Strawberry Wine

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coleandrobin

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How To Make Strawberry Wine
By Damian Perrin

Makes a 6 gallon Batch

Ingredients

15 lbs Strawberries
7.8 gallon Fermenting Pale
6.5-gallon Carboy
Airlock
1.5 TSP Wine Tannin
6 TSP Acid Blend
1.25 TSP Pectic Enzyme
6 Camden Tablets (Potassium Metabisulphite)
18 lbs. Corn Sugar ( 36 cups)
1 Yeast Packet
6 TSP Yeast Nutrient
2 ½ TSP Bentonite
Bucket Bag (Fine or Coarse)

Day 1

Secure bucket bag inside Fermenting pale (Primary Fermentation) and strap down with bungee cord. Then add strawberries, wine tannin, acid blend, bentonite, and Camden tablets. Next add enough water to cover strawberries. Cover pale with towel.

Day 2

Add sugar, yeast packet, pectic enzyme, and yeast nutrient. Then add water to the 5.5 gallon mark.
Days 2 through 8 stir daily for 1 minute. Test S.G. after 3 day and again each day until the Specific Gravity reaches 1.000. Then follow day 8 instructions.

Day 8

Remove strawberries from wine and discard. Rack (siphon) wine into 6.5-gallon carboy (Secondary Fermentation). Fit with airlock.

After 30 days, degas the wine. Rack wine. Wine should clear. Once fermentation stops. You can add Sparkalloid to clear in a week. You may drink after two months, but it matures after 6 months.


I found this recipe for strawberry wine I'd like to try but I I a few questions. First, should I replace any lost volume when I remove the berries? If so, how much? The recipe say it is a six gal batch, however the only time it mentions filling with water is when it calls for water to be added to the 5.5 mark and I know I'll lose a good bit of volume when I remove the berries. Also, this will be my first batch of wine. Is sanitation as big of an issue when making wine as it is when making beer? If so, should the berries be sanitized since they don't get cooked at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Looking forward to getting some wine started!
 
I found this recipe for strawberry wine I'd like to try but I I a few questions. First, should I replace any lost volume when I remove the berries? If so, how much? The recipe say it is a six gal batch, however the only time it mentions filling with water is when it calls for water to be added to the 5.5 mark and I know I'll lose a good bit of volume when I remove the berries. Also, this will be my first batch of wine. Is sanitation as big of an issue when making wine as it is when making beer? If so, should the berries be sanitized since they don't get cooked at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Looking forward to getting some wine started!

Yes, you'll rack (siphon) to a carboy and top up with water.

Sanitation is a huge issue.

Most people use campden tablets at day 1 (as instructed) which kill wild yeast and bacteria. Then the yeast is added at day 2.
 
Ah! That's what that is for. Awesome. How much do I fill? And should the water be distilled?
 
Not even close to enough strawberries for 6 gallons, for 3 gallons maybe if they were really exceptional strawberries. WVMJ
 
Really? How many would you suggest? And would the sugar still be right if I added more berries?
 
Buy a hydrometer and you wont have to ask people how much sugar to add, you can measure it directly yourself any time you want. What style of strawberry wine do you want to make? Like strawberry hill or like a port? Right now you are making strawberry hill, if you use up to 8-10 pounds/gal you will have a very very strawberry wine that will need some backsweeting at the end to balance the acid levels. Get that hydrometer before you start and you will never have to worry about how much sugar to add and it will tell you how well the ferment is going and when it is done. WVMJ
 
I've got a hydrometer, just not sure on what the readings should be. Still very new to this. I would definitely like to do something more like a port. This just happens to be one of the first recipes I came across that looked legit.
 
Making it a port style is something different all together. I try to go with almost 100% strawberry juice. Freeze the berries, thaw, crush, add pectinase overnight, gently squeeze juice from berries, Do No Add Acid as you will have plenty, add your KM, adjust the must with your sugar (honey is better) and select a good strong yeast like EC1118 or Premier Cuvee to get the higher alcohol levels. Yes you are going to have to top up when you transfer, I like to top off a wine like this by feeding it more sugar or honey to keep driving the alcohol levels up higher and higher until the yeast gives up, then transfer to a carboy and let settle. Might be a bit much for a newbie to start out with but it would be a good wine to begin with as there are lots of fun things to do in this one. Another thing you can do is after it looks like the yeast is about to give up is to toss 10 more pounds of strawberries in whole or sliced, dont crush these up, and let the flavor seep out of them for a day or 2 then remove them when you transfer, this boosts the strawberry flavor going into your secondary fermentor. You really need to learn to use your hydrometer for somethinglike this, no guessing allowed or you will make it to sweet. Start at 1.100 and this will let the yeast get used to making alcohol and then when it reaches 1.01 add enough raw sugar to reach 1.02, let it eat that down to 1.01 and repeat as often as the yeast will eat it all. Only your hydrometer can tell you when you are ready for each step, a good way to learn to rely on your hydrometer is makiing a port style wine. WVMJ
 
I'm making strawberry wine, just a gallon, and it has quite a bit of sediment at the bottom. Iv already racked it once yet there's still about 1/2 - 1 in at the bottom, will this be an issue? Should I be worried?
 
