# strawberry wine from puree'



## frama94 (Dec 11, 2009)

I recently started my strawberry wine and have followed the directions to the letter. The Specific Gravity is supposed to be 1.040 or less after 4-5 days. It is now day 7 and the s.g. is at 1.058, which has risen since it started(1.048). What is going on here and am I doing anything wrong? I have added all ingredients and measured everything to the letter.


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## Tom (Dec 11, 2009)

What yeast did you use?
Your subjest is "Puree" What does that mean?
WE need to know what you did step by step for an answer.

BTW Welcome to a great group


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## frama94 (Dec 11, 2009)

When I say puree' it is actually Vintner's Harvest Strawberry Fruit wine base in a 96 ounce can. 1st-4.5 gals of warm water. 2nd-12lbs of sugar. 3rd-3 1/2 tsp. acid blend. 4th- 4 tsp. yeast nutrient. 5th- 2 1/2 tsp pectin enzyme. 6th- 1/2 tsp wine tannin. 7th- 5 crushed Campden tablets. Add fruit to fermenter in strainer bag, add all of the above ingredients, added Potassium Metabisulfite and stirred. I let it sit overnight then added 1 pack of Vintner's Harvest wine yeast next day(K1-V1116). Next couple of days stirred top half of must and waited for s.g. to get to 1.040. started at 1.048 S.G. went up to 1.056 then on day seven(today) 1.058.


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## Wade E (Dec 12, 2009)

Thee is no way that the starting sg was 1.048 with 12 lbs of sugar and the fruit added also. You must have gotten a false reading in the beginning. You should have actually been around 1.088 or there abouts. You may not have stirred it after adding the water to get such a low starting sg. I have made many of these and that sg is wrong, trust me, sg's dont go up either. Everything sounds good with the recipe with the exception of your sg. What temp do you have this at as it should be around 74* so that the fermentation doesnt get stuck on you.


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## frama94 (Dec 12, 2009)

The temp. is about 65. I have it in my basement on top of a table. I have heard of a heat sleeve of some kind to wrap around the fermenter to increase or maintain a temp. I believe that I did get a false reading on the s.g on the first day. And I don't believe that I stirred it then. How critical is the temp.? It is boiling and has a strong smell to it so I know that the yeast is working. I have read on some other threads where people were concerned about enough yeast and your response was one packet is sufficient for similar amounts so I won't ask that question. What can I do about the temp?


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## Tom (Dec 12, 2009)

Temp is very important. You are on the low side. Bring the wine UPSTAIRS and ferment there. Once dry you can "age" in the basement.


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## cpfan (Dec 12, 2009)

frama94:

You know your house better than we do. In most houses, upstairs is warmer than downstairs, so that's Tom's suggestion.

You mention what we know as a Brew Belt. That is a second option.

Third choice. Got a small heating blanket that you can wrap around your primary?

Steve


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## frama94 (Dec 12, 2009)

I'll try the heating blanket because if I brought the primary upstairs I would be living in the basement. Not that I really mind, but...


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## Wade E (Dec 12, 2009)

Getting it up stairs is the cheapst alternative, but the brew belt is the next best IMO. Heating blankets use more electricity and usually shut off after 1 hours use so youll need to keep turing it on all the time.


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## Julie (Dec 13, 2009)

frama94 said:


> I'll try the heating blanket because if I brought the primary upstairs I would be living in the basement. Not that I really mind, but...



LOL sometimes that happens. My spare bedroom is no longer a spare bedroom, it now houses 15 gallons of watermelon,5 gallons of apple and 5 gallons of pumpkin because our basement is 65 degrees and that was too cold to get fermentation started. Now that it is aging we just do not want to carry all those carboys downstairs.

Julie


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## Wade E (Dec 13, 2009)

Just leave all that wine up there until its degassed, cleared and bottled. Then put it down there.


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## frama94 (Dec 13, 2009)

Luckily we have E-blankets that run on 10 hour cycles and have varying temps from low (1) to high (10). Actually that was a good investment at that time and now it seems that it might be more handier than I anticipated. My friend Wine-O, who turned me on to this site, suggested that I move it my wine into my office on the desk. Since he is also my next door neighbor and knows my wife all too well I looked at him as if he had just drank about a gallon of something and asked him if he was crazy. I do understand the importance of the temp being raised and tried an electric heating pad. They cycle every hour which is a P.I.T.A. so I am trying the son's electric blanket since he doesn't use it all that often.


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## Wine-O (Dec 13, 2009)

Frank, Just get your wife super hot and tell her to sit on it!! If you have any trouble getting her hot then move your fermenter upstairs and that should take care of everything. Just make sure the bottom doesn't fall out this time!!!!!!!!!


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## Wade E (Dec 13, 2009)

By super hot do you mean, um, NEVER MIND!


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## Wine-O (Dec 13, 2009)

No you got it Wade!!!!!!!!!!


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## Wade E (Dec 13, 2009)

When then we need pics of that carboy warmer!!!!!!!!!!!


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## frama94 (Dec 13, 2009)

Wine-o knows she is hot and HOT!!! So I only want the one good hot not the bad hot to come out. Sorry no pics!!! As per the wife!!!!


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## frama94 (Dec 20, 2009)

Wade,

The e-blanket worked very well. It's boiling now and off to the races we go. Incidentally, my wife has the best carboy warmer on the East coast!!! But she still insists on no pics...but there is some pics of her on Corrados' web site from here in NJ...just google Corrado's and look for the 2009 wine competion picture page. She won a silver medal for Lemoncello. She is the only woman in that pic..


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