# strawberry wine color



## Huh? (Jun 6, 2011)

I just made strawberry wine for the first time so I'm not sure what to expect. When I racked it the second time, I noticed the color had an orange hue to it. I was expecting a pink color. I took precautions to prevent oxidation and the taste is good. I've not seen strawberry wine before. Is this a normal color?


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## ffemt128 (Jun 6, 2011)

Huh? said:


> I just made strawberry wine for the first time so I'm not sure what to expect. When I racked it the second time, I noticed the color had an orange hue to it. I was expecting a pink color. I took precautions to prevent oxidation and the taste is good. I've not seen strawberry wine before. Is this a normal color?



100% normal. My batch last year started a brilliant red then through the fermentation process it ended an orangish color also.


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## winemaker_3352 (Jun 6, 2011)

I agree - mine did the same thing. I think i am going to try and add more fruit in for an f-pac to aid in the color.


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## Flem (Jun 6, 2011)

I've heard of some people using sugar free Kool Aid to add color to wines that otherwise have little or no color.


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## MN-winer (Jun 8, 2011)

Mine turned orange too. Tastes like strawberry. I'm glad someone asked this so I feel better now too.


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## Ken914 (Jun 17, 2011)

My strawberry wine had an orange tint to it, as well. I always attributed that to using dark brown sugar.

Learned something new! Thanks!


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## docanddeb (Jun 18, 2011)

I've never seen true red strawberry wine... it's always been orange!

Debbie


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## dukesbb37 (Jun 19, 2011)

couldn't you add red food coloring if you were trying to make it red?


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## Javila (Jun 20, 2011)

dukesbb37 said:


> couldn't you add red food coloring if you were trying to make it red?



That's what I did and I swear it tastes much better!  Just be careful because it is very concentrated. Try a 2-3 drops first, you can always add more later (week or months) if needed for presentation purposes.


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## billh23 (Jun 26, 2011)

I'm glad you asked this question, because I was just trying to figure out if I had did something wrong myself. Mine is a gallon.. used 3.5 pounds of berries and 1/2 cup of raisins. Fermented for a week and racked to a jug which it's been in for about two weeks now.


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## Ken914 (Jun 28, 2011)

Bill, with 3.5# of berries, I'd recommend a flavor pack. Maybe another 3 pounds, and simmer the juice down to concentrate it.


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## mmadmikes1 (Jun 29, 2011)

Adding a f-Pak will also add great color. I f-paked my strawberry today and it went from orange to RED. Have another 40#s and will use all 40 in a 6 gallon batch with 5 pounds left for an f-pak


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## morpart (Jun 9, 2017)

I just made the must for my first batch. My must does not seem to have any color at all however. When I took the hydrometer reading (1.12, way too high for what I was aiming) the liquid didn't even have even a faint trace of pink, though the fruit bits floating appear to have had all of the color leached out of them from sitting. The recipe I followed called for 8 lbs of strawberries (came out to about a gallon mashed), 6 lbs of sugar (a lot in my opinion), and a gallon and a quarter of water. I've added yeast and the other additives (yeast nutrient, pectic acid, tannin{which was enough to turn the whole thing more brown than it was red btw}) this morning on the off chance that it's not a complete fluke, but i'm worried that the color is gone because it's so diluted by water and sugar.

from what I've seen the must should have at lease a little color, even this early on, especially since the fruit seems to have lost almost all of it's color. Any clue as to what is wrong, and is it even worth continuing? or am I just fermenting sugar water?


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## Scooter68 (Jun 9, 2017)

The most natural way to add color without a lot of fuss is to use some Dark Sweet cherries in your initial must. I did this with a peach wine last summer. I wanted to get that reddish/gold color of a peach so for a 4 gallon batch I used 20 dark sweet cherries. It didn't change it a lot but it did move it closer to a darker golden color. AND that many cherries are not going to alter the taste at all. (That works out to 1 cherry per bottle) If I'd known I would have doubled the number. Just pit the cherries and mash them well before adding to the must/


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## hounddawg (Jun 11, 2017)

just double your fruit, mine comes out red but I use way more pounds of fruit then the recipe calls for
Dawg


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## robert81650 (Jun 11, 2017)

Got 15 gallons of strawberry going now, true it will be somewhat orange in color. But this year made and F-pak out of 5 pounds of berries per 5 gallons of wine and color is much better. Also hopeful for more of fruity strawberry taste. Using F-pak made with sugar to back sweet with.


