First timer and my wine seems a little watered down...

Hello,
I have been following this forum for about a month (and I must say, it is awesome) and I just started my first batch of wine about two weeks ago. I made a strawberry and kiwi wine using fresh fruit and would like to know what I am doing right and wrong. When I racked my wine off of the fruit today, I tasted it and seemed to be a little watered down.

Here are the details of my wine:

Ingredients (per gallon)
2 lbs. - Strawberries
8 - Kiwis
4 1/2 cups - Sugar (obviously too much)
1 tsp. - Acid Blend
1/4 tsp. - Tannin
5 drops - Pectic Enzyme
1 tsp. - Yeast Nutrient
1 - Campden Tablet (crushed)
1 pkg. - Red Star Montrachet Yeast
Water to 1 gallon

Calendar of Events

• Day 0 (25 Jan.)
  Mixed up 3 gallon batch without adding yeast
  SG was extremely high at 1.141, so I waited a day
• Day 1 (26 Jan.)
  Added an UNK amount of water (thinking it would bring the SG down and I'm a ******* for not recording how much)(guessing I added about 3/4 of a gallon)
  Moved to 3 gallon glass carboy
  Added yeast
  SG was at 1.092 (seemed much better)
• Day 10 (05 Feb.)
  Racked my wine into another 3 gallon carboy to get it off of the fruit (seemed like the right thing to do, but what do I know, I'm new)
  SG was at 0.994
  This is where I tasted the wine and it seemed to be watered down...

Now I'm not sure if I'm on the right track or if I royally screwed up my first batch of wine. I'm guessing that the "unknown" amount of water added is what caused this, but is it fixable? Maybe back-sweetening? It also seems to have dried out fairly quickly (10 days?). It was still a little active in the primary (maybe 1 bubble every minute), but I am not sure yet if it is active in the secondary (I have an airlock on it, so we will see). Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Also don't know what is up with the app, but I can't see more than a paragraph of what I type because it wont let me scroll down. I have some pics on my phone I will try to add when I'm done typing this on computer.

Here are some pics...


Day 0 - fruit in bucket


Day 10 - after I racked off of the fruit


My chart to keep track of everything.

I also just took a look at it in the secondary and it does have airlock activity. It's about the same as it was in the primary, before I racked it.

Quick question Red, was this for a one gallon batch, or a three gallon batch?

I would add about another pound strawberries, another 4 or 5 Kiwi and 2 cups of sugar. if it does come off too strong it's always easier to dilute, but I think you are correct when you say adding the extra water was your mistake

The recipe (which I modified a little from a Strawberry one I found online) is written per gallon. I made 3 gallon (before adding the "unknown" amount of water) so I tripled everything (minus the yeast of course).

RedBearded said:

The recipe (which I modified a little from a Strawberry one I found online) is written per gallon. I made 3 gallon (before adding the "unknown" amount of water) so I tripled everything (minus the yeast of course).

Click to expand...

Ok, I would say then that the water is probally the culprit. Adding more fruit will rebalance things, but give you a bigger batch than you may have wanted. You will also need to wait for that fruit to dissolve/ferment, but this is not a lost cause!

2 pounds of strawberries per gallon is very light on flavor and body. That's probably the biggest issue, but I don't know how many pounds of kiwis you used to make up the difference.

Way too much sugar, and not enough fruit, will cause a very thin bodied and dry wine with a "boozy" note.

You could try adding some mashed bananas or golden raisins for body but that will also increase the ABV and could stall out the yeast.

I made some strawberry wine this summer gone. I must definitely say it was lovely and do intend this summer to spend more on fruit and make more of it I used 4lb of fruit in my recipe and crushed the strawberries with a potato masher to a pulp to get all the flavour out. There will not be a problem with multiplying the recipe as long as the recipe is good to start with. Just double the strawberry quantity next time it's most definitely worth retrying it again!

Yes, my first strawberry wine is fermenting now. I chose to use four lbs of strawberrys as well, but the added Kiwis I would Think make up the difference? Maybe 8 kiwi per gallon is less 'poundage' than I think it is...

Was there a pound ammount to the kiwis from the OP?

I admit I've never used Montrachet yeast either. Is it a strain that kills off taste like EC-1118 tends to?

Thanks for everyone's input! So I ran to the store and got 4 pounds of strawberries (minus about 6 of them I couldn't resist eating) (when I tasted it earlier, I definitely tasted more kiwi than strawberry). I took 4 cups out of the wine and mixed it with the 4 pounds of strawberries and 2 cups of sugar. I then added it back into the wine. We will see in a couple of weeks when I rack off the new strawberries.


All the new strawberries cut up before a "mashed" them with a potato smasher.

Everything in the carboy.

