# Strawberry Delight



## ffemt128 (Jun 26, 2010)

Well here was my final recipe so far and I may modify the sugar amount after I check SG.

This is for a 6 gallon batch.

30 lbs of fresh strawberries
12 lb sugar
5 tsp acid blend
1 1/2 tsp tannin
1/4 tsp k-meta
3 tsp pectic enzyme
6 tsp nutrient
wine yeast 1116 or 1122

After cleaning, destemming, and halfing the strawberries they were frozen. I took strawberries out and allowed to partially thaw. Place berries in straining bag and tied top. Added all ingredients except pectic enzyme and nutrient at this time. Boiled water and sugar to make syrup and aid in disolving sugar. Added simple syrup to strawberries. Filled remaining primary with water to 6.5 gallon mark. (allowing extra for when berry pulp is removed). I squeezed the bag several times to soften the berries and stirred to thouroughly mix everything. 

Straining bag will be squeezed twice daily and must will be mixed. When must reaches sg of 1.010 - 1.000 I will rack into carboy and allow to finish fermentaion. Racking will be done as needed. After 2 months I will stabilize and add fpac to back sweeten to taste. Additional rackings will be performed as needed until clear. I'm figuring on bottleing around Christmas.

Starting SG is 1.086. I will pitch yeast tomorrow evening.


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## Tom (Jun 26, 2010)

Looks good But,
Use 1116
confused when U added yeast
Let it sit w/ Pectic 24 hours then pitch yeast. Also Do a TA test and gravity no higher 1.085


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## winemakerrookie (Jun 26, 2010)

I'll be adding this one to my recipe book for next time I make strawberry wine

thanks


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## ffemt128 (Jun 26, 2010)

Updated sg and sugar amount. Prior to adding 2 lbs more I had starting sg of 1.070 or there about.


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## ffemt128 (Jun 28, 2010)

I pitched the yeast yesterday late afternoon and punched down the bag before I went to bed. I forgot to punch down the bag this am prior to work and when I arrived home, I could smell a distinct strawberry smell. Yep you guessed it, the must done foamed over the bucket. Siphoned 1/2 gallon from the bucket and placed into a jug. Should have ample room now I hope.

Yeasties are very happy.


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## ffemt128 (Jun 28, 2010)

Attached are some pics. The ale bucket is after removing a total of a gallon of must. It's still fairly foamy.


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## ffemt128 (Jun 30, 2010)

Well just got home and went to puch down the bag of fruit. There was no more foam on the surface. I went and got the hydrometer to check the sg, guess what, it was at .992. I have to say that was probably the fastest fermentation I ever had. 

I'll transfer into a carboy tomorrow or should I wait until the weekend as originally planned?


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## IQwine (Jun 30, 2010)

now would be a great time...


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## countrygirl (Jun 30, 2010)

i know i'm a greenie, but my first batch sg dropped faster than the instructions anticipated, too...what exactly does this signify? i know the "yeasties" are doing a fast job, but what would do this? perfect temp/off temp? perfect yeast/bad yeast? just curious...
your strawberry sounds delish


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## PPBart (Jul 5, 2010)

winemakerrookie said:


> I'll be adding this one to my recipe book for next time I make strawberry wine
> 
> thanks



+1... Strawberries come in early around here (mid-February), so I'll make a note to get a few flats for this.


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## Tom (Jul 5, 2010)

Here's my Strawberry after racking from the primary.


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## ffemt128 (Jul 5, 2010)

Looks good Tom, I'll post another pic of mine soon. It's such a nice color.


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## mmadmikes1 (Jul 5, 2010)

Here my strawberry in the bottle


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## UglyBhamGuy (Jul 5, 2010)

Nice Label. LOL.


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## mmadmikes1 (Jul 6, 2010)

LOLOLOL good help


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## ffemt128 (Jul 9, 2010)

This was 2 or 3 days ago. Looking good so far.


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## countrygirl (Jul 9, 2010)

that is beautiful!
i tasted a strawberry wine last night from a local winery and it was good, but it looked NOTHING like that!


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## ffemt128 (Jul 19, 2010)

Looking at the batch of Strawberry, it is coming along nicely. It almost appears to be clear, though you can still see a haze in the carboy. I ended up with 5 1/2 gallons of wine after the initial racking to remove the heavy lees. After Tom posted I did not add nearly enough water based on the recipe but I ended with an acceptable amount considering I was shooting for a 6 gallon batch. It will just have some addtional body due to less water being added up front.

Right now I have about 1/4 inch of sediment in the carboy and we are coming up on a month. I will likely rack the end of the month again and then stabilize. After stabizing, I'll add the fpac at the next racking and allow to clear.


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## winemaker_3352 (Jul 19, 2010)

Yeah - i just racked off the less after fermentation was complete - i too and a little short on water - so it will have more body as well - not sure i will need an f-pac because i have little water the way it is - but i may.