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## Rmarr (Jun 14, 2017)

For you guys adding fpac's, are you all adding them during the primary or secondary or after stabilizing? I just took 4 lbs frozen strawberries, added 1cup sugar and some pectic, put that in a nylon bag and let the clear juice run out for about 36hours. Added that back to my 6gal after I stabilized it. So far so good, but would like to try other methods on fpacs.


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## Pavel314 (Jun 14, 2017)

Why did you add raisins?


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## morpart (Jun 14, 2017)

Just an update, racked into carboy from the primary fermenting bucket. went from a brownish orange to an almost koolaid red within just 2 days without adding or altering anything else. standard gravity has gone down slightly, but I think fermentation had been stalled due to the high sugar content.


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## BernardSmith (Jun 14, 2017)

I think the loss of color when making strawberry wine highlights a couple of flaws. 
1. If the pH is too high (the must is too alkaline) then I think that the color becomes unstable whereas if the wine is more acidic the molecules that provide the color (anthocyanins, I think they are called ) are more fixed in place... https://winemakermag.com/1226-late-malolactic-color-question-wine-wizard (it's the second question ). 
I also think that a lack of tannin in this wine allows the color to shift. So 
2. If your must contained more tannins (strawberries, I think, are tannin poor) then you might find that the color would be more stable. Adding color removes the symptom (the poor color) but that in and of itself won't make the wine more acidic or more tannic..


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## Smok1 (Jun 14, 2017)

Bad lighting in my dungeon but heres the color of my strawberry rhubarb wine, left side.

Cant seem to get my photos right way up


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## gordini (Jun 14, 2017)

I've made strawberry wine commercially for a few years. I've used only commercially available strawberries and in batches from 500 to 5,000 litres. I've tried many ways to maintain colour but have come to the conclusion that: strawberry anthocyanins are very weak and are easily affected by free sulphur and are also quickly bound to other phenolics in the wine, and drop out quickly to the bottom of the tank when settling. Altering pH can help a little, making the off brown/orange colour brighter. Higher temperature ferments help also. Blending some intensely coloured varieties such as alpine strawberries helps also. The only time I maintained colour is when I was making strawberry liqueur. I used a wild ferment on the pulp and took off the minimally fermented juice afgter 6 days and fortified it immediately. The ABV of 18% allowed the minimal use of sulphur.


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## okwine (Jun 15, 2017)

I have been making strawberry wine for a lot of years now and the norm is orange. I have found that two to three pounds of blueberrys in a five gallon run makes a nice red strawberry wine.

Joe
Okwine


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## Smok1 (Jun 15, 2017)

okwine said:


> I have been making strawberry wine for a lot of years now and the norm is orange. I have found that two to three pounds of blueberrys in a five gallon run makes a nice red strawberry wine.
> 
> Joe
> Okwine



Oh that sounds like a great idea, i have access to lots of strawberrys and blueberrys. Thats my next batch.


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## robert81650 (Jun 16, 2017)

Does the blue berries change the taste in anyway of the true strawberry flavor?


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## okwine (Jun 17, 2017)

If you have good fresh strawberries you will not taste the blueberries. The strawberry aroma will not be affected either. 
Keep good notes and you can adjust the amount of blueberries in your next batch. 

Joe 
Okwine


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## robert81650 (Jun 18, 2017)

Thanks for info about adding few blueberries to batch. Will try that with current carboy by adding some fermented blueberry wine in small measured amounts.


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## Forager (Jul 23, 2017)

Oh interesting! I've made strawberry wine a few times and the first time I made it, it came out a beautiful rose colour. I made a 3 gallon batch this year. It's currently just about finished in the primary (2 weeks), and it's a much darker, deeper red than last year, like the colour of cranberry juice. I used about 4.5 lbs of strawberries/gallon, so 13.5 lbs total. 

I've had strawberry wine from a farmer's market and it was definitely orange. I thought at the time that it was due to the wine oxidizing a bit too much (it was a bit vinegary) but now I wonder if it comes down to the variety of strawberry used, and possibly how ripe it is. I get my strawberries from a u-pick farm and the variety they grow are red right down the core. Strawberries at the store almost always have a lot of white inside when you cut them down the middle. I guess those are a variety that ship well. The ones I picked would barely last one day on the counter. I'm wondering if strawberries with less red would have a harder time passing on their colour to the wine...


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