Strawberry Wine

[Matthew Barker]

I will be making a couple of batches of strawberry wine later this year, as the owner of my allotments went crazy with strawberry plants over lockdown, and now has more strawberries than he knows what to do with

I'm looking at using the wineturtle.com recipe, which calls for around 5lbs of strawberries and a gallon of water. My question is, has anyone tried using more strawberries and less water and sugar? What was the result? Is there a limit to how much strawberry can be used in place of water and sugar, or does it improve with the more fruit that is used?

Also, has anyone tried backsweetening the wine, or is it better left dry? I'm thinking of making one sweet batch and one dry batch.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[lukebuz]

I made a 3 gallon batch with 30 lb of strawberries, and now I have to figure out what to do with a wine that is over 1/2 sediment at the bottom. Really, there are so many fluffy leaves I don't know what I'm going to do. I thought there would be a great deal more liquid. I think my sugar ratios are all off now.

 

[TkmLinus]

I will be making a couple of batches of strawberry wine later this year, as the owner of my allotments went crazy with strawberry plants over lockdown, and now has more strawberries than he knows what to do with

I'm looking at using the wineturtle.com recipe, which calls for around 5lbs of strawberries and a gallon of water. My question is, has anyone tried using more strawberries and less water and sugar? What was the result? Is there a limit to how much strawberry can be used in place of water and sugar, or does it improve with the more fruit that is used?

Also, has anyone tried backsweetening the wine, or is it better left dry? I'm thinking of making one sweet batch and one dry batch.

Any help would be much appreciated.

I would personally stick with the recipe before modifying. With strawberry wine you will have a whole bunch of sludge at the bottom of your fermenter after secondary fermentation. I typically lose somewhere around a fifth/sixth (guesstimate) of the batch, you most likely will have more unusable wine with even more strawberries. The recipe I use calls for 3 lbs strawberries a gallon(Easy Strawberry Wine Recipe - Perfect for Beginners). Also adding pectic enzyme (1/2 tsp per gallon) is a good idea. What yeast are you planning on using?

 

[TkmLinus]

I made a 3 gallon batch with 30 lb of strawberries, and now I have to figure out what to do with a wine that is over 1/2 sediment at the bottom. Really, there are so many fluffy leaves I don't know what I'm going to do. I thought there would be a great deal more liquid. I think my sugar ratios are all off now.

Sugar should be just fine, you will get a whole bunch of waste with strawberry wine. I have tried to run the sludge through a coffee filter and cold crashing, it doesn't separate. Just rack the good stuff off the top into a smaller jug. I think the sludge is strawberry dna and unavoidable.

 

[bkboiler]

I made a strawberry wine years ago...didn't turn out pink, but it was pretty tasty.
Agreed about the fluffies...racking was *interesting*.
I followed a recipe in "winemakers recipe handbook".
As I understand it (not a wine expert), there's also acid in the strawberries you'll want to account for...and I'm assuming that is a reason why the proportions in the recipe I followed are the way they are. I didn't bother to titrate to figure it out ...

 

[bernardsmith]

My question is, has anyone tried using more strawberries and less water and sugar? What was the result? Is there a limit to how much strawberry can be used in place of water and sugar, or does it improve with the more fruit that is used?

Also, has anyone tried backsweetening the wine, or is it better left dry? I'm thinking of making one sweet batch and one dry batch.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Hi Mathew Barker and welcome. With some country wines the fruit may be so acidic that more fruit is not always better but with strawberries - in my opinion - the more juice you can extract and the less water you use the better the wine.

Country wines , unlike grape wines, typically benefit from back sweetening. Not sure why but it may be because we associate the fruit flavors with sweetness and a dry wine kinda confuses us. Adding sugar also helps balance a wine as the key elements that always need to be kept in balance are the ABV, the richness of flavor, the acidity, the tannins in the wine and mouthfeel (viscosity). Sugar helps diminish the impact of the acidity and sugar helps increase viscosity: you want the wine to linger in your mouth and not pour down your throat like water.