# Why is my strawberry wine orange?



## wzazdzez (Jun 6, 2013)

Why is my strawberry wine orange?


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## dralarms (Jun 6, 2013)

Not enough fruit or not ripe enough berries.


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## moesagoodboy (Jun 6, 2013)

Jswordy taught us this a few weeks ago. Strawberries ripen thru the fruit. A ripe strawberry will be red on the inside. Wine made from ripe strawberries will be strawberry in color.


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## Deezil (Jun 6, 2013)

Personally,

I think part of it is a lack of color-stabilizing compounds - tannins, polysaccharides, etc.. I think, with a lot of fruit wines, a lot of the color just simply falls out because it has nothing to hold onto. I haven't tested this theory with Strawberry yet, but I've done so with Peach.

My first peach wine was just basic.. 150lbs of peaches, some water, some acid blend, generic DAP yeast nutrient, no tannins or extras at all except for a couple pounds of golden raisins.. Fermented out fine, cleared out fine, looking pretty peach-colored.

This last batch of peach wine I made, I stretched 40lbs of peaches into 2.5 gallons of wine by adding a splash of water, but this time i used Go-Ferm and Fermaid-O.. I also threw in Booster Blanc, an inactivated yeast additive high in polysaccharides & FT Blanc Soft, a blend of tannins... The color difference is dramatic

I've been wanting to catch a strawberry sale, to see if my little theory holds up


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## geek (Jun 6, 2013)

I have a fruit wine with strawberry, pineapple, mango and blueberry; added also 3 chopped bananas in primary.
I looked pail a bit and yellowish at the beginning but sitting in carboy aging for a month and it is very nice redish color after it cleared.....so be patient...


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## Arne (Jun 7, 2013)

geek said:


> I have a fruit wine with strawberry, pineapple, mango and blueberry; added also 3 chopped bananas in primary.
> I looked pail a bit and yellowish at the beginning but sitting in carboy aging for a month and it is very nice redish color after it cleared.....so be patient...


 
Bet the blueberry is giving you most of the color. Arne.


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## Julie (Jun 7, 2013)

Deezil,

Since you did this to two different batches of peaches, what is to say it just wasn't the peach itself since they were from different growing seasons?


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## Turock (Jun 7, 2013)

We had orange colored strawberry wine for a few years until we started going to the Amish fruit auctions. And the advice from Jswordy is right on and exactly what we discovered.

The Amish sell berries that are a real deep red with no pale or white flesh in spots. They are deep red on the interior too. Unless you are real picky about what strawberries you use, you will always encounter orange colored strawberry. The flavor may be excellent, but the orange color kind of bothers the esthetics of how you think it SHOULD look. One way to get around that is to serve the wine in a colored wine glass, instead of a clear one.


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## Sammyk (Jun 7, 2013)

I agree not enough strawberries or not ripe enough. Ours came out like Jim and Turock a nice deep red color to give strawberry "appeal". While we are still aging and have not tried it since bottling, it was very promising then.


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## wood1954 (Jun 7, 2013)

In Wisconsin I've only used frozen strawberries and they are not ripe and turn out less than good orange wine. Yesterday in Wenatchee, WA i noticed their fresh strawberries at a grocery store,(from California) they were very red and ripe. I imagine when the growers know they are shipping them a long way they pick them less ripe so they survive the trip. Can't wait till i move here.


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## Deezil (Jun 7, 2013)

wood1954 said:


> Yesterday in Wenatchee, WA i noticed their fresh strawberries at a grocery store,(from California) they were very red and ripe.



You were in Wenatchee yesterday?! Thats where I'll be planting my vineyard 
Small world.. I have family all over that valley.

I miss home..

Julie, you could be right but.. I think the peaches in the first batch were of better quality than the peaches in this latest batch.. So I'm not so sure.. And the flavors/smells are a lot alike, its just this latest batch isnt as watery, has more mid-palette structure and overall aroma on top of holding its color better... Gonna take more batches before I know for sure about the additives.. Just my hunch thusfar..


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## jswordy (Jun 7, 2013)

Deezil said:


> Small world.. I have family all over that valley.



Small world, my Dad grew up in the Wenatchee/Moses Lake/Yakima area and I also have extended family out there.


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## Deezil (Jun 7, 2013)

I was born and raised there; it's the only Home I know..

Cant wait to put the vineyard in, in the hills on the South side of the city.. Damn-near Malaga

Who'da thunk


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## ncwine (Jun 7, 2013)

Possibly oxidation from not having a racking schedule or allowing too much oxygen to enter into the vat without a gas inhibitor to displace oxygen as u tampered with the wine


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## Danielmorgan (Jun 8, 2013)

may be it's for the same reason you have quoted here .. but i doubt there are more than one reasons.. i can't guess but there are more posts around reflecting the suggestions well..


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## saramc (Jun 8, 2013)

wood1954 said:


> In Wisconsin I've only used frozen strawberries and they are not ripe and turn out less than good orange wine. Yesterday in Wenatchee, WA i noticed their fresh strawberries at a grocery store,(from California) they were very red and ripe. I imagine when the growers know they are shipping them a long way they pick them less ripe so they survive the trip...



There really is a method to the madness when growing/harvesting fruit for mass market sales. If you purchased commercially packed frozen fruit which was 'unripe' you really need to let producing company know. I know it takes time to contact them, but if you don't complain they do not know. I am sure you know that frozen fruit is the fruit which is so perfectly ripe it will not survive shipment to market. It is frozen on site, or transported by refrigerated truck for flash freezing within so many hours. IQF, individually quick frozen, is usually the cream of the crop.

When you say unripe, could it be that this berry simply had a red exterior/white interior? Also, some cultivars never make it to stores in other states as 'fresh fruit' because they simply cannot withstand shipping delays, even in refrigerated trucks; they are sold by contract to area grocers and sold 'in the area'. Fresh is only as good as the person's judgement when harvesting.

And not all strawberry cultivars yield a red ferment. I could swear there was a good thread on this somewhere.


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