A little walk through strawberry

[hamiltonkiler]

For folks that may be new or intimidated by the process. This will be picture heavy.
5 gal bucket of berries weighs roughly 25#

Trimmed and chopped roughly 20#

Now we have room in the 5gal bucket for some ingredients.
This is a dessert strawberry that comes out high ABV with a little residual sugar in the end. I personally like to fortify after a month of going with a handle of bourbon whiskey.

On the stove top I will melt down at low temperature the 12#s of sugar with water. If I’m not lazy and ride to my supply store I use powdered wine corn sugar and it dissolves without heat. But I went to the local grocery and just bought white granulated.

While the sugar water was melting I sprinkled these. 1tsp tannin 1/4 tsp sodium metabisulfite 1 1/2tsp peptic enzyme. On top of my berries in the bucket. Then I pour on my sugar solution to the bucket of berries. Stir it all up. At this point I haven’t done more to sterilizes than to rinse the bucket, measuring spoon and stir spoon. The sodium bisulfite sanitizes the batch and my equipment. It’s not dirty to start with by and means but I didn’t Star San or oxyclean anything.
The original receipt I started with said DO NOT add sugar or a nutrient or top up with water until you satanized your batch, or killed the wild yeast ie. meaning add your sodium bisulfite mix cover 24hr then add sugar, nutrient, if you choose to use, and pitch the yeast.

I mix everything. Wait 24hr then pitch the yeast.
Not sure it makes a difference which way you do it and not sure why the original receipt suggest don’t add the sugar until you pitch.

Well as of now we are sitting on the AC vent covered with everything but the yeast. Tomorrow about this time I will just sprinkle 1118 on top of this mash or wine liquor mix and cover for the next 7 days.
Can’t wait to hear the first rumbling bumbling and fermenting of 2019[emoji16]

No, I broke my hydrometer and will not buy a refractometer and don’t care for readings much. It’s boozy and I love it.

More to come as time moves on.

 

[hamiltonkiler]

Sprinkle sprinkle EC-1118 on top. I will not touch for 7 days. I will get my ear close and listen for that satisfying bubble.

 

[Vinman58]

How much water did you use for this? What size batch? Thanks.

 

[hamiltonkiler]

How much water did you use for this? What size batch? Thanks.

This is my 5gal batch recipe. Just filled the bucket up with water. By the end of the 7th day initial fermentation the strawberry’s are smush and floating. So when I rack over the must to a carboy I top the carboy up to the top. After the less falls out and I rack over again in a month or so I will have enough room to top up with the half gallon of bourbon. Leave the less behind on the second racking leaves plenty of room for topping up. Water or brandy or bourbon what ever. Might be cool to add fresh berries again and really get some more flavor. The options are endless.

 

[jgmillr1]

Sprinkle sprinkle EC-1118 on top. I will not touch for 7 days.

It is best to punch down the cap a couple times a day. This extracts more color and prevents mold from taking root on the surface

 

[bernardsmith]

Never tried making strawberry wine using the technique you seem to be taking hamiltonkiler. I try to make a batch every summer but what I do is freeze the berries and then allow them to thaw. That results in far more juice being expressed because the juice inside the berries forms ice and those ice crystals puncture cell walls allowing even more juice to flow when the berries reach room temperature. At that point I would add pectic enzyme to break down the berries even more and to reduce the likelihood of pectic haze in the wine and after about 12 hours of enzymatic action I pitch the yeast - for all intents and purposes - onto strawberry juice rather than onto the outside surface of the berries.
As an aside, if there is insufficient acidity in strawberry wine you will soon get a color change from strawberry red to strawberry blonde. To hold the color the wine needs to have enough tannin and enough acidity. Cannot tell you what enough is, but insufficient quantities of both results in a pale orange-yellow wine.

 

[hamiltonkiler]

Berries seem to break down to a pulp. Color has been very deep and vibrant in previous batches. Thanks for the advice.
Y’all talked me into pushing the berries down. Seemed to ramp it up a notch. Pretty vigorous fermenting today. 3 days in.
View attachment 625781
View attachment 625782

 

[hamiltonkiler]

Racking over after 7days in the primary

 

[hamiltonkiler]

Very active in the carboy. Racked over more sediment than I like. I will rack over again in 3-4 weeks to get rid of most sediment or less and add my handle of bourbon.

Used white liquor for my air lock.

 

[hamiltonkiler]

Racked off the wine from the les and fortified. It tasted pretty dry already. Fermentation slowed down pretty well. Added the handle of bourbon.

 

[hamiltonkiler]

Next racking will be bottling.
Keep it clean! Lol