# Strawberry/Grape Wine



## OGrav (Nov 6, 2006)

I will probably post some background lateron this wine, but I've got a question that you guys might be able to answer.


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## OGrav (Nov 6, 2006)

Look closely around the neck of the carboy.
I noticed some white specks of I'm not sure what around the neck and clinging to the glass around the top third. I don't see any of this in suspension that is not floating around the neck. I racked last week, added 5 campden, sorbate, sugar, all dissolved in wine. Didn't notice anything after rack. Any ideas? I pulled the lock and tasted a little wine, no off flavors or smells that I can tell. Is this undissolved sulfite/sorbate?


There are also some tiny (strawberry seeds?) in suspension a few inches above the bottom. I wasn't planning tofine because it looked really clear before but now I'm not sure. I have a bag of bentonite. Would you recommend this for this wine? It has a nice rose color to it. Does fining necessitate filtering?
LT*Edited by: OGrav *


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## Waldo (Nov 7, 2006)

Looks like sulphite residue to me OGray. It will leave a residue on about anything it comes in contact with when it dries. Especially glass.
As for fining, your choice butI don't. I would let it continue to bulk age and they will settle on out. If you do use the bentonite do it exactly according to instructions because i understand it can impart off flavors to your wine if used in excess.


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## Wade E (Nov 7, 2006)

I concur with the sulfite. As for fining, I dont think that you need to but prefer SuperKleer when needed.


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## OGrav (Nov 7, 2006)

Do you know if this sulphite residue is particular to the tablets? Thought there might be some fillers in them. I think I may pick up some of the bulk sulphite if that is the case.
Thanks


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## OGrav (Nov 7, 2006)

Here begins the chronicle of this Strawberry/Grape wine. This probably isn't a final version of the recipe and I'll make note of things I'd do different in the future. Should be worth a laugh in a couple places. Here goes:


May 16 
Prepared sterilizer solution 4TBL sulphite to gallon
Prepared starter for five gallons
2C prev boiled water

¼ tsp acid blend, ½ tsp fermax nutrient, 2 TBL sugar,
Most of a package of Lalvin K1116, I measured it out and had at least a full tsp. Mixed in quart mason jar.



<?amespace prefix = st1 ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficearttags" /><st1ate wt="on" Year="300" Day="17" Month="5">May 17, 0300</st1ate>, yes that late
Sterilized bucket, funnel, hydrometers and test jar, and nylon bag.
<?amespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />
15 pints of berries ended up being about 16lbs. Measured on scale with me subtract bucket. Looked over a few recipes and decided to take middle ground from most of them.

16lbs berries, walmart had sale, .98 a lb, rinsed, hulled, chopped well.

4.5 campden tablets, (had a half tablet), berries were pretty clean, took out any bad spots, also bag and bucket still little bit wet with sterilant.

4 tsp acid blend to start, recipe calls for 5, thought I would need to add more, smart to start low. Easy to add, hard to take away.

2.25 tsp pectic enzyme. Had to make an educated guess. Directions on enzyme say both ½ tsp per gallon, (2.5 tsp), and 1/10 tsp per pound of fruit, (1.5 tsp). The method I am using is different than most due to strawberries, lots of pectins. You let the sulfite and the enzyme work on the berries with half the water for a day before you add the yeast.

¾ tsp tannin

0300
I chopped up all the berries into the bag suspended in the bucket. Takes a LONG time, get help. Added about 1.5 gallons to cover berries of lightly warmed (got out of fridge) water with pectic enzyme, crushed and dissolved campen tablets, acid blend, and wine tannin. Tannin is very sticky.

Starter is going well, swirled and put in the dark covered by napkin.

