# My first Strawberry Wine w/a question....



## M38A1 (Aug 4, 2018)

I blame everyone on the board for my head-first dive into this new adventure of wine making. 

I started my first 3 gallon strawberry after reading many other threads on how folks are doing this here. Yet I've not read anything about my situation thus the question(s). I know enough to get started and get it through PF, but now what?

10lbs frozen Strawberries
Just shy of 6lbs light brown sugar
2.5 gallons spring water
3 cans Welches white grape concentrate
6tsp citric acid
3/4tsp grape tannin
3tsp yeast nutrient
Red Star Cotes Des Blancs wine yeast

Stirred vigorously twice a day to aerate/remove CO2 up through last night at .990

07/30 Starting SG 1.085 / pH 3.4
08/04 Ending SG .990 / pH 3.5 in the presence of CO2 (five days post yeast pitch)
Calculated I believe 12.47ABV

Question 1:
This has been by far the fastest "pitch to done" for me. I still have another day to check it to verify the three days/no movement criteria then let it sit two more days before I have to do something. And from what I've read, some ferments will go this fast so I'm not too concerned. It's done when it's done and it appears to be done - sort of like slow smoking meats. So this is not an anomaly, right?

Question 2:
It's certainly not red like I would have thought before I read everyone else's comments on the color shift to pink/orange/grapefruit. I think this is to be expected. Speaking of grapefruit, it smells like grapefruit, rolls across the tongue nicely like a wine should, has a grapefruit flavor and a grapefruit aftertaste. Any idea what's going on here? Start with strawberries and get grapefruit? I'm thinking on ways to do an F-Pack of sorts yet haven't done that yet either. Simmer down some frozen strawberries, strain the juice and add it to the 3gal carboy? That might restart fermentation, right?

Currently it's sitting in PF with a towel over it, strawberries in a mesh brewers bag. I've got a few days to ponder what's next. I had planned originally on racking the gross lees/pulp off then let it sit for a week, then re-racking while adding 3 Campden tabs and let that sit 45 days in an airlock carboy, then re-rack again 60 days, and again in 45 days, bottle and age 6 months.

What does the hive mind here say I should be doing about the grapefruit flavor, an F-Pack and racking/bottle/age question?

I can't thank you all enough for getting me to this point. I have a few batches of various flavors going and I owe that progress to everyone here.


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## Johnd (Aug 4, 2018)

Question 1: Yes, it’s done when it’s done, your hydro won’t lie. 

Question 2: Citrus flavor is probably from using straight citric acid instead of acid blend, it’s also young and unsweetened. Yes, and pack will likely restart fermentation, and adding a cooked one may set pectins in the fruit and make clearing difficult without pectic enzyme. You’ll need to use sorbate prior to adding anything with sugar in it if you’d like to prevent further AF. 

I’m no strawberry wine guru, but have read enough here to know that the flavors are light and adding water makes that more prevalent. Sweetening any fruit I’ve tends to bring out the natural flavors. Can’t tell you how to get rid of the citrus taste.


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## M38A1 (Aug 4, 2018)

Thanks, John. The acid blend was a mix from LD Carlson of food grade citric, magic and tartaric acid according to the label. I'm going to generally follow my above plan recording everything and see what happens after sitting a bit then stabilize/back-sweeten. This was fairly simple in ingredients and approach so I think it's good to see where it takes me and then the next batch I'll at least have a baseline from which to judge incremental changes. Again, thanks!


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## meadmaker1 (Aug 4, 2018)

The color sounds ok too. Sort of a dark reddish orange is what i expect.


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## Johnd (Aug 5, 2018)

M38A1 said:


> Thanks, John. The acid blend was a mix from LD Carlson of food grade citric, magic and tartaric acid according to the label. I'm going to generally follow my above plan recording everything and see what happens after sitting a bit then stabilize/back-sweeten. This was fairly simple in ingredients and approach so I think it's good to see where it takes me and then the next batch I'll at least have a baseline from which to judge incremental changes. Again, thanks!



So you used acid blend? Your original post says “6tsp citric acid”.


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## M38A1 (Aug 5, 2018)

Johnd said:


> So you used acid blend? Your original post says “6tsp citric acid”.



Terribly sorry for the confusion.... I should have said "acid blend". yeah, it's the details that I struggle with but am learning!


