# Strawberry wine- smell is odd



## Downwards (Apr 10, 2013)

Hey all, just started a strawberry 3 days ago. Fresh berries, ~40 lbs, doing about 10 gallons of it. When I went for my yeast, I found I only had a single packet of lalvin 71B that I wanted to use, so instead I used the pasteur red that I had a lot of. I have it split between two fermenters, both are bubbling away very nicely. 
Only weird thing is I'm not getting the typical wonderful fruit smells that I normally get when I start a ferment, it's kind of... I don't know, not pleasant. It could be just the large amount of CO2 that I'm not happy with? 

I guess there isn't much to do about it now but wait. 
Should I get it off the fruit now? Is there any information I could put in here that might help? 

The strawberries were very ripe. A friend with connections with our local farmers got them for me and they were the berries that are taken when very soft for jam makers and such. Sold locally or frozen to ship. Some parts of them were so soft we cut the mushy bits out. 

Sugar was brown and white about 30% light brown sugar. I sweetened to 1.110, planning to top off rackings with water so I thought high SG should be fine. 

I'm step feeding with 2 t yeast energizer and 2 t DAP divided in three little baggies and adding 2 days apart. 

Ferment is very active. 

Any ideas or am I just worrying over nothing? 

Color is beautiful! Should be a pretty vivid pink unless it changes more. 

Thanks for your consideration and any advise!


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## dralarms (Apr 10, 2013)

Well after 3 days, I think id wait to pass judgement until 7 or 8 days. Sometimes that yeast stinks.


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## Downwards (Apr 10, 2013)

Do you mean that yeast particularly or just yeasty smells in general? I'm definitely going to let it go. Perhaps I'm just concerned because the berries were such a score and I've never made a batch this big. 

Anybody ever used pasteur red with something like this? I thought I had more lalvin 71B, but I figured with the must all mixed up already, I'd better just go with what I had before the batch caught something else..


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## dralarms (Apr 10, 2013)

Some yeast stinks more than others and I've never used that one.


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## jimmyjames23 (Apr 11, 2013)

I used Pasteur Red on a Cab Sauv with blackberries, elderberry and a little brown sugar. It smelled like a cow got drunk on Manischewitz and threw up in my carboy. A country sickly sweet smell. 
When the Cab was done it was fantastic. 
So everything in probably fine.


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## Dend78 (Apr 11, 2013)

yeah i had a pear that was smelling terrible but turned out really nice, it was bad enough i was searching on here for options to vent the smell, my wife was about to kill me hahaha


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## Downwards (Apr 29, 2013)

Actually, this wine is fine. I racked it today, and I'm just now starting to see the color as the fruit is falling out. Probably 1/6 of the whole carboy was fruit mush on the bottom. I will bag my fruit from here on out. 
I think I was just smelling the heavy amounts of CO2 in the primary, really sharp smell and wasn't pleasant. It smells great now, though.


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## Downwards (May 6, 2013)

Urrgh. Be careful when giving your thread a title, lol. This strawberry does not smell weird. 
But I just degassed it last night, came back to it this morning as I knew it would have cleared some. It was about halfway clear, looks red in the carboy but pinkish orange in the glass. I'm betting that the orange will pass as more yeast clears, but it was clear enough to take a taste! 
I used about 40 lbs of ripe berries to 10 gallons. The flavor is not very strong, the nose is almost non existent, and the color is light. 
Does this call for an f-pack? Did I not use enough fruit you think? 

Suggestions would be appreciated.


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## dralarms (May 6, 2013)

Nowhere enough fruit. I use 40 lbs for 6 gallons.


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## wineon4 (May 6, 2013)

I use 10 lb per gallon in strawberry and mine is usually a light amber color when ready for the bottle. Strawberry wine is not red but a light amber or yellowish. 40 lb should have been 5 to 6 gallon max.


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## seth8530 (May 6, 2013)

Yeah, what they said.. Not enough fruit and perhaps too high of a starting gravity.. But that does not mean the wine is ruined! An F-Pack could do a lot for this wine along with some more time.


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## Downwards (May 7, 2013)

Thanks everybody. That's what I kind of suspected. No, it's not ruined by any means, even tastes good. Or at least it doesn't taste bad in any way I mean, no obvious faults, just not readily noticeable what kind of wine you are drinking, and really no nose to speak of. The recipe I used suggested 3 lbs per gallon, and I thought I was going above and beyond by adding another lb per.. 

