Strawberry Wine?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

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

gibfried

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2005
Messages
139
Reaction score
0
Location
OZARKS
I'm a beer maker and conosuer. My wife is not, unfortunately. We have 75 lbs. of strawberries we picked this last spring that are begging for a more noble use than just jam.

I've never made any wine before and would like to know if anyone has any good recipes for a nice sweet strawberry wine?

I know this isn't much of a wine forum, but I thought I would ask anyway.
 
Here's a simple recipe for 1 gallon.

4 quarts ripe strawberries
1 pound raisins, finely chopped
4 pounds sugar
1 gallon water
1 pkg yeast
1 tsp yeast nutrient

Remove greens & mash finely
add water & bring to rolling boil, turn down heat & simmer for 10 min
cool to lukewarm
Strain into fermenter
add sugar & chopped raisins
cool to room temp, add yeast
ferment 1 week, STIRRING DAILY
rack & airlock for 2 months
age 1 year

Caveat - never tried it. :)
 
strawberry / (or strawberry jalapeno if you have the jalapeno wine)

1 gallon recipe:

3.5 lbs strawberries (Fresh or frozen)
7 pts water
2 lb sugar
1 tsp acid blend
.25 tsp tannin
.5 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp nutrient
1 campden, crush
1 pkg champagne yeast

starting sg 1.090-95

pick fully ripe, remove stems, leaves, foreign matter.
1. wash and drain berries
2. use nylon straining bag and mash and strain out juice in to primary. keeping all pulp in straning bag, tie top, and place in primary.
3. stir in all other incredients EXCEPT yeast. cover primary.
4. after 24 hrs, add yeast. cover primary.
5. stir daily, check sg and press pulp lightly to aid extraction
6. when ferment reaches sg 1.030 (5 days) straign juice from bag. syphon wine off sediment into secondary.
7. when ferment is complete (sg has dropped to 1.000--about 3 weeks), syphon off sediment into clean secondary. reattach lock.
8. to aid clearing, syphon again in 2 months and again if necessary before bottling

this makes a good dry wine, but you may slightly sweeten it also. before bottling, add .5 tsp stabilizer and .25 lbs of dissolved sugar per gallon.

optional step: add some jalapeno wine before bottling (I use 1 cup for 5 gallons)
 
one thing I never see In recipes is after raking, and sabalized degas your wine some fill half gallons, and shake releasing their hands and presure inside do several times or you can jimmy up a drill stirer to relese gas do until no fizz.( most wont fit in a carboy) I'd go with that If your good with tools you could make one with folding hinges gravaity will unfold it do in the sink. leave large space.(boiling water sanitizes) need not sufites in begining

If you want when presing do so in chesse cloth and tie will be easyer to push down cap, but what you dont want to do before racking is pull that or anything that might be floating on top it might disturb sediment at bottom.ALso you can remove drip drain and add to another bucket left over pulp will have yeast cells add more ingr.ALL people I read from say it's a light bodied wine. I did'nt add my pulp tp 5 gallons,because did'nt have a clean bucket so I used 3 gallon bucket let you know if it turns out full bodied.Should

http://scorpius.spaceports.com/~goodwine/winerecipes.htm
 
the Only bad thing about strawberry wine is the color. Most of the time they turn out brown, unless you hold 'em up to the light.

and also with fruit wines, they don't age like normal wines do. They lose their color & flavor after too long in bottles - I'd reccommend trying to drink all 5 gallons (dunno how much you're making) within 6 months or so of bottling.
 
DRagon Fly I can't arguee first hand experience all my wine is being made or aging, but what I've been reading on forums, is some people have 7 year old eddle berry wine and drinking it, and this one expert wine maker has 20 year old country wine( cherry I think). ready to drink this year.

do you add sodium metabisufite(campden tablets) 1 per gallon after wines done fermenting 1 in 5 gallons every time you rack( syphon) do you sterilize equipment it sound like somthing called FLOWERS OF WINE(white film) which can leave you with colored water consumes alcohol give off carbon dioxide gas that turns wine into colored water.

THe wine must be filtered at once to remove the flecks of bloomthen treat must with 1 campden tablet per gallon The saved wine will have lost some alcohol so you'll need to fortify with alcohol( brandy works good)I used cheap vodka :drunk: :eek:{Add those cause almost killed me sleeping outside last week DEC5 with thin flanal on all night escaped with my life frost bittin toes or black toes turned normal color} Vodka to fortify my stuck fermentaion. or drink quickly Taste wine and decide if you wan't to keep it.Bactererial infections usually spoil the wine permanently, but early detection may save the wine.

MY notes say The taste may be ruined be if detected early early treat ment may save it. HOPE this helps.
 
It does sound like Flowers of the wine, but I also had a experiment wine I kinda got Lazy on( did'nt syphon of large air space) and the first tasting was great second tasting tasted grose and a lost of it's taste

Opps balloon on top and thought fermentation slowed, but stoped should of got of my A$$ and checked the S.G reading.good it was only 3/4 or a gallon.
 