I'm making strawberry wine, just a gallon, and it has quite a bit of sediment at the bottom. Iv already racked it once yet there's still about 1/2 - 1 in at the bottom, will this be an issue? Should I be worried?

Rack when you have lees more than 1/4" thick- but wait least 30 days between rackings.
 
Awesome! i think ill give it a try. So i need to start with about 8-12lbs of berries per gallon? What's a good ratio of berries to sugar/honey to start with? I know I'll need to adjust according to hydrometer readings. Also how about using a yeast starter?
 
HYDROMETER!! You will probably get strawberry juice itself around 1.040 with just the strained juice (you can bag the pulp if you want and add it for a few days but if you macerated them you probably wont want to). THere is no ratio, you use your freakin hydrometer!! :):) Add sugar or honey until you reach your target starting gravity, say 1.100. If you figure out how to use your hydrometer you free yourself from simple recipes and can make anything you want any way you want to make it, EASY. WVMJ
 
How To Make Strawberry Wine
By Damian Perrin

Makes a 6 gallon Batch

Ingredients

15 lbs Strawberries
7.8 gallon Fermenting Pale
6.5-gallon Carboy
Airlock
1.5 TSP Wine Tannin
6 TSP Acid Blend
1.25 TSP Pectic Enzyme
6 Camden Tablets (Potassium Metabisulphite)
18 lbs. Corn Sugar ( 36 cups)
1 Yeast Packet
6 TSP Yeast Nutrient
2 ½ TSP Bentonite
Bucket Bag (Fine or Coarse)

Day 1

Secure bucket bag inside Fermenting pale (Primary Fermentation) and strap down with bungee cord. Then add strawberries, wine tannin, acid blend, bentonite, and Camden tablets. Next add enough water to cover strawberries. Cover pale with towel.

Day 2

Add sugar, yeast packet, pectic enzyme, and yeast nutrient. Then add water to the 5.5 gallon mark.
Days 2 through 8 stir daily for 1 minute. Test S.G. after 3 day and again each day until the Specific Gravity reaches 1.000. Then follow day 8 instructions.

Day 8

Remove strawberries from wine and discard. Rack (siphon) wine into 6.5-gallon carboy (Secondary Fermentation). Fit with airlock.

After 30 days, degas the wine. Rack wine. Wine should clear. Once fermentation stops. You can add Sparkalloid to clear in a week. You may drink after two months, but it matures after 6 months.

I found this recipe for strawberry wine I'd like to try but I I a few questions. First, should I replace any lost volume when I remove the berries? If so, how much? The recipe say it is a six gal batch, however the only time it mentions filling with water is when it calls for water to be added to the 5.5 mark and I know I'll lose a good bit of volume when I remove the berries. Also, this will be my first batch of wine. Is sanitation as big of an issue when making wine as it is when making beer? If so, should the berries be sanitized since they don't get cooked at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Looking forward to getting some wine started!

I would replace about 8-10 lbs of sugar with a similar ammount of strawberrys. Keeping everything else the same, its very close to the recipe I recently made. However, I would leave out the Acid Blend completely. I had a very high total acid (very low PH) that had to be corrected.
 
Ok, sorry it's been so long since I've posted on here. I have got my wine currently racking into the strawberry wine into the secondary. I did end up going with almost 100% juice, just not all strawberry. It'll be a strawberry muscadine blend. I also tried what you suggested WVMJ. I added sugar until I got to 1.100 to start and kept feeding it as long as it would take it. So we'll see how it turns out. Also what is the purpose of the secondary fermenter? What milestones am I looking for before bottling?
 
coleandrobin said:
Ok, sorry it's been so long since I've posted on here. I have got my wine currently racking into the strawberry wine into the secondary. I did end up going with almost 100% juice, just not all strawberry. It'll be a strawberry muscadine blend. I also tried what you suggested WVMJ. I added sugar until I got to 1.100 to start and kept feeding it as long as it would take it. So we'll see how it turns out. Also what is the purpose of the secondary fermenter? What milestones am I looking for before bottling?

The secondary lets your fermentation finish up with minimal head space. It generates much less CO2 towards the end.
 
Muscadine and strawberry, that has to be good. How many times did you get it to go up and down? Less CO2 as mentioned means more of a chance for oxygen to get into your wine and turn it brown. WVMJ

Ok, sorry it's been so long since I've posted on here. I have got my wine currently racking into the strawberry wine into the secondary. I did end up going with almost 100% juice, just not all strawberry. It'll be a strawberry muscadine blend. I also tried what you suggested WVMJ. I added sugar until I got to 1.100 to start and kept feeding it as long as it would take it. So we'll see how it turns out. Also what is the purpose of the secondary fermenter? What milestones am I looking for before bottling?
 
Four total I think. There's only about half an inch below the neck of headspace left, sound right. I hope it is good! The muscadines came from a vine on my dads place that was planted in the thirties. Not sure that'll show up in the wine, but I thought it was cool.
 
Also, I've tasted it a couple of times. It tastes ok, but kinda harsh, will it mellow as it matures?
 
There is now about an inch of sediment at the bottom of the secondary. Should I rack it and get rid of the sediment?
 
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