I'll try the f-pack and see if we can make this thing taste like strawberries. How much fruit would you use in an f-pack for 10 gallons, and how would you go about making an f-pack of strawberries? (Nevermind this, I found the sticky.  )

Also, yes I did make this one pretty hot, so I guess I have some room with adding juice without watering it down too much if that's a good option.


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## Arne (May 7, 2013)

If you let it sit in the bottle for a year or more, the flavor should come out some. Takes a long time with not much fruit. You mite try sweetening it a bit with some welches strawberry breezin. Don't do a lot of it at first, just try a glass and spoon some of the breezin in and mix. See what happens. Should speed up the time before drinkin. Be aware the strawberry breezin will cloud your wine up. Takes quite a while for it to settle out. Arne.


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## seth8530 (May 7, 2013)

Yeah, I would wait around a year before you start playing around with adding sugar sources to the wine. Good wine is hard to rush. It is EXTREMELY easy to over sweeten a wine. I have done it before. not fun.


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## Arne (May 7, 2013)

seth8530 said:


> Yeah, I would wait around a year before you start playing around with adding sugar sources to the wine. Good wine is hard to rush. It is EXTREMELY easy to over sweeten a wine. I have done it before. not fun.


 
It is more fun to oversweeten than try and unsweeten it. LOL, Arne.


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## jswordy (May 7, 2013)

Pardon me, but strawberry wine *IS* red...

Here's 25 gallons...

How it started...





How it finished...









Bottling a 119-bottle batch...





The key is to find a berry farm that will sell you dead-ripe berries. Most of the berries used in homemade strawberry wine are not ripe, and that's why people say it does not finish red. A vine-ripe berry will be red all the way through - no white. 

Strawberries can ONLY ripen while on the vine. After that, the process they undergo is actually rot, not ripening. They will get softer, but the amount of red stays the same.

Find some ripe berries and you'll have red wine.

On sweetening strawberry wine, if you leave it on the dry/harsh young alcohol side and let it sit a year, it will come around. I am told it is best at 2 years and am trying valiantly to have some survive that long. So far so good...


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## Downwards (May 7, 2013)

Actually, mine is also that color in the carboy, just not in the glass. I'll try and get two pictures for you so you can see what I mean. It's kind of an odd thing. The color is drop dead gorgeous in the carboy (as far down as it's cleared). 
My friend got these berries from a farmer contact in Oxnard (where I grew up) , we're pretty famous for our strawberries I think, but actually I know what you mean about the ripe ones. Our berries that ship are nothing like what you can get direct from the farmers. These came to us topped by the pickers right off the plant because they are so ripe and normally these ones would have been frozen because they can't ship in any other condition. 
I only wish we had used more.. 

I also appreciate the admonition about my patience. I'm still very new at this, and I think I have been told that on every single thread that I've ever reported a problem on. ME--->  
You all are right I'm sure. I'll rack this when it clears and then put it in a closet somewhere and forget about it.. 

Let me go get photos now.. 

EDIT: Ok, here they are. The carboy on left is mostly clear, so I think I'm getting a good impression of its color. The glass shot is taken from that carboy. Interesting difference in color huh?


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## wineon4 (May 8, 2013)

The wine in the glass is the same color my strawberry always turns out, after yours clears out it will be a little lighter yellow than it is now. I went to a local wine comp and there were 8 winerys there and their strawberry was also more yellow/orange than red. Even when I use Vinters Harvest Wine Base it comes out in the yellow/orange color range. I have won medals for it with no faults noted in its color section.


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## Dend78 (May 8, 2013)

now here is some fun, i also have 6 gal of the strawberry/costal white going I pulled about a bottle full off for back sweetening purposes and placed it in a mason jar with the lid on it and put it in the fridge. it is the exact same color as what you have in the glass, but the 6 gal carboy is red as seen in this thread

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum...ine-competition-37454/index16.html#post422735


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## dralarms (May 8, 2013)

Well, I've made 3 batches, 2 of them are red, even in the glass. The 3rd I used the wrong yeast ec-1118, and it stripped the color. However a small bottle of red food coloring before clearing made a world of difference. And yes it held the color after super kleer.


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## Downwards (May 8, 2013)

I used Pasteur Red. Think that might have stripped color? 

Dend78, I saw your competition too late, or I'd have certainly jumped at trying to buy that white and join in, looks like fun! Let me know if you all do another one.


