Trying Frozen Strawberry Wine

[mysigp226]

Here's the recipe I used.

- 3 lbs. frozen strawberries
- 11.5oz can of Welch's 100% White Grape Juice Frozen Concentrate
- 2lb bag of light brown sugar
- 1 gallon of water
- 1 packet of Red Star Cote des Blancs wine yeast
- some yeast nutrient and acid blend per packet instructions

Place strawberries in nylon straining bag and place in primary to thaw. Dissolve sugar in 1 gallon of water and bring to boil. Crush thawed strawberries with hands. Pour heated water over strawberries. Add grape juice concentrate, yeast nutrient, acid blend and stir well. Add activated yeast, cover and stir daily for 7 days. Do not further crush, mash or squeeze bag. Remove bag and let strain, pour liquid back into primary. Transfer to secondary vessel. Top up to one gallon if required (should not be required). After 45 days, rack to additional secondary. Rack again after additional 60 days. Bottle and age for 6 months.

Should be ready in mid summer...perfect!

Here is what it looks like after 7 days and being placed in a primary.

 

[scinerd3000]

that actually sounds pretty good. What was your gravity at the start?

 

[mysigp226]

Around SG 1.072 give or take for slight temperature variation and the sugar in the strawberries that hasn't been absorbed. It's been in the primary for about 2 hours now.

First attempt at wine making.

 

[david_42]

I suspect the brown sugar will dominate the flavor.

 

[pulpfiction32]

I made a bannana and strawberry wine once and It turned out god awful I still drank it But i suspect the bad flavor was due to my use of frozen strawberries.. I would wait if you can until they are in season Im pretty sure the strawberries were underripe when they were frozen

 

[Yooper]

That's strange- usually frozen strawberries are superior to grocery store strawberries because the fruit is frozen at the peak of ripeness but shipped to grocery stores underripe. I wonder if there was something lese wrong with the wine, not the frozen strawberries.

I don't like brown sugar (too much molasses flavor for me) but otherwise I like this recipe!

 

[mysigp226]

Yeah..after I put everything together my wife and I looked at the contents of the primary and it's ugly looking brown color and we both said "I sure hope that brown goes away". I have 3lb of strawberries left so if it's really bad I'll try "white" sugar.

 

[Yooper]

Yeah..after I put everything together my wife and I looked at the contents of the primary and it's ugly looking brown color and we both said "I sure hope that brown goes away". I have 3lb of strawberries left so if it's really bad I'll try "white" sugar.

Oh, it'll clear up and not be ugly brown, I promise! I don't know if you say my "banana wine" thread (it's under my recipe drop down) but when Richbrewer made it and posted a picture, he said something like, "It looks like the dirty water coming out of my carpet shampooer!" But I promised him that it would turn into a crystal clear golden wine, and it did!

Your strawberry wine will be a light colored (darker than blush, maybe) wine when finished!

 

[199q]

I started this about three weeks ago, it drops a ton of lees. my SG was 1.120. whoops. haha I think part of that though was due to the high amount of dissolved strawberry solids. I used almost four pounds of strawberries, and less brown sugar. I made a ond gallon batch. it smells good now. I will rack soon because there is about 1.5" of lees in a 1 gallon batch is pretty crazy.

 

[mysigp226]

I'd be interested in hearing how your more strawberries / less sugar batch comes out.

 

[LakeErieBrew]

I made a similar wine a few months ago. I used about 3 lbs of strawberries and 2lbs white sugar, no concentrate, and Pastuer Champagne yeast. It's bulk aging right now. It's still very hazy...but wine making is all about waiting...so I guess I'll just have to make/drink more beer!

 

[199q]

I'd be interested in hearing how your more strawberries / less sugar batch comes out.

as of yet its dropping a ton of lees, and is still fermenting really slowly in my cold house (60 deg)

but this weekend Ill rack it and provide an update. its starting to smell quite good. if this comes out well Ill make a 5 gallon batch of it. the strawberry color is good it comes back. I put an extra bit left over from racking and it cleared beautifly. it looks amazing. nice red hues, exactly what you want your strawberry to look like!