0700
Starter foaming well
Mixed berries

1600
Mixed berries

<st1ate wt="on" Year="2130" Day="17" Month="5">May 17, 2130</st1ate>
Added water, sugar, nutrient and yeast
Dissolved sugar and nutrient in warm water. I thought 16 pounds of berries when removed, would take out about 1.5 gallon of volume, we’ll see. I raised the bag and only had about 2 gallons of juice so far. By the time I got everything dissolved and mixed and sugar to where I wanted it. I had about 6 gallons of volume.
4 tsp regular nutrient, 1 tsp fermax nutrient. Fermax is like a nutrient/energizer, and has yeast hulls in it.
Sugar to 1.090 gravity, in this case about 20.5 Cups, just over ten pounds. 
Titrated acid, about .65, little bit high if I am measuring correctly but will decrease with fermentation. Next time use 3 tsp and work up.
Swirled yeast and added to must, stirred shallowly.
Yeast action was immediate, within an hour it was foaming.
I was a little spooked about the foam coming over the edges of container, only had about three-four inches to work with. I took a 1.75 liter wine bottle of must off of the drain cock and held in fridge, two days later added it back in.

May 18, 
0600
Foaming well, stirred
1800
stirred

May 19
0600
stirred
1800
added back rest of must, shouldn’t foam too much more than it already is.
Throwing off a lot of CO2. Not much left of the berries. Hope I didn’t overshoot the water.

May 20
1000
Moved outside to garage for B.Day party, temp from 69 at night to 78 during day, not too bad. Covered with towels. I don’t think I could do much better inside unless AC is running.
Time to look where I am going to put this stuff for the next couple months.

May 22
Moved back inside yesterday. Fermentation has slowed down noticeably. Took out bag of pulp. Ended up being about a half gallon loss. Yeast and enzyme action did a number on the strawberries. Got a little more juice than I figured out of them. Took a reading. .996! Checked twice. Had to rotate hydrometer fast there was so many bubbles sticking to it. I had to rack it two days early, it was only five days and all the sugar was about gone. I guess that nutrient and warm weather really sped things along.


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## OGrav (Nov 7, 2006)

Strawberry/Grape Wine continued: Sorry for no pics yet, it didn't occur to me what a good tool they would become. As for the acid measurements, I was using a too weak solution of NAOH, so I thought my acid was really high. It's a learning process




LT



1900
Was reading one recipe that added in Welch’s pure white grape juice concentrate to basically the same ingredients I had. Said strawberry wines are often thin. I racked some wine into s.s. bowl and added a can of concentrate to it. Thought this would be a good way to add some sugar as well as some body. Recipe added 1 to a gallon, I ended up going with three cans to the five gallons plus I added in another cup of sugar. Had concerns about added acid along with concentrate, tasted 1 can mixed with 1 quart, didn’t seem too acidic. I used a funnel to put this into the carboy first. Splashed a bit, but I couldn’t see another way around it, other than me trying to run it down the side. It was only a half gallon out of five anyway. Still working on my siphoning techniques. Took a couple times before I had a strong siphon. Can’t figure out how I can siphon gas without spilling a drop but can’t accomplish a rack without at least one mess. The clamp on the racking tube isn’t all that strong. When I went to rack to bowl, the whole thing came up and over to the floor. Future note-strawberry wine full of fermenting yeast, CO2, and at least 12% alcohol, will burn your eyes like holy hell. Got everything cleaned up again and proceeded. Left a couple inches headspace in carboy for foam. Had almost a gallon extra, and would have been great if I had another gallon jug to ferment alongside it. As it is I think 5.5 gallons to start would be good. Should give you enough for carboy and a couple quarts extra to top off later if you need. Checked acid and gravity. Gravity went up 10,11 points to 1.006/7. Should be another alcohol point when it ferments out. Acid concerns me. Either my measuring is off, chemicals are bad, or it is off the chart. I stopped at about 1.2%. If it is that high, I’m hoping since most of that is citric, it will be burned up in the fermentation. Doesn’t taste too acidic, but at this point I’m an idiot and would probably feel the same about battery acid. Will check again next racking. Does active fermentation have effect on measurement? I racked extra into 1.5 liter? wine bottle and 2 16oz juice bottles and placed in fridge. Checked a couple hours later. Fridge slowed down yeast thank God.
May 23
Tasted some of the cold wine, that didn’t have juice added. Not too terrible, but not as good as the blueberry. I might not be a white/rose type of guy. Still awfully yeasty and quite harsh but it does have alcohol in it. Took some in juice glass, added tsp of sugar, I think once it mellows, hopefully it will be a lot better. Carboy fermenting immediately, put in dining room covered with jacket.
May 27 
Fermenting slowing little to1 bubble every 2 seconds. I don’t think this wine is going to last as long as the other. Temp around 77-8.
May 30
Almost stopped fermenting, down to a bubble every minute or so. Few more days and I’ll get another carboy ready.
June 5




