question about strawberry wine

[tattooist83]

Hello, i'm a newbie here and have a question about a batch of wine i made. first off, im not new to the homebrew process, been at it for a little while, mostly distilling and beer brewing. my question is, i recently made some strawberry wine using real strawberries (i usually use store bought juice). i juiced the berries and went on with the normal process. during the process i would taste it once a week, tasted great, the problem is, the longer its sets in the bottles, the worse it tastes, it tastes more like a "hooch" and less fruit flavor, is this normal? ive never had any problems with any other juice ive used.

 

[BamaProud]

How long has it aged? Jack Keller's Strawberry recipes suggest at least 6 months...up to 18 months.

 

[Arpolis]

There are several things that could cause issue. If using a juicer you may have cracked and also juiced the seeds on the strawberries. This adds more of a bitter flavor. That is why I just prefer to freeze my berries and add them to the carboy/brew bucket whole. Also I always thought strawberry wine tasted better with some sweetness. It brings out a lot of the flavor with just a little sugar or honey. Have you stabilized and back sweetened or is this dry? Also the "hooch" flavor could be fusel alcohols which can come from a lack of added nutrients, a hot fermentation or overly stressed yeast. Some yeast cause this more than others so knowing the yeast used would help diagnose this.

Those are the only things I can think of. Hope that gives you some ideas.

 

[jekeane]

The only answer I have is here...

Strawberry wine and seventeen
The hot July moon saw everything
My first taste of love, oh bittersweet
The green on the vine
Like strawberry wine

 

[tattooist83]

thanks everyone for the help. its not aged very long so that makes sense. i have not back sweetend it, either, but will for sure try that.

 

[lukebuz]

Sounds like it's still fermenting...
If so, as you taste it, you'll have less sugar and more alcohol. Exactly the flavor change you are describing. Perfectly normal. Make sense?

 

[tattooist83]

ok guys, im back. i took all your advice when making my second batch. sorry its taken so long to reply but i was letting it age a little bit as well. this batch turned out awesome!!! now my fiance is having me make a 5 gallon batch since she likes it so well. thanks again for all the help!

 

[HebrewedsoIbrew]

Hey all I'm a newbie as well, and I was planning to make a thread on this but since one on strawberry wine is already made I'll just ask it here instead to save space. I made two batches of strawberry wine last month, both fermented vigorously and strong, I used lalvin EC 118 for one batch and montrachet yeast for the other and the montrachet one turned golden orange while the lalvin batch turned red

My problem is that, the batch that is golden orange smells like mothballs and tastes like medicine while the lalvin one turned out fine. Can anyone give me advice or tell me what might of happened to cause this?

 

[bernardsmith]

Hey all I'm a newbie as well, and I was planning to make a thread on this but since one on strawberry wine is already made I'll just ask it here instead to save space. I made two batches of strawberry wine last month, both fermented vigorously and strong, I used lalvin EC 118 for one batch and montrachet yeast for the other and the montrachet one turned golden orange while the lalvin batch turned red

My problem is that, the batch that is golden orange smells like mothballs and tastes like medicine while the lalvin one turned out fine. Can anyone give me advice or tell me what might of happened to cause this?

Hi, Jack Keller suggests that medicinal tastes can come from wine where the acidity level was too low during fermentation. Now that might mean (if that is indeed the cause) that the EC 1118 yeast does not need the must to be as acidic as the montrachet or it may mean that for what ever (random) reason the two batches of strawberries were less similar than you might imagine. A third possibility is that the yeasts themselves ferment differently and that EC 1118 produces a higher acidic wine than the other yeast.
That said, I think (but I may be very wrong) that a loss of color in a wine is caused by the lack of acidity - so the lower the pH of the wine the more likely the color will be maintained and the higher the pH (the more alkaline) the more likely the color will drop out.
https://winemakermag.com/546-ph-phacts-tips-from-the-pros

 

[HebrewedsoIbrew]

Oh, Thank you very much for your answer bernard. I did add acid blend, along with other additives like wine tannin, pectic enzyme yeast nutrient and yeast energizer. I also used frozen strawberries I bought from the store to make the wine. I have one more question. Should I dump it or should I wait? is there anyway to save my 1 gallon of strawberry wine?

 

[bernardsmith]

You could try measuring the acidity of the orange batch and see if if the acid level is indeed low. IMO you want the pH to be around 3.5 - 3.9 . Not sure what the dominant acid of strawberries is but if the pH is reasonable then you might try measuring the TA of the liquor and converting that to the acidity of the dominant acid (grapes are basically tartaric, apples, malic ) and then balancing that with the appropriate kind of acid if it is low. I wouldn't toss it out, however. You could try stabilizing the wine after it has finishing fermenting and simply back sweeten it and allow it to age for a year or so and see if it improves. You could add some rhubarb and allow that to ferment (rhubarb wine is delicious). You could add thawed frozen berries (raspberries, blueberries, cherries) and see if that helps. Tossing a wine (even a gallon) should be the next thing after the very last resort has failed

 

[HebrewedsoIbrew]

Alrighty then, once again thanks for your response for helping out a newbie. I have no current way to test the acid at the moment because I do not have any acid test kits or strips. So I will take your advice in back sweetening and adding in some berries, I'm guessing I add them in the bottles when I bottle? or do I bulk age my wine after adding in some potassium sorbate and add in the berries? the Alcohol by volume is 14% at the moment and I do not wish to referment as that may take away more strawberry flavor.

 

[RegarRenill]

Freeze the berries and add them into your secondary for aging. Rack off them after about 5-7 days. Allow your wine to clear, then bottle.

 

[HebrewedsoIbrew]

Freeze the berries and add them into your secondary for aging. Rack off them after about 5-7 days. Allow your wine to clear, then bottle.

Thanks for your input regar!

 

[RegarRenill]

Also, put them in a small sack weighed down with sanitized marbles...this keeps them from floating (away from germs) and wet in the alcohol so they impart their flavor to the wine but don't start rotting

 

[HebrewedsoIbrew]

Also, put them in a small sack weighed down with sanitized marbles...this keeps them from floating (away from germs) and wet in the alcohol so they impart their flavor to the wine but don't start rotting

Awesome! and thank you for your answers, I will add frozen raspberries and strawberry slices on my next racking day. One more question though, should I worry about any sugar in the fruit causing re fermentation? And should I add pectic enzyme?

 

[RegarRenill]

the amount of sugar from the fruit will be small, over all you will get some refermentation, but probably not enough to bubble out the carboy, you might need an extra racking down the line...adding some pectic enzyme would be a good idea to help with flavor and juice extraction and to cut down any potential pectin haze.

 

[HebrewedsoIbrew]

the amount of sugar from the fruit will be small, over all you will get some refermentation, but probably not enough to bubble out the carboy, you might need an extra racking down the line...adding some pectic enzyme would be a good idea to help with flavor and juice extraction and to cut down any potential pectin haze.

Alrighty that wraps that up. Thanks for answering my questions Regar.