Strawberry Port?

Never make wine while you've been drinking wine.

I should back up. There is an open air market in downtown Boston called The Haymarket that is open on Friday and Saturday. By the time Saturday lunchtime comes around they are just looking to get rid of whatever is left and there are some unbelievable bargains. Like the bargains on straberrys a month ago when Alice and I brought home 16 flats of strawberrys, 8 quarts to the flat, for $25.

Well, we were going diving early Sunday morning and had a BBQ at a friends house in the afternoon so we had to get all those strawberrys done that afternoon. I started around 5 and made pretty good time of it and finished up cutting the last of the berrys around 8. I've got a 35 gallon trash barrel 3/4 full of cleaned and chopped strawberrys. Unfortunatley I've been sampling the goods as I sat there and cut up strawberrys and I'm half in the wrapper. So I go out in the kitchen and grab the sugar and decide that I need 50 lbs of it. Maybe I was a bit more than half in the wrapper.

Dump in the sugar, stir it up sprinkle on the yeast and walk away secure in the knowlege that all is right with the world. In the morning I take a reading and it's around 34 brix. YIKES!!!! Fortunately (?) I had used 1118 for my yeast so there was a good chance I might finish out.

Today it sits at 3.5 brix and has stalled. I'm sipping a glass of it this morning as I rack it into a sanke. It tastes nice. It is definately an alcohol bomb but with the residual sugar and the very solid strawberry flavor it seems to be carrying it off. The color is a little lighter than usual for a strawberry but still nice.

Anyone ever had a high alcohol strawberry that worked?

PTN

This makes Blueberry Lambic look like a Lumberjack drink

If there is a God in heaven you will get run over by an International Havester Threshing machine and be a burden on your family and society.

What the hell were you doing? Trying to make really strong wine coolers???

You got a "Blueberry Blast" and a "Mango Madness" coming up next?

And if there is a Devil in hell you will be the one driving the thresher and will get thrown into jail for murder, and you'll end up with a 300 lb shaved-headed cellmate with an attitude who will sell your arse to the Crips and the Bloods for a cigarette an hour.

Not that it's worth that much.

Hey Paul... I have a big thing of Walmart fruit punch at the house. I'm thinking about spiking it with some Absolut and making some "fruit punch port".

How much vodka should I use? You know... since you've been brewing for 25 years and all. I figured you would know.

OOOoooo should I use grain/everclear instead??

Go with a bottle of Smirnoff and a gallon of Carlo Rossi Sangria

Maybe throw a piece of dog collar or belt in there so you can get some leather in the background.

I'm just waiting for Paul to start his Zima thread.

He's been brewing for like 25 years so he MUST know how to make Zima. He won a gold medal for a lambic once.

Cape Brewing said:

I'm just waiting for Paul to start his Zima thread.

He's been brewing for like 25 years so he MUST know how to make Zima. He won a gold medal for a lambic once.

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Zima?
Zima doesnt even make Zima anymore.
A friends wife loved the stuff.....................Paul, give up the recipe man

I'd start with your baltic porter recipie as a base and go from there.

paulthenurse said:

I'd start with your baltic porter recipie as a base and go from there.

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L
O
L
That porter has more going on in it than any Cab ever .............wined?
Made............ see, not even a cool word like brewed for wine..........sad isnt it

Sure Babalu, whatever you say.

you guys can't just make a productive thread. useless lot I tell you.

By the way, strawberry port? I agree, what the hell. And I have make a wine with 35 and up brix. It is called dessert wine and you make it as such, not try to ferment every last drop of sugar out of it only to fail and call it port. Go out and buy some UV-43 or another sort of restarter yeast. It is the only thing I can think of that might be able to get all the way through all of that. 1118 is great, but it needs help with that much sugar. Just make a starter with the UV-43 and and slowly add in the wine till you have a strong fermentation going with a lot of alcohol as well so that you know the yeast is going. Then put it at close to 85*. We have a local here that puts all of her barrels next to the furnace over the winter and they come out at like 17% and dry. Crafty I say.

alright alright... take a pill. We'll keep it useful.

Now... that UV-43... would you use that for the Mango Madness as well??

I wasn't trying to make a booze bomb, I never do that. I was just all liquored up when I was making the wine and screwed up and added way too much sugar and was asking if anyone had any experience with this. I'm wondering if the delicate flavor of the strawberry would be able to carry that high an alcohol content without it being strawberry flavored booze. Unfortunately, my two friends, Knuckle and Head, appear to hunt out my threads in an attempt to drag them down to their level, somwhere south of the gutter.

No problem, if the wine is over the top I'll just blend it with something to calm it down. Knuckle and Head should think about blending Qualudes into their brews to calm themselves down.

PTN

Why not just put more strawberries in to "water it down" so to speak?

Maybe another add another fruit to compensate for the "too much sugar" addition?

Has the irony of you giving advice on winemaking penetrated thru that traffic jam you call a brain?

PTN

Know what you might do, add some strawberry "juice" "syrup" or something of that sort, kinda like what Babalu said and then some potassium sorbate and have a panty dropper on your hands. You won't have a wine as much as a dessert wine, but you can serve that on special occasions and the wife would be a fan. The amount of alcohol will allow it to age as well. Just thinking.

paulthenurse said:

Has the irony of you giving advice on winemaking penetrated thru that traffic jam you call a brain?

PTN

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Is the thought that I just might be smarter than you the thing that pisses you off or that you cant believe you are so stupid as to not have thought about adding extra fruit thats got your panties in a wad?

You got it. I'm pissed off that you are smarter than me.