Noticed some white threads of (mold?) on top of carboy, clinging to glass. Don’t know what that’s about. Fermentation has stopped.
June 6
After some research, I think I narrowed it down to aerobic wild yeast that will grow when it has too much airspace. After the sugar fermented out I had about three inches from the top, still not too much. A couple things could have helped cause this: Too much airspace after the sugar worked out. Maybe the sulphite level was too low. I remember rinsing out the carboy with the sterilant, source said that helps. Carboy was in a big room, lot of air traveling around it, maybe closet like other would be better. Last thing I can think of is that the cork worked its way a little loose. I took some of the wine I had left over in the fridge, tasted it, it improved noticeably. Then I crushed up six campden tablets for the 5.5 gallons of wine, mixed it with the small amount and topped off the carboy about an inch from the top. Reference says if caught early, treat with sulphite and rack, it might even make it smoother. I’ll try to rack tomorrow, we’ll see.
June 9
Got another carboy yesterday. Spent most of this morning getting everything ready to rack the wine. To my surprise, that same white yeast was growing in my racking tube and cane. I rinsed out the tube and cane with the sterilant before I dried it. Maybe it wasn’t long enough. I hope this stuff didn’t come from the other blueberry wine. Don’t know if it was just floating around or if the strawberries had some on them. I’m hoping that was the case. When I picked up the carboy, the clerks said that this was kind of rare. I hope so, five gallons is a lot to throw away if it can’t be rescued. Also said to use one campden tablet per gallon for concentrates or juice and two per gallon for fresh fruit. That seems like a lot, but I probably will do six next time for five gallons. I am up to 10.5 tablets for this batch. There is a measurement for SO2 in the wine, but the shop didn’t have the kit. I rinsed the carboy out with hot water then let it sit for over a half hour with the sterilant (sulfite) solution under stopper. I made up a bleach solution and put all the equipment into it for an hour, hydrometers, racking stuff, funnel, etc. It had definitely worked out all of the sugar, .990. Racked the wine with little excitement. I was able to get most of it. Bunched up a towel under one side and put the cane on the other. Didn’t start to suck up sediment until the last inch. I brought in the wine I had put into the refrigerator and topped up mostly with that. The wine bottle was under so much pressure that all the rest was thrown back into suspension so I used the 2C juice bottle. Later the wine bottle cork popped off and shot wine over a three foot radius before I could release the pressure.



Almost wish the wife was there to see it. The acid was still high at about 12-13%. I topped off the rest, about three cups, with water. I only left about an inch headspace. Hopefully what little dilution there was will help with the acid. If I do this recipe again, I should add the grape juice at the beginning and hold off on the tannin and acid additions. I was wondering whether to fine it or not but decided to let the yeast work and fall out by itself. It might ferment just a bit more due to whatever sugar was left in the juice. I’ll give it a few more weeks to clear, then I’ll stabilize, sweeten if needed, and rack again.