RedBearded said:

Thanks for everyone's input! So I ran to the store and got 4 pounds of strawberries (minus about 6 of them I couldn't resist eating) (when I tasted it earlier, I definitely tasted more kiwi than strawberry). I took 4 cups out of the wine and mixed it with the 4 pounds of strawberries and 2 cups of sugar. I then added it back into the wine. We will see in a couple of weeks when I rack off the new strawberries.

All the new strawberries cut up before a "mashed" them with a potato smasher.

Everything in the carboy.

Click to expand...

Ok, how do you intend to "punch down the cap"?

"Punch down the cap"? Sorry, I'm new to all of this and don't know what that means...

WilliamSlayer said:

Yes, my first strawberry wine is fermenting now. I chose to use four lbs of strawberrys as well, but the added Kiwis I would Think make up the difference? Maybe 8 kiwi per gallon is less 'poundage' than I think it is...

Was there a pound ammount to the kiwis from the OP?

Click to expand...

I never actually checked the actual weight of the kiwis. At first I was taking off the skin and taking out the core, then the core became to much. So about have of them just had the skin removed. It definitely had more of a kiwi taste though when I tried it. That's why I used all strawberries to try to bring out the flavor.

RedBearded said:

"Punch down the cap"? Sorry, I'm new to all of this and don't know what that means...

Click to expand...

When you ferment fruit, you need to submerge it twice a day. Use a food grade bucket, covered with a towel.

I read a bunch of stuff on using fruit. Some people liked to keep it submerged, but I also read that the gases put off as it's fermenting keep it from spoiling/molding as it keeps all of the oxygen out... What would it change if I kept it submerged?

You will get better flavor/fermentables extraction from moving the fruit around. Since you have it in a PET bottle, i'd reccomend just swirling it enough to submerge the fruit a few times per day.

4lb per gallon is what you needed. Kiwi is quite flavourless too. I just made mine with strawberries but adding the Kiwis wouldn't have made much difference in flavour. Definitely usenext time 4lb per gallon. So 12lb for a three gallon batch. That's why strawberry wine is quite an expensive wine to produce. Unless you have your own field that is

13astrand said:

4lb per gallon is what you needed. Kiwi is quite flavourless too. I just made mine with strawberries but adding the Kiwis wouldn't have made much difference in flavour. Definitely usenext time 4lb per gallon. So 12lb for a three gallon batch. That's why strawberry wine is quite an expensive wine to produce. Unless you have your own field that is

Click to expand...

I did taste mostly kiwi when I tasted it, but 24 kiwis is a lot (at least to me)... Strawberries are on sale here (Clarksville, TN) at Publix, and they are still good and fresh (coming out of FL). They are 2 lbs for $5.00. That's why I decided to do some strawberry wine. I will have to try all strawberries next time and see how it turns out. Thanks for your input.

Thanks for everyone's input on my new wine experience... I just got done racking it again off of the new fruit and it tastes amazing (for being a young wine). Added some stuff (potassium metabisulphite and potassium sorbate) to kill the yeast. It was fermenting after I added the new strawberries and sugar, and again, I'm a retard for not checking my SG after I added it all. But, my SG today was 1.002 which is almost exactly where I like it (1.005 is my favorite) and it leaves me t about a 13% alcohol. Here's some pics of me transferring...


I had to put in in the pitcher because my roommate knocked my hydrometer test tube off the edge of the sink and it broke. The pitcher was the only thing tall enough that my hydrometer wouldn't hit the bottom in. I also had to put it in the bucket because this is the only carboy I have open.


Here it is back in the carboy.

RedBearded said:

Thanks for everyone's input on my new wine experience... I just got done racking it again off of the new fruit and it tastes amazing (for being a young wine). Added some stuff (potassium metabisulphite and potassium sorbate) to kill the yeast. It was fermenting after I added the new strawberries and sugar, and again, I'm a retard for not checking my SG after I added it all. But, my SG today was 1.002 which is almost exactly where I like it (1.005 is my favorite) and it leaves me t about a 13% alcohol. Here's some pics of me transferring...

I had to put in in the pitcher because my roommate knocked my hydrometer test tube off the edge of the sink and it broke. The pitcher was the only thing tall enough that my hydrometer wouldn't hit the bottom in. I also had to put it in the bucket because this is the only carboy I have open.

Here it is back in the carboy.

Click to expand...

Find some gallon jugs to transfer your wine into, you have a lot of head room there in your carboy.

You don't add sorbate until it's finished, as sorbate doesn't kill yeast. What it does is stop yeast from reproducing- and the yeast doesn't need to reproduce during an active fermentation. In other words, you won't stop fermentation by adding it. It should keep going, but you may have stressed it out. Let it sit for a while, until clear, and then check the SG at that time to see if it kept going or if it did stop.

Next time, let it ferment out and then stabilize when clear (with the sorbate and campden). Then you can sweeten to taste.

Also, rack to small carboys ASAP- at this stage you want only about 1.5 inches of headspace.