I probably won't rack again until mid to late august.


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## ffemt128 (Jul 19, 2010)

When it ferments dry, it loses a good bit of the fruit flavor. Back sweetening will bring back some flavor, but backsweetening with an fpac, brings back alot of flavor.


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## ffemt128 (Jul 30, 2010)

The Strawberry Delight is looking very clear at this point. I know there is still sediment to fall out. I snuck an early taste the other day. Although it has fermented dry, the strawberry flavor is very prominant right now. This is likely due to using 30 lbs of berries for 5 gallons of wine and the fact that there was no where near the recommended water added as I was shooting for a 6 gallon batch and ended with a little over 5. 

I will likely rack and stabilize this weekend, maybe today. I thawed out 1.5 ltr of juice that was left over from when I made pies. It's tart since it is pure juice. Will likely simmer down, add sugar and use that to back sweeten next week. I'll shoot for 1.000 - 1.004 for initial back sweetening. I need to check acid today also.

Next week I may look to getting another carboy. They are $20.00 for better bottles and $27 for glass. Right now I have it in a 3 gallon carboy, 2-1 gallon jugs and a 750 ml bottle. Would like to age all together.


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## ffemt128 (Aug 11, 2010)

Tonight I created my fpac for the Strawberry delight. I took 8-9 lbs of strawberries and steamed them for the juice. After steaming I had close to a gallon or more of juice. I then simmered this down to just under 1/2 gallon. I siphoned off 3/4 gallon of juice and added to the 1/3 gallon o wine I already had extra. I added the fpac then finished fillig the better bottle with the extra (now) gallon of wine. Ended up with 5 1/2 gallons of wine after adding the fpac. I will check sg in am and back sweeten then. 

It's pretty damn tasty now but I think SWMBO (love of my life) will like it a little sweeter. I'll post sg as it stands now and where we sweeten to in the coming days. 

This will make a nice addition to the Christmas gifts.


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## countrygirl (Aug 12, 2010)

i have only one thing to say...
i wish i was on ur christmas list


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## ffemt128 (Aug 12, 2010)

Right now I have it back sweetened to 1.006. To me it tastes pretty good. I tried it at 1.01 and I thought it was too sweet but that was before I added the fpac. I tried a 500 ml sample at 1.010 just to see the sweetness since that is where the bottle of strawberry we bought was. We will let this sit and have my wife try it and she can let me know what it needs.


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## ffemt128 (Aug 13, 2010)

My wife tasted it last night and said don't do anything else with it. It's off to sit in the carboy for a few months before bottling. Whooo Hooo.. Now I have to figure out how to make jelly with the rest of my berries.


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## ffemt128 (Sep 1, 2010)

Anyone else that has made Strawberry notice the lees being really fluffy? I racked it off last night and unfortunately picked up some sediment that was in the rings of the better bottle plus some from the bottom. I added KC Super Clear to it last night and the lees seem to be really fluffy. They were this way before and packed down so I'm not too worried. Just wondered everyone elses thougths on the fluffy lees.


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## ffemt128 (Sep 23, 2010)

After the racking on 9/1 I thought I would add that I ended up with 4 gallons of wine and the lees are nicely compacted now. I didn't want to mess with the fluffyness of the lees so I stayed well above them when racking and hence the reason for only 4 gallons. I'm happy with the clarity and the quantity considering it was my first attempt at strawberry. I will be making this again next year when strawberries are ripe again. I anticipate bottling this sometime in November. I'll rack one more time soon then likely run through the filter I recently bought to polish the wine since it will be mostly gifted.


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## ffemt128 (Sep 23, 2010)

Well I checked and everything looked good, I racked into a bucket and then filtered the Strawberry Delight. All I can say is WOW, does filtering really add a sparkle to your wine. It was clear before, but now it is amazing. 

Since I had the filter out and I had only run 4 gallons through it I decided to filter my son's batch of mead. It too was clear but now it shines.

Glad I picked up the filter when I had the chance.


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## Tom (Sep 23, 2010)

Another filter convert!


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## ffemt128 (Sep 23, 2010)

Tom said:


> Another filter convert!



Big time after see the difference. The $50.00 paid for it will be well worth it for fruit wines and white wines. I'll gladly pay for the filters.


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## ffemt128 (Sep 26, 2010)

My wife has been asking if we had any of this ready so I broke down and bottled the gallon batch after topping up the 3 gallon carboy as much as I could. I ended up with 4 3/4 bottles so I bottled 4 - 375 ml bottles and 2 - 750 ml bottles and have the 3/4 - 750 ml bottle in the wine cooler for later. 

Here is the results of my efforts thus far. For being my first strawberry experiment I am quite happy to say the least and I will be doing this in a larger quantity next year. (excuse the crappy cell phone pic). This will make a nice Christmas gift for our sisters.


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## Runningwolf (Sep 26, 2010)

Doug, nice clean labels ad super clear wine! Awesome job.


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