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## OGrav (Nov 7, 2006)

Strawberry/Grape Wine cont:

July 10
Everything looks good. The wine is pretty clear. I topped off the water lock to make sure it doesn’t dry out. Will be looking at racking and stabilizing soon.
Sept 26
Left alone covered for over a month. Still under water lock. Checked yesterday, sediment dropped, wine very clear. Might try to rack this weekend. Been busy with other projects/homework.
Oct 26
Finally racked wine.
4 campden tablets
.990
1.3% acid(wrong as I found out later)
4.5 cups sugar added
1.006/7 final
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Moved to counter a few days previously and propped on side. Sterilized racking tube, cane, equipment, new carboy with sulfite. SG at .990 completely dry. Wine should be around 13.5% alcohol. Tested acid with new NaOH solution, this one at 1/5 or .2 normal. Used 6.5 ml to neutralize 15 ml of wine. Not sure really what this means at this point. The first solution was .1 normal. I think that means I’m still at 1.3% acid. I’ve found a new forum on line, I’ll see if I can clarify. After some calculations, 2oz of sugar raising gravity of 1 gal by .005, so it should raise five gal by .001. 1.008 is considered just barely sweet wine, so I thought a good target to try and hit. 1.008-.990= .018/.001(2oz additions) =18. 18*2oz=36 then /8oz to get cups= 4.5C of sugar. I started off adding 4, then went ahead and added the other half cup. I mixed up 4 campden tablets, was going to add three then after mixing sugar for awhile, decided to add another. Might not add any for racking into bottle. Stabilized with 1.25 tsp of sorbate. Mixed all in a cup of wine. Warmed few cups of wine to dissolve sugar. My god, how I hate our big measuring cup, impossible to pour out of it. Will be looking for another one. Racked about a third of the wine, added the syrup, then racked the rest. Should be pretty clear. Had almost an inch left in carboy after sugar additions. Filled up new carboy within an inch. Final SG at 1.006/7, pretty close, next time might take it to 5 cups of sugar, we’ll see after it sets in the bottle for awhile. Sediment was pretty firm. I didn’t use any finings, we’ll see what happens without it. Placed under airlock and back under cover. Will check in another week to see if there is any action, then start to bottle.

Oct 27
Tasted some of the wine I had poured off. Pretty yeasty of course. Added a spoon of sugar, could just about drink it ok. I hope it mellows out some more in the bottle.


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## OGrav (Nov 7, 2006)

That first pic was of the strawberry and the blueberry wine I previously bottled, another story. Here some pics of the testing and racking.




There is a candle behind the wine.






Getting everything ready
LT


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## OGrav (Nov 7, 2006)

equipment and acid test


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## OGrav (Nov 7, 2006)

Final gravity






Sugar addition


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## OGrav (Nov 7, 2006)

Rack complete 1








Rack complete2








Back to Bed


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## Wade E (Nov 7, 2006)

Very nice pictures OGrav. I have a hard time getting a good picture of the hydrometer reading as you have.


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## NorthernWinos (Nov 7, 2006)

What a pretty colored wine.
What kind of grapes did you use????I made my Strawberry/Grape with WinExpert red grape concentrate, so mine is very dark red....
Like the Rosé color of yours...



*Edited by: Northern Winos *


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## OGrav (Nov 7, 2006)

Thanks, WW. They are not without effort. I take three for every one I can keep. I'm not sure how I was able to focus that close.I tried to duplicate it today, (I put an Ocean Spray wine into secondary). I had a good time posting them as well, browser crashed about six times just when I'm getting ready to post of course. For learning, you can't beat pictures. Like for this latest juice wine, I used a different yeast, Lavlin 1122, and it works and looks differently than 1116. Takes about another two days, it seems to get up a head of steam.
LT


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## OGrav (Nov 7, 2006)

I used about 16lbs of strawberries in the primary and then when I racked to secondary, I added three can of Welches frozen white grape concentrate along with some more sugar. I would be inteterested in how a straight strawberry wine would compare to this.
LT


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## NorthernWinos (Nov 8, 2006)

