# Strawberry wine recipe? Can you do this?



## Bnew17 (Jun 4, 2013)

I really like this strawberry wine recipe i found on Jack Kellers website, butbi would like to have more finished product. I was thinking of maybe doubling or maybe tripling the recipe. Would i just double the ingredients called for in the recipe if i were to do so? Never made strawberry wine or many other wines for that matter, so i wasnt sure if it would be a good idea or work. Here is the recipe.


3 lbs. fresh strawberries
2 lbs. granulated sugar
2 tsp. citric acid
water to make 1 gallon
wine yeast & nutrient

Place all ingredients except yeast in crock. Crush fruit with hands and cover with 5 pints boiling water. Stir with wooden paddle to dissolve sugar and simultaneously mash the strawberries. When cooled to 85 degrees F., add yeast. Cover and stir daily. Strain on 7th day, transfer to secondary fermentation vessel, top up to one gallon, fit fermentation trap, and set aside. Rack after 30 days and again after additional 30 days. Bottle when clear. Allow to age at least 6 months. Will improve to one year.


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## CBell (Jun 4, 2013)

Only ingredient you wouldn't double up on is the wine yeast since it does up to 6 gallons with one packet. But yeah, other than that, scale everything up.


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## novalou (Jun 4, 2013)

Bnew17 said:


> I really like this strawberry wine recipe i found on Jack Kellers website, butbi would like to have more finished product. I was thinking of maybe doubling or maybe tripling the recipe. Would i just double the ingredients called for in the recipe if i were to do so? Never made strawberry wine or many other wines for that matter, so i wasnt sure if it would be a good idea or work. Here is the recipe.
> 
> 3 lbs. fresh strawberries
> 2 lbs. granulated sugar
> ...



I've made this before. Use 6 lbs of strawberries per gallon. 3lbs is just too light.


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## Turock (Jun 5, 2013)

We use 10# per gallon and no water. You also would not add acid--especially citric because citric acid gives a lemon flavor. You will need a PH meter and calcium carbonate to LOWER the acid (raise the PH) to around a PH of 3.5 if you use no water dilution. All strawberries with no water demands good PH control or the wine will still taste too sharp,even at a 3.4 PH, and you'll need more sugar to backsweeten in order to balance the acids.


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## WVMountaineerJack (Jun 5, 2013)

Use 10 pounds per gallon for a really good strawberry, toss in a little oak and you will really have a good one. Dont let the berries stay in the primary too long or you might get some bitterness from the seeds no matter how many you use. WVMJ


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## WVMountaineerJack (Jun 5, 2013)

Turock beat me by 10 seconds because I did a spell check  We actually dont add the acid either, nor try to decrease the acid and plan on making it sweet. Use honey instead of sugar and you will really have a remarkable mead. WVMJ


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## Turock (Jun 5, 2013)

We've never had a problem allowing the fruit to stay in the vat thru the whole ferment. We bag the fruit to contain the seeds, and they are all that remain after the ferment. Allowing seeds to get over in the secondary and age on them is what can give bitterness. You want all the fruit to incorporate into the wine. Taking them out too early is a waste of fruit!

I always recommend acid adjustment pre-ferment on everything--but especially on all fruit and no water. You'll have a very unbalanced wine, acid-wise, if you don't and post ferment adjustment may be impossible to do.


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## Scott (Jun 5, 2013)

WVMountaineerJack said:


> Use 10 pounds per gallon for a really good strawberry, toss in a little oak and you will really have a good one. Dont let the berries stay in the primary too long or you might get some bitterness from the seeds no matter how many you use. WVMJ


 







What type of oak ya adding?


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## WVMountaineerJack (Jun 5, 2013)

We usually just use med toasted Amer, its easy to get, if we want to really turn up the smokey oak we will add some Hungarian to. WVMJ


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## WVMountaineerJack (Jun 5, 2013)

Most of the time now we crush the fruit and macerate it 1 or 2 days and press out the juice and go from there, especially with blackberries, raspberries and elders, makes it a lot easier to deal with and you dont have to fool with the bags floating around in the way  WVMJ



Turock said:


> We've never had a problem allowing the fruit to stay in the vat thru the whole ferment. We bag the fruit to contain the seeds, and they are all that remain after the ferment. Allowing seeds to get over in the secondary and age on them is what can give bitterness. You want all the fruit to incorporate into the wine. Taking them out too early is a waste of fruit!
> 
> I always recommend acid adjustment pre-ferment on everything--but especially on all fruit and no water. You'll have a very unbalanced wine, acid-wise, if you don't and post ferment adjustment may be impossible to do.


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## Scott (Jun 6, 2013)

WVMountaineerJack said:


> We usually just use med toasted Amer, its easy to get, if we want to really turn up the smokey oak we will add some Hungarian to. WVMJ


 







Thanks for the info!


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## Jeffro59 (Jun 15, 2013)

I used the same recipe, but tripled it for three gallons! Still aging, but has cleared nicely and preliminary tasting tells me it'll be a great wine!


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## Downwards (Jun 16, 2013)

Why would it be hard to adjust pH post ferment?


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## Turock (Jun 16, 2013)

Downwards---Potassium carbonate should only be used for tweaking PH in the post ferment. It's not meant to be used for moving the PH several tenths. Too much of it can damage the flavor of some wines.

You should always test PH pre-ferment and make any needed adjustments at the primary. You get more balanced wines doing it this way because it integrates thruout the wine better. Needing to make vast changes in the post ferment is difficult and sometimes impossuble.


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