h.jpg
 
Even though I already added more than the correct dose for the batch before primary fermentation?
Will adding more effect the taste when it is finished?
 
Thanks, I have added 1/2 teaspoon pectolase to each gallon and shall now wait 4-6 weeks.
 
Strawberry can be tough to get clear. I had a batch that sat in bulk for a year or so. It looked clear so finally decided to bottle. A couple of weeks later sediment fell out. Didn't affect the flavor, just didn't look the best. The last batch after it looked clear, I filtered. That stayed clear, so from now on it gets filtered before bottling. Arne.
 
Like Arne said, I have found strawberry is very weird for the clearing process. Time or superkleer will work.
 
FreedomTea said:
Even though I already added more than the correct dose for the batch before primary fermentation?
Will adding more effect the taste when it is finished?

Your strawberry won't look clear until fermentation stops. Rack in a few weeks, dose with potassium metabisulfite and it will start to clear.

Be patient!
 
Time.... Time...... Time...... Rack every month for 3-4 months, I never added clearing agents to my strawberry and it cleared sparkling clear.

Control, control, You must learn control.......or at least patients!
 
Last edited:
Looking at the pictures, it looks like it is already clearing. Strawberry drops out a TON of stuff. Adding a clearing agent may make you happy. If it is not completly degassed it will not clear
 
I have never made strawberry wine but I have read a lot on it on this forum. Clearing seems to be a very big issue for most people. "Patience is a virtue, possess it if you can, seldom found in women, never found in man."
 
Considering that you just transferred to carboys in the past week it is far too soon to worry about clearing. And your notes indicate you have 6 tsp pectic enzyme on board, you should be fine. I would rack it in a month and approximately every two months from there, as long as it is still dropping sediment, regardless if clear or not. Six months from now the wine should be degassed, clear and sediment free--par for the course of a country wine.
 
Last edited:
20180808_170306.jpg 20180919_201940.jpg I used the same recipe, and used a mini jet after 3 months, came out fanatstic I've seen another recipe the used sparkalloid that had won various medals in competition. Before and after filtering
 
Your post was the first post since 2013. Now there are 4 posts

Start a new thread if you want answers to questions or wish to share information.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top