Also Gibfied put the fruit in the frezzer in thick bag it makes it easyer to press when thawed.if made wine already possibly make that a note for next year.If the both of you don't like wine keep and posibly trade for what ever, but keep this in mind wine is mosty more expensive then beer.

Also with the left over pulp after syphoning you can add more sugar, water, and all the other ingr. except for the yeast for a light bodyed second wine,and you may want to add some grape concentrate 1 per gallon to add body and vinosity.

Im not sure it might not come out light bobied Im doing my second wine in a 3 gal. batch,because the only clean bucket I had and sleepy :eek:
 
Francis Eric said:
DRagon Fly I can't arguee first hand experience all my wine is being made or aging, but what I've been reading on forums, is some people have 7 year old eddle berry wine and drinking it, and this one expert wine maker has 20 year old country wine( cherry I think). ready to drink this year.

you're probably right - all I know is, my roommate made a strawberry wine out at the winery that I work at, and the owner there, Jim Butler, said that we should drink it in 6 months b/c it would start to go downhill after that...

maybe this is specific to strawberry wines? And maybe doesn't apply to fruit wines in general. lol I'm much more of a beer guy so far, so I can't argue w the experts :p
 
[SIZE=+3]Strawberry Wine (1)[/SIZE]


  • [*]3 lbs. fresh strawberries
    [*]2-1/2 lbs. granulated sugar
    [*]2 tsp. citric acid
    [*]water to make 1 gallon
    [*]wine yeast & nutrient
Place all ingredients except yeast in crock. Crush fruit with hands and cover with 5 pints boiling water. Stir with wooden paddle to dissolve sugar and simultaneously mash the strawberries. When cooled to 85 degrees F., add yeast. Cover and stir daily. Strain on 7th day, transfer to secondary fermentation vessel, top up to one gallon, fit fermentation trap, and set aside. Rack after 30 days and again after additional 30 days. Bottle when clear. Allow to age at least 6 months. Will improve to one year.
[SIZE=+3]Strawberry Wine (2)[/SIZE]


  • [*]3 lbs. fresh strawberries
    [*]1/2 lb. chopped golden raisins
    [*]2-1/2 lbs. light brown sugar
    [*]2 tsp. citric acid
    [*]1/4 tsp. grape tannin
    [*]water to make 1 gallon
    [*]wine yeast & nutrient
Place all ingredients except yeast in crock. Crush fruit with hands and cover with 5 pints boiling water. Stir with wooden paddle to dissolve sugar and simultaneously mash the strawberries. When cooled to 80-85 degrees F., add yeast. Cover and stir daily. Strain on 7th day, transfer to secondary fermentation vessel, top up to one gallon, fit fermentation trap, and set aside. Rack after 30 days and again after additional 30 days. Add additional one cup sugar and 1/3 tsp citric acid dissolved in 1/2 cup water and ferment another 30 days. Rack, ferment additional 30 days, then rack again. Bottle when clear. Allow to age at least 9 months.
[SIZE=+3]Strawberry Wine (3)[/SIZE]


  • [*]3 1/2 lbs fresh chopped strawberries
    [*]1/4 lb. chopped golden raisins
    [*]1/4 lb. chopped dates
    [*]2-1/2 lbs. granulated sugar
    [*]1 1/2 tsp. acid blend
    [*]2 tsp. pectic enzyme
    [*]1/4 tsp. grape tannin
    [*]1 crushed Campden tablet
    [*]Champagne yeast and nutrient
Place chopped fruit in nylon jelly bag, tied. Place jelly bag and all other ingredients except Campden tablet, pectic enzyme and yeast in crock and cover with 5 pints boiling water. Stir well to dissolve sugar. Cover. After two hours add crushed Campden tablet. After additional 10 hours add pectic enzyme and 12 hours later add yeast. Cover and stir daily. On 7th day remove jelly bag and hang over bowl to collect juice. Allow to drain thoroughly without squeezing (about two hours). Pour all liquids into secondary fermentation vessel, top up to one gallon, fit fermentation trap, and set aside. Rack every 30 days. After 3rd racking, bottle when clear. Allow to age at least 1 year.
[SIZE=+3]Strawberry Wine (4)[/SIZE]


  • [*]3 1/2 lbs. fresh wild strawberries
    [*]2-1/2 lbs. granulated sugar
    [*]1 gal. water
    [*]1 tsp. acid blend
    [*]1 tsp. pectic enzyme
    [*]1/4 tsp. grape tannin
    [*]1 crushed Campden tablet
    [*]Champagne yeast and nutrient
Place fruit in nylon jelly bag and tie. In crock, crush fruit with hands. Add all other ingredients except Campden tablet, pectic enzyme and yeast in crock and cover with 3 quarts boiling water. Stir well to dissolve sugar. Cover and add crushed Campden tablet when tepid (about 2 hours). After additional 10 hours add pectic enzyme and 12 hours later add yeast. Cover and stir daily. On 7th day remove jelly bag and hang over bowl to collect juice. Allow to drain thoroughly without squeezing (about two hours). Pour all liquids into secondary fermentation vessel, top up to one gallon, fit fermentation trap, and set aside. Rack every 30 days until wine clears (3-6 months). When wine clears, bottle. Allow to age at least 1 year.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top