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## Cxwgfamily (Aug 6, 2018)

You mentioned that the color was light. Your recipe indicated 10 lbs strawberries for a 3 gal batch. I normally use around 4 to 5 lbs per gal. I am currently finishing up my last strawberry batch of the season and only had 12 to 14 pounds for a 5 gallon batch. The color is lighter than my previous batches. I did this lower lbs per gallon batch intentionally for unrelated reasons to this thread. You may want to up the fruit amount in your next batches. 
What is the thoughts of the group on this aspect of his batch???


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## JuiceMan (Aug 7, 2018)

A fairly nice and easy Strawberry Juice Concentrate addition right here: https://goo.gl/3QN6mZ


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## M38A1 (Aug 7, 2018)

It's racked now and after 24hrs seems to be settling out nicely revealing a bit darker shade than originally in the PF. Or maybe it's because there's a gray wall behind it? 

The juice concentrate seems like an option for down the road when I get to that point. Thx!


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## porkchopmessiah (Aug 8, 2018)

Hi, Im new to the site, but I am also making a strawberry at this time, Id love to compare notes as im not really sure how its coming along.

This is the first wine Im making, though there is a place by me called that does wine making where they supply the facility and equipment, you decide the grapes and its sort of a "wine making for dummies" they do all the hard stuff. Mainly you de stem/ crush rack a few times and bottle. I've done this twice and now im trying this myself. The reason I chose strawberry is I had enough plants in my yard to get close to 100lbs in the spring, froze them as the ripened and figured why not..what else would I do with them (already have jam out the ears)

So:
14lbs fruit
added sugar to about 1.087 sg about 10lbs sugar
8 tsp acid blend
1 tsp wine tannin
yeast nutrient as per bottle instructions
water added to have total 6 gallon must.

On 8/ I got it out of primary fermenter into carboy with following measurements
SG @ 1.09......its still perculating today, I know im not quite there yet
titration: .67 tartaric
ph about 2.5-3 ..I want to get a narrow range paper, was using what I use at work which is full spectrum.

I also tasted it, I couldn't resist....didn't taste much like strawberry.. I see hear that back sweetening may help..

the questions I have are mainly in the ph/tartaric measurements.. I don't really know where I should be and what the effect on taste will be if I adjust up. Ive been told the acidity gives mouth feel...only problem is I have no idea what that is. Ive been to a lot of wine tastings only to realize that my taste buds are essentially blue collar and don't really get the adjectives they use. Im relying on the scientific measurables save me.

Also any advice you guys can offer on the back sweetening with potassium sorbate would be appreciated.
im also doing a peach at the same time....thought of blending a small portion from both, any thoughts, suggestions or ideas are welcome! Glad I found this site, lots of like minded individuals


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## M38A1 (Aug 9, 2018)

Welcome to the site....

Man, I wish I knew more so I could help you out, but I'm pretty much in the same boat. Trial by fire and the fine folks on the board here have gotten me this far.


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## HarvestWine (Aug 9, 2018)

I find that strawberries are one of the hardest fruits to get a true flavour. My best tips:
1) Use really ripe flavourful berries. The quality of the berry is very important. If it doesn’t take like a sweet ripe berry in your mouth, it won’t taste like that in a wine. 
2) Use more berries than the recipe calls for. I use 1 gallon of berries for 1 gallon of wine. Not sure what that works out to for weight. 
3) Make sure your ABV won’t be too high in your final wine. The taste of the alcohol will overpower the delicate strawberry flavour. 
4) Strawberries are meant to be sweet. If you try to make a dry wine, you might be disappointed. Pull a sample and backsweeten it and compare. 

Cheers!


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## drunton (Aug 9, 2018)

I suggest reading the threads on this board and you can learn a ton of useful information about when and what to add. 

Particularly, I read all the posts in:
Danger Dave’s Dragon Blood
Tweaking cheap wine kits

These two are full of amazing details and will form the foundation for years of experiments. I keep going back to them.


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## Ignoble Grape (Aug 10, 2018)

HarvestWine said:


> I find that strawberries are one of the hardest fruits to get a true flavour. My best tips:
> 1) Use really ripe flavourful berries. The quality of the berry is very important. If it doesn’t take like a sweet ripe berry in your mouth, it won’t taste like that in a wine.
> 2) Use more berries than the recipe calls for. I use 1 gallon of berries for 1 gallon of wine. Not sure what that works out to for weight.
> 3) Make sure your ABV won’t be too high in your final wine. The taste of the alcohol will overpower the delicate strawberry flavour.
> ...


I'm picking up a few flats on Monday - will be trying this out!