OGrav said:


> Thanks, WW.  They are not without effort.  I take three for every one I can keep.  I'm not sure how I was able to focus that close.  I tried to duplicate it today, (I put an Ocean Spray wine into secondary).  I had a good time posting them as well, browser crashed about six times just when I'm getting ready to post of course.  For learning, you can't beat pictures.  Like for this latest juice wine, I used a different yeast, Lavlin 1122, and it works and looks differently than 1116.  Takes about another two days, it seems to get up a head of steam.
> LT



I had my computer get a virus a few weeks ago....did the Restore/Recovery and since then I have had a very difficult time Posting photos to this Site...
Waldo had me Post them to Photo Bucket and then UpLoad the photos to this Site...works like a charm...


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## NorthernWinos (Nov 8, 2006)

OGrav said:


> I used about 16lbs of strawberries in the primary and then when I racked to secondary, I added three can of Welches frozen white grape concentrate along with some more sugar.  I would be interested in how a straight strawberry wine would compare to this.
> LT



I have been using about 20-24 pounds of fruit for a 6 gallon batch, and two 500 mil bottles of winExpert Red Grape Concentrate...It makes a full bodied red wine with loads of fruit flavor....It finishes very dry...BUT...the strawberry flavor is kind of sweet like strawberries taste.
I use a steam juice extractor to get the juice out of the fruit...someday I will try freezing the fruit and using a straining bag and see if there is even more flavor...
Use the same recipe for Raspberry and Chokecherry wines....
Many songs written about strawberry wine...can see why...


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## Waldo (Nov 8, 2006)

Great looking wine Ograv


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## OGrav (Nov 8, 2006)

Are strawberries one of the ones that you have to be careful with the heat? Somewhere I read that they have a lot of pectins, that's why I used the method I did. I was quite surprised at what I had left in the bag after a few days fermentation. I bet I only had two pounds of pulp left after the yeast got done with it. I mention this because I am intrigued by all the talk of yours and Waldo's steam juice extractor. Do you guys ever have any problems with that?
LT


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## Wade E (Nov 8, 2006)

Huh, I will be anxious to here more on this subject as I have never heard of this technique but sounds like the thing to do.


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## NorthernWinos (Nov 8, 2006)

OGrav said:


> Are strawberries one of the ones that you have to be careful with the heat?  Somewhere I read that they have a lot of pectins, that's why I used the method I did.  I was quite surprised at what I had left in the bag after a few days fermentation.  I bet I only had two pounds of pulp left after the yeast got done with it.  I mention this because I am intrigued by all the talk of yours and Waldo's steam juice extractor.  Do you guys ever have any problems with that?
> LT



I have only made wines using the steam extracted juices, so I have nothing to compare it to.
Waldo has made wines both ways, so he will be the judge on the differences...anxious to hear his judement...


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## Wade E (Nov 8, 2006)

This would probably be a good idea for any fruit then I would imagine. Could this have an adverse effect on any other fruits?


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## Waldo (Nov 9, 2006)

Having done wines using both the Freeze and process as well as the Steam Extraction I would have to say that for me the jury is still out as I have no finished wine from the Steam Extraction method as of yet to compare. I do know that initially there is more juice obtained from the fruit using the Steam Extraction method but whether this adversely affects the final product is yet ascertained. Given the absence of the Steamer Iam definately a strong proponent of freezing the fruit prior to processing as it surely aids in the extraction of the juice from the fruit. I have only made one small (gallon) batch of Strawberry wine and it was made without aid of either freezing or steaming and it turned out a total flop. This was largely attributable to it being made very early in my learning process and I apparently ran into some problem along the way as the wine was finally poured down the drain after over a year of bulk aging and still having a strong, almost like lighter fluid aroma and a taste similiar to a diluted cough syruo.