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## Dend78 (May 13, 2013)

will do! here is some fun I put some of the cleared wine in a glass last night, looks red still in carboy brownish yellow in a glass kinda strange


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## Kraffty (May 13, 2013)

Did you mean to show a pic of that brownish yellow strawberry?
Mike


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## BernardSmith (May 13, 2013)

Downwards said:


> Actually, mine is also that color in the carboy, just not in the glass. I'll try and get two pictures for you so you can see what I mean. It's kind of an odd thing. The color is drop dead gorgeous in the carboy (as far down as it's cleared).
> My friend got these berries from a farmer contact in Oxnard (where I grew up) , we're pretty famous for our strawberries I think, but actually I know what you mean about the ripe ones. Our berries that ship are nothing like what you can get direct from the farmers. These came to us topped by the pickers right off the plant because they are so ripe and normally these ones would have been frozen because they can't ship in any other condition.
> I only wish we had used more..
> I also appreciate the admonition about my patience. I'm still very new at this, and I think I have been told that on every single thread that I've ever reported a problem on. ME--->
> ...



is the yellowish color what people mean when they talk about hair being "strawberry blonde"?


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## Downwards (May 14, 2013)

Funny you say that. The gal I'm making this strawberry with (it's really her first wine and she's sort of making it here under my supervision- but she's doing everything physically so I say it's her wine) is actually a strawberry blonde and I keep telling her she ought to call the wine "Strawberry Blonde" for the color.


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## saramc (May 16, 2013)

The color of the finished strawberry wine has a lot to do with the cultivar of berry being used (you can find case studies on color retention in strawberry ferments, etc). There is a specific type of anthocyanin maybe, I think that was what I read a few months ago, which impacts color retention. And the berry either has it or it does not. Then you have to consider the yeast being used. And as always the quality, ripeness and quantity of fruit factor in to the big picture.

I once read an article that said it was called a strawberry because the juice was light orange, straw colored. Strawberries were not always red, they were orange too...and they are making a comeback.

The evolution of the strawberry.


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## Downwards (May 17, 2013)

I have seeds for a white strawberry, a friend sent them to me and I never got around to planting them. Wonder if they are still good? Only one way to find out I suppose.

By the way, just racked this as it's gone very very clear in both carboys. Smell and taste both are much better. I think the yeast flavor and slight carbonation was throwing me off. Bulk aging now, a minimum of 6 months before the next taste. I even wrote it on the carboys, so that means my impatience will have to confront my instructions anytime I think of opening them.


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## saramc (May 18, 2013)

Downwards said:


> I have seeds for a white strawberry, a friend sent them to me and I never got around to planting them. Wonder if they are still good? Only one way to find out I suppose.



The seeds of your white strawberry will yield a red berry, though it will still taste like the white berry. At least that is what a horticulture professor shared with me.


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## GreginND (May 18, 2013)

Every strawberry wine I have seen has been orange in color unless artificial color had been added.


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## Downwards (May 19, 2013)

Yeah, I don't think I would ever color mine. I think it is pretty in it's own way. I try to foster an appreciation for what the fruit gives me, even if it isn't what I expect. After all if it's a different color than I expect, that is INTERESTING to me. Every fruit wine I've ever made (I haven't really tasted anyone else's) is different in taste too than what I expected. If you got surprises, make them pleasant ones, lol. 
I do believe folks who say theirs are coming out red though- I'll bet saramc nailed it with the theory on varietals. After all my local farmers are not likely growing the same berries as folks way up north. And I don't think anyone is growing strawberries for how they hold their color in wine.


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## JFire (May 19, 2013)

Here is my first ever attempt at wine also a strawberry. I thought the color was my error. Glad its not. Wasn't sure if I should sweeten it prior to aging or not. This was about 7lbs to the gallon. 2nd pic is about 12 hours out of primary. 


Any idea why the pics came out upside down?


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## dralarms (May 19, 2013)

Seems like that would run out of the bottles like that.


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## JFire (May 27, 2013)

Just sweetened up one gallon. I can't wait. But I can tell the difference in just a week or so of aging. 





Still can't get the pictures right side up.


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## Downwards (May 27, 2013)

saramc said:


> The seeds of your white strawberry will yield a red berry, though it will still taste like the white berry. At least that is what a horticulture professor shared with me.



These do grow true from seed. They don't produce runners at all, so I can't imagine how you'd ever get them otherwise. I was mistaken in the color maybe though, just checked the seed packet and they are an alpine berry called "yellow wonder". http://www.rareseeds.com/yellow-wonder-wild-strawberry/


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## pwrose (May 27, 2013)

I have never seen strawberry that color. I have been making strawberry wine for some time now and all of mine look like this.


