jkpq45

Recipes 

I'm venturing into the whole fruit wine arena... sort of.

Bought 15 lbs frozen, sliced strawberries at Sam's Club this afternoon. Combined with enough water (maybe 6 quarts) to make 5 gallons of must. I added a dose of pectic enzyme and campden (for a must of 5 gallons) and will pitch either lalvin 1122 or 1118 in the morning. Here's the questions:

1. Did I add enough water to extract the fruit juice from the fruit? It's not a lot of water, but certainly a lot of fruit, maybe 3.5-4 gallons of (loose) volume in my 7 gallon fermenting bucket.

2. What the hell is my SG? I have no idea as, I'm sure, no sugars were extracted from the fruit right away. What should I expect?

3. I plan to follow a daily/bi-daily regiment of punching down the fruit once the yeast has been pitched. I'm okay as long as my punch-down device is sanitized, right?

4. Do I need to add table sugar to the mix? I guess the answer depends on #2 above, I'm shooting for above 8% alcohol on this one, and have no time frame on which it needs to complete.

5. Any general advice on using this much fruit? I've never dealt with such a large fruit:fluid ratio.

Thanks for your help!
jkpq45

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Lcasanova

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Not stalking your threads , but...I did a strawberry wine not too long ago, here is my recipe scaled up to 5 gallons:

15 lbs strawberries, cleaned, quartered forzen and thawed twice
1.25 lbs golden raisins, roughly chopped
5 tsp acid blend
5 tsp pectic enzyme
10 lbs brown sugar
Lalvin 71B-1122

Boil 10 quarts of water and add sugar, stir to dissolve. Add to 10 quarts of cold water and add acid blend and fruit. After it has cooled add 5 crushed campden tablets. After 12 hours add pectic enzyme. After additional 12 hours pitch yeast, cover and stir daily. After 7 days remove fruit and strain, rack to secondary over crushed campden tablets and top up to 5 gallons, fit airlock. Rack after 30 days. After 3rd racking, stabilize. Bottle when clear.

1-2. ???

3. I certainly would punch down the fruit, you don't want it to get moldy! And yes, sanitize the spoon or whatever you use.

4. It wouldn't hurt to add sugar, but you might want to do it soon I would think.

5. That amount of fruit is consistent with what I used. Based on what I did, here is what it looked like a few weeks ago:


It is pretty clear already, the yeast/sediment at the bottom looks like a lunar landscape. I'll rack at the end of the month and after another 30 days I'll bottle. Good luck, maybe some others will chime in with better advice

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Lucky 13 Brewing Company
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jkpq45

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That looks absolutely delicious. I'll add the golden raisins and a mix of dark brown sugar and white sugar this evening.

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mmadmikes1

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the only thing I would do differnt is to wait 24 hours before adding campden. the pectic enzyme work better without Sulfite. I also use organic raisins because the non organic also have a lot of sulfites added. I add my own based on what I need You have no idea what the processor has added

Emerald

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mmadmikes1

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yes they list sulfate but not amount. Organic raisins dont have sulfates added and cost like 60 cents more, some where on package it will say contains sulfates if they have them. It isn't always on ingredients.If it isn't there, then it is cool

Kauai_Kahuna

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I need to remember to bring a magnifier glass when I go shopping. Am I just getting old are are the prints getting much smaller along with the package sizes?

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In Primary: Belgium Chimay clones.
In Secondary: Braggot, pale ale, end of the world white.
Conditioning: Mead, Cider, braggot, Belgium Wheat.
On Tap: Clones, Chimay Blue, Red, Porter, malted cider.
Bottles: Far, far, too many to list.

Emerald

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jkpq45

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Added 2lbs dark brown sugar and 5 cups white cane sugar (boiled) to the mix. Also 15 oz box of rough-chopped golden raisins.

Man, this 1116 doesn't appear to be fermenting very vigorously. It doesn't foam when I stir it up--might repitch this evening. I've had wines take a day or two to fire up, but this is weird.

Maybe some goferm in the next batch to be hydrated and some nutrient/energizer wouldn't hurt.

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jkpq45

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I went home over lunch and pitched a package each of 1118 and D-47. One critter WILL chew up this sugar I have prepared.

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