Another strawberry wine question

Hi everyone.
I know most strawberry wines call for 3 to 3.5 lbs of fruit per gallon. Anyone ever try a batch with more? Say 5 lbs-ish then add sugar to reach 13%-14% potential alcohol? If so, any difference in taste and sweetness?

B1GDave,
The more fruit the better, I usually add enough sugar to obtain a SG of 11%-12% at the most with fruit wines, especially with strawberry, the higher ABV% will overpower the delicate strawberry flavor, some winemakers feel that the higher ABV% strips away the flavor. I would use 71B-1122 yeast as strawberries contain malic acid and that particular yeast helps to metabolize it.

"has the ability to metabolize high amounts (20% to 40%) of malic acid. In addition to producing rounder, smoother, more aromatic wines that tend to mature quickly, it does not extract a great deal of phenols from the must so the maturation time is further decreased."

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You asked "If so, any difference in taste and sweetness?"

Adding more sugar will not make a sweeter wine, it will only raise the ABV%, the flavor will be more intense with a lower SG.

Make it with pure strawberry juice, like 10 pounds gal. Nothing wrong with a strong strawberry wine, you can make it any percent you want and sweeten it to your taste when its done. A little bit of oak, not to much just a little, can really set it apart from your average strawberry wine. Making it with honey instead of sugar really sets it up as much better than the average. Who wants to make average wine anyway! WVMJ

Awesome. Thanks y'all!!!

Finally trying this tomorrow. I'm going with 8 to 10 lbs of strawberries for a 1 gallon batch. Will the extra fruit throw off the acid levels much? All I have is acid blend and no acid test kit. I want to avoid a taste that's too tart. Thanks again!

With strawberry wine I just used strawberry, sugar and 71b yeast. If it comes out too tart you can reduce the acid at a later date by adding some CaCO3 and allowing time for it to drop bright again.

It is always better to make adjustments pre-fermentation, I'd test the must and make your adjustments, then ferment.