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## Downwards (May 27, 2013)

Got a picture of it in the glass pwrose? Are you adding juice in the end or an fpack at all? How many pounds of fruit per gallon in the must? It sure is pretty.


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## pwrose (May 27, 2013)

That is last years batch, it was 197 lbs of berries and made 12-13 gallons. I did not add any extra water and I didn't ferment on the fruit. I cooked/boiled down the berries and removed the pulp. I do this because the berries I get are not always in the best shape. I freeze them in 5 lbs bags with stems and the occasional leaf, thaw them out and put them straight in the pot to cook. Any loose leaves or stems will float and I do remove those but the green stems on the top of the berry get cooked right in. I have never noticed any off flavors from them but I also do not ferment with them in the must. I don't have a pic of it in a glass right now but when I return home this Friday I plan to bottle some of it, probably just one 5 gallon carboy. I will let the other one age for a little while longer, or until I need the carboy. lol I ended up with 12 gallons of finished not bottled wine. I used the 2 extra gallons to mix in to the strawberry skeeter pee to enhance the strawberry flavor in that wine.

This years strawberry will have 375 lbs of berries and I am guessing I will get around 24 gallons give or take a gallon or two.


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## Downwards (May 27, 2013)

I'm sure in your case, that color is from that quantity of fruit. Mine is pretty golden colored in the glass, but in the carboy it's very red. That tells me that mine is red but the color watered down, don't you think?

Does yours taste acidic at all?


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## GreginND (May 27, 2013)

I think cooking it may also set the color.


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## pwrose (May 27, 2013)

I think cooking it probably helps keep the color, but the very first batch I did was with 24 lbs and I added water back then. That made a 3 gallon batch after I strained the pulp. I did not cook that batch and cut every berry up. It kept the red color as well. After that I swore to never spend that much time cutting berries again. I also made that batch rather high octane by accident. I really have never done a true acid test on the strawberry, I never felt like it was way out of range. I also never had anyone not like it except one person who doesn't care for wine to start with.
Through all the batches I have made they seem to keep getting better. This year will be yet another new try to improve what is already great. You will have to follow along with that post when I start it. I do have a post started for acquiring the berries, but will start another one when I start this years batch.


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## Downwards (May 27, 2013)

That could be as well. I was reading about the acids in strawberry and noticed on wikipedia it says that you can make an acid indicator of strawberry juice. This tells us something I think. Could be that the color will change depending on how acidic your fruit and or must is? I just need to find out how the juice indicator works, if it goes lighter with acid or base.. Does it turn blue like cabbage juice etc. I'll bet this will tell us how to manipulate the color.


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## saramc (May 28, 2013)

Downwards said:


> These do grow true from seed. They don't produce runners at all, so I can't imagine how you'd ever get them otherwise. I was mistaken in the color maybe though, just checked the seed packet and they are an alpine berry called "yellow wonder". http://www.rareseeds.com/yellow-wonder-wild-strawberry/



I am thinking pineberry perhaps, the white berry with the red seeds? I have an alpine-type too, pineapple crush. Looking forward to growing more of them.


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## Midwest Vintner (May 29, 2013)

saramc said:


> The color of the finished strawberry wine has a lot to do with the cultivar of berry being used (you can find case studies on color retention in strawberry ferments, etc). There is a specific type of anthocyanin maybe, I think that was what I read a few months ago, which impacts color retention. And the berry either has it or it does not. Then you have to consider the yeast being used. And as always the quality, ripeness and quantity of fruit factor in to the big picture.
> 
> I once read an article that said it was called a strawberry because the juice was light orange, straw colored. Strawberries were not always red, they were orange too...and they are making a comeback.
> 
> The evolution of the strawberry.



I haven't heard about any anthocyanin until I just dug this up

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031942203006381

From what I can understand or at least what I think I'm understanding, LOL, from this article is that the acidity of the fruit makes a difference on the color. 

Besides that and on top of the points Saramc made, oxidation and UV rays can change the color too.

IMO, the list as it would pertain to color in order would be:
-type
-ripeness (and quality)
-quantity per gallon
-pH
-oxidation level
-light exposure

As for my personal experiences with strawberry, mine has always looked like JSwordy's pics. If you were to look at them with a light behind a clear bottle (mine are all gone now), you could see an orange hue/glow through the red.


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