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## porkchopmessiah (Sep 13, 2018)

going to rack this coming week and backsweeten with strawberry juice....just curious is oxygen exposure is a great an issue as with grapes....had more headspace that I wanted in the above pic


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## M38A1 (Sep 13, 2018)

Little update on my first strawberry....

On 8/5 I racked to a carboy out of PF at three days of .990. Tossed three crushed Campden tablets in there and let it sit for five weeks. This past weekend I racked it to another carboy with 1/8th tsp k-meta. Couldn't resist a taste and my impression was a bit on the 'sour' side. I suppose that could be 'tart' too. Still has that bit of grapefruit hint. I'm leaning towards letting this run 30 days or so, then re-rack. It's certainly not clearing much anymore and still remains somewhat cloudy. Thought about tossing some sparkleoid at it and see what happens.

pork chop - wish I could help you on your O2 question more. I got lucky and had a tight headspace on mine.


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## pillswoj (Sep 14, 2018)

M38A1 said:


> Little update on my first strawberry....
> 
> On 8/5 I racked to a carboy out of PF at three days of .990. Tossed three crushed Campden tablets in there and let it sit for five weeks. This past weekend I racked it to another carboy with 1/8th tsp k-meta. Couldn't resist a taste and my impression was a bit on the 'sour' side. I suppose that could be 'tart' too. Still has that bit of grapefruit hint. I'm leaning towards letting this run 30 days or so, then re-rack. It's certainly not clearing much anymore and still remains somewhat cloudy. Thought about tossing some sparkleoid at it and see what happens.
> 
> pork chop - wish I could help you on your O2 question more. I got lucky and had a tight headspace on mine.



I use to make a bunch of strawberry wine every year, if you want strawberry taste you definitely have to backsweeten it, dry it does not taste good. for clearing you will need to hit it with pectic enzyme, there is a reason strawberries make good jam


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## M38A1 (Sep 14, 2018)

pillswoj said:


> I use to make a bunch of strawberry wine every year, if you want strawberry taste you definitely have to backsweeten it, dry it does not taste good. for clearing you will need to hit it with pectic enzyme, there is a reason strawberries make good jam



The strawberry has been racked a couple times now and on it's way to finishing at some point. Can you add Pectic Enzyme at this point? I thought it was only used on the front end prior/during to PF. Still learning here.....


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## pillswoj (Sep 14, 2018)

Yep if it is still cloudy hit it with pectic now,.


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## meadmaker1 (Sep 14, 2018)

porkchopmessiah said:


> going to rack this coming week and backsweeten with strawberry juice....just curious is oxygen exposure is a great an issue as with grapes....had more headspace that I wanted in the above pic


Compare the juice from thawed berries to your wine. There is something that happens to strawberries that taste wonderful in the feild, after cutting them up and placing them in a bowl in the fridge. With out adding sugar they dont make yummy short cake. The same happens in wine. Strawberries aren't unique to this phenomenon. Adding juice may help but sugar will help more. 
Ive started adding pectic enzyme to juices 12 to 24 hrs before adding, i think it helps it clear faster. 
I recomend waiting to judge taste for at least a week after sweeting or flavoring. Others sweeten just prior to bottling. I think it takes time for the flavors blend.


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## meadmaker1 (Sep 14, 2018)

@porkchopmessiah 
To help a friend understand tasting,i used black coffee, black tee, and green tea. These are flavors he thought he knew but after smelling sipping and swirling, the flavors to look for and mouth feel made more sense to him. Tea worked to explain dryness as well especially after sweetening each just a touch. Not enough to call it sweet but enough to bring the flavors together. A touch of sugar reallly balances the dryness of a strong black tea


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## Kiwi (Sep 17, 2018)

Will throw another suggestion your way. 

I have been making strawberry wine for many years in a Rosé style that is dry, quite thin but a family favourite. The smell is like strawberry lollies and when chilled to white wine temperature, on a nice summers day a bottle goes down extremely well. 

Pictures are of this years 10litres and a bottle from last year.

The secret to it's success is time and cold stabilisation. 9 months minimum from start to bottling.