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## OGrav (Jan 21, 2007)

Ok guys, right now I'm hoping I'm not going to have to dump this one out after almost a year in the making of it. Spent at least three months in the cold garage but I could never drop those fine particles I was talking about. The top half was perfect, but it never dropped any more, or closer to the bottom. I moved it back inside and added super kleer according to package directions last night. The wine is still cloudy from it. There are a few solids on the bottom, but not much. Has anyone ever fined a wine after it was sweetened or is this a no-no? Funny I only thought of that after twelve hours of fining addition and hardly any change. I hope another day or two does the trick. The weather has gotten cold again, does this fining prefer a certain temp? Should I move it back outside? If this doesn't fall, is there any rescue? It smelled great, anyway. My only consolation right now is that it wasn't a 90$ kit. Help.


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## grapeman (Jan 21, 2007)

It will probably clear within the next day on it's own. The strawberry/raspberry I did last year took two days after adding Super-Kleer. I used that after it wouldn't clear on it's own. Hang in there a little longer.


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## Wade E (Jan 21, 2007)

I always clear after I sweeten as I use juice to sweeten and sometimes
the juice clouds it alittle. I use SuperKleer on all my wines that need
to be cleared and only two of them took more than three days to be
crystal clear but the other two took a week.


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## OGrav (Jan 21, 2007)

I hope so, I've heard so many good things about this stuff that after it didn't start clearing within 12 hours I got nervous. It's 70 degrees where it is now, I don't know if colder temps would hurt or help the process. Another thing, the store I bought them from had them in the fridge and told me to store the packs in the fridge to preserve them longer. On the pack itself, it says to store at room temp. Any comments?


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## Wade E (Jan 21, 2007)

I've never heard of storing those in a fridge!


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## OGrav (Apr 9, 2007)

Reading this old post it occurred to me that I never got back with the finished product!


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## OGrav (Apr 9, 2007)

The color is probably in between the flash and non flash you see here, like reddish gold. Superkleer fell out great. Not sure if it took some color too or just looks that way. Had a bottle last week, little sweet but good, smelled great.


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## NorthernWinos (Apr 9, 2007)

Nice looking wine....are you going to show us the label too????


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## jobe05 (Apr 9, 2007)

They Look Awesome!


I really like the color, your right, like a mix between a Rose and a Straw colored wine. Very nice, very clear.


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## Wade E (Apr 9, 2007)

Ive used SuperKleer quite a few times and have never noticed it pulling any color out. Looks great!


*Edited by: wade *


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## OGrav (Apr 10, 2007)

You've got me, NW, I've bottled about four different batches of wine over the past few months and I haven't made a label for any of them. I 've got to steal a glue stick from my son and try that with paper labels. Thanks Jobe.


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## Waldo (Apr 11, 2007)

Looks great OGray. How was the strawberry flavor?


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## OGrav (Apr 12, 2007)

It's there, not real strong but identifiable. You could probably place it from the smell first. This was made with supermarket strawberries so they probablydidn't have a lot of flavor punch right from the start. I added 3 cans of white grape concentrate to ferment out and to begin with I was afraid that it would overpower the flavor of the strawberries. The first couple times I tasted it before bottling it was pretty harsh, I imagine partly due to the alcohol content. 13.5%alc, .65 acid. Right now two months after bottling the aroma can be smelled a few feet away even when fridge cold, the harshness gone, and it is very pleasant and drinkable. If I didn't just finish a beer, I would pour myself a glass and post a pic right now. Since this batch I have bottled a cranberry and blueberry/pomegranate juice wines, gallon batches. I just pitched yeast on a gallon batch of apple wine tonight. I plan on doing two batches, side by side, same yeast, same juice. Both of them backsweetened with concentrate. One of them just juice, the other will have one can of concentrate added at the beginning. I will keep sg the same, 1.090, as well as tannin and acid levels. I have seen a broad spectrum of recipes from dilution by a quart of water, to two cans of concentrate. I basically want to teach myself what difference this will make in the finished product.


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