Strawberry wine colored Orange?

[WilliamSlayer]

My strawberry wine is done (FG .994). However, when I pulled a sample last night, it has gone from a deep pink color to Crush soda orange!

This my first one, so I have no comparison. Normal? Oxidized? (Didn't taste that way, but...) Lightstruck?

Thoughts?

 

[MzAnnie]

Not a clue, mine was a funky salmon colored (not enought strawberries) so I added some concord grape juice to save it. Now it is an even funkier color! I thought it was done, but apparently by adding the juice, it restarted. It had been in the secondary for two and a half months.

 

[saramc]

No, an orange-straw colored strawberry wine is quite normal. The type of yeast, cultivar of berry, sometimes the qty of berry and even tannin can impact the final color of a strawberry wine. Think of other fruits which lose their color due to ferment.
Nature at work.

 

[WilliamSlayer]

Ok, I can understand that. I have a few folks I will be giving this too, but they are not homebrewers. Orange wine will not go over well.

Will a food coloring return this to a pink shade? This wine will have to be bottled in a month or so as I am moving.

 

[Yooper]

Actually, my strawberry wine finished clear, almost like a white wine, with a golden hue. I suspect yours will do before it's done.

Even my tomato wine, made with ripe red tomatoes, turned out light golden!

That's what often happens with wines when they clear, and the pigments and pectin drop out.

 

[Sammyk]

Interesting! My strawberry wine stayed a nice strawberry color. It has been bottled for a few months now and we opened one last night and it is still strawberry red color.

I am wondering if it is the amount of fruit used? I used 6 pounds per gallon and no water.

 

[saramc]

Sammyk....I have seen 8# per gallon, all strawberry, go straw colored. I watched a plum wine go from ruby red 0-6 months and around a year it is liquid gold, not a trace of red.

In regard to food coloring you can use it, personal choice, though I would consider a bakery grade liquid or gel as it is so much more pigmented. And trial to get the color you want.

 

[Sammyk]

Really Sara? I have made strawberry 2 times and both batches stayed red. Interesting!

 

[saramc]

Really Sara? I have made strawberry 2 times and both batches stayed red. Interesting!

Sammyk...do you know the cultivar of berry, #/gal and yeast used? Or any part of?

This thread has a decent discussion of things people experienced with their strawberry wines... http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f6/strawberries-36905/

 

[Sammyk]

I don't know the cultivar because I bought it at the farmers market. I used Lavlin 71B that is all I use on my fruit wines.
I did add 5 frozen bananas to primary - only because I had them in the freezer.

 

[Sammyk]

I did see Jim's thread and photos and mine looks about the same color. We did try a bottle last night and at 8 months it is not "there" yet. Will sample a bottle again in a couple of more months. We did not sweeten it so it is dry. It has been in the bottle since September.

 

[WilliamSlayer]

I appreciate all the feedback folks! If it weren't for the fact that I am moving in the next month or so I would do what we advise most folks to do... wait! ;-)

However, I just won't have that luxury, and so my next question is:
Do you think this wine will turn that golden color AFTER bottling?

Here are my notes:

Strawberry Wine

1/23/13
24lbs Dole Frozen strawberries
2 1/2 tsp Pectic enzyme
4 tsp Acid blend
1/2 tsp Potassium Metabisulfite
3-4 cups warm water (used for dissolving the chemicals)

Sanitized a 7.8 gallon bucket and lined it with a large fine mesh bag. Added fruit in 6 lb increments, mashing with the flat end of a 22oz beer bottle as each 6 lbs was added. Added pectic, acid, and kmeta just before the last 6 lbs of fruit so that the mashing mixed the chemicals in. Covered the bucket loosely with a lid and put painters tape over the airlock hole.

1/24/13
Dissolved 10 lbs cane sugar in 2 gallons of water. Boiled for 10 min to sterilize. Cooled down to 80 degrees and added to must.
Added :
1/4 gallon cranberry juice (for flavor and color)
3 tsp Fermax yeast nutrient

Topped off with cool water to 6.5 gallons and mixed everything with a paddle.

Gravity @ 1.084

Pitched 2 packs of Lalvin D-47 and stirred them in. Loosely covered the bucket with the lid.

1/25/13
Began 'punching the cap' twice per day.

1/30/13
Removed the pulp at the end of the day. Moved it to a collander suspended above another fermenter bucket and let drain freely for 45 minutes. Then added the liquid back into the primary and closed it up with an air lock.
Gravity @ 1.004

2/3/13
Racked to carboy. Large deposit of sediment at the bottom of the bucket. Only got about 5 gallons of liquid.

2/12/13
Just opening the carboy gave a burst of amazing strawberry aroma.
Added 1/2 tsp Kmeta
Added 1 1/2 tsp Ksorbate
Added 2 tsp Pectic enzyme

2/19/13
Racked to 5 gallon carboy.
Smell of Strawberrys less intense.
Added Kiesesol and Chitosan during the racking process.

2/23/13
Gravity @ .994
Orange! Like Crush soda. (Light struck?)
Cleared up, not too hazy.
Smells like strawberrys, but less intense again, slightly off?
Taste is strong alcohol, sharp bite (acid?), strawberry behind the first two.

 

[Sammyk]

I don't add water to my fruit wine ever. Just the juice from the fruit that I freeze first. So that may be the reason it is red.

Generally it is less then a cup of water that is used to dissolve what every needs to be dissolved. I simmer the juice from the fruit and invert the sugar that way.

 

[WilliamSlayer]

That might 'lock' the color in? Maybe. I am noticing as I re-read my notes that I missed a step.

I never took acid readings.

I'll do that today.

 

[novalou]

That might 'lock' the color in? Maybe. I am noticing as I re-read my notes that I missed a step.

I never took acid readings.

I'll do that today.

Acid doesn't do much for color. It will however, affect taste and longevity of the wine.

 

[saramc]

Think I found part of the strawberry issue and color retention..anthocyanins are part of it....must read article.. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...7SjwLv8sgai7saMqw&sig2=Tw8tInAYveqD7rSfEUwtxg