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## porkchopmessiah (Sep 19, 2018)

So I just got my Mini jet filter today from amazon...was pretty ez to use..i went straight to the second filter since i had racked once already.. 
Added the sorbate and k meta and will let that sit 2 days before back sweetening juice sweated juice.
My ABV is currently at 12.5 did some taste testing and should be around 11 after adding the clear juice..
Just waiting to get my pH meter from Amazon to double check my pH...I dont trust my titration skills or the pH paper...got conflicting results..
Overall very happy with how my first attempt came out...but look to improve with all the knowledge and help you all have given.
Here's before and after filtering


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## meadmaker1 (Sep 20, 2018)

Adding juice will cloud it again. 
The filter looks to work amazing. But i think i would wait till additions were done.
Head space should be addressed. I would go to smaller carboy and an appropriate vessel for any that doesnt fit


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## porkchopmessiah (Sep 20, 2018)

meadmaker1 said:


> Adding juice will cloud it again.
> The filter looks to work amazing. But i think i would wait till additions were done.
> Head space should be addressed. I would go to smaller carboy and an appropriate vessel for any that doesnt fit


So my plan is this...
I have to top off with either a pinot grigio or sauv blanc (if anybody has a better idea holler)...will probably need about 2 cups after the juice if my math and the marks I made on the carboy are accurate recheck pH and adjust if needed (shooting for 3.6 to 3.8?) Then let it sit for few months and filter with fine filter before bottling....
Do you think the filter will eliminate need for fining agent/sparkalloid?


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## meadmaker1 (Sep 20, 2018)

I use gravity.
I admit i understand what is meant by using a filter to polish. That is a gorgeous color, i would hate to stain it with a dark red. But to stay true to making wine that tastes good i wont advise for or against topping with wine 
I always shoot for more than my car boy will hold.
Primary 7-8 gallons in brute
Rack to 6 gallon carboy
Then to a 5 gal to get off lees
I have a small 5 for third rack (was initially pissed at its size now its a tresure)
Then to threes and gallons if need be

I have to many various sized smaller than a gallon to list but keep left overs in them for topping off, and because of variaty of sizes can easily keep them topped


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## porkchopmessiah (Sep 20, 2018)

meadmaker1 said:


> I use gravity.
> I admit i understand what is meant by using a filter to polish. That is a gorgeous color, i would hate to stain it with a dark red. But to stay true to making wine that tastes good i wont advise for or against topping with wine
> I always shoot for more than my car boy will hold.
> Primary 7-8 gallons in brute
> ...


Well I'm am working on my equipment...this was the first ever attempt at wine making...my primary is the bucket that came with the kit I got as gift...now have 2 5 gall, 2 6gal, want to get something about 20 gal for primary as I get better at this..filter and good ph meter my most recent buys...honestly I didn't think my first crack at this would be as good as it was...did strawberry bc I grew enough in my yard to make it without spending money on something I thought there was a high probability of screwing up..lol


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## meadmaker1 (Sep 20, 2018)

With enough glass wear you wont need the filter as much. You will be busy enough to let the crud to fall naturally. 
I think i would wait till you are satisfied with the taste and ready to bottle to filter.
Filter cost and possibility of contamination from yet another thing to clean need to be considered.

I totally understand playing with a new toy, my bad , i mean working with a new tool, but wine needs age and all you need for that is a calendar.


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## meadmaker1 (Sep 20, 2018)

All of the people i know that think they failed at wine making, simply judged success when the bubbles stopped. So yea yuck,, if they took the time to read just a little and waited a while they might still be making and teaching me instead of the other way around.


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## Scooter68 (Sep 20, 2018)

Yesterday I opened a bottle of Strawberry that is over 2 years old. It's been very disappointing up to now. I was prepared to pour it down the drain after giving it a shot.
_*Surprise, Surprise *_(Aka Gomer Pyle) It tastes pretty doggone decent now. It's a bit on the light side and I still won't make any more but at least all was not lost. Still have 3 more bottles of it.


*The point *- When you are ready to give up, give it time, LOTS of time and you may just be glad you did. These bottles were in the corner of my wine rack to remind me to not get too proud of myself and all those successes. Now it;s a reminder of how valuable patience is in this hobby. 
(I also have about 3 bottles of Apricot that's a bit younger and far less than pleasing. Guess I have to let it sit another year or two.)


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## meadmaker1 (Sep 21, 2018)

Scooter68 said:


> Yesterday I opened a bottle of Strawberry that is over 2 years old. It's been very disappointing up to now. I was prepared to pour it down the drain after giving it a shot.
> _*Surprise, Surprise *_(Aka Gomer Pyle) It tastes pretty doggone decent now. It's a bit on the light side and I still won't make any more but at least all was not lost. Still have 3 more bottles of it.
> 
> 
> ...


I totally agree. In the beginning I dreamed up a citrus mead that i developed by reading listening and sheer full speed ahead. It was awful. 
I read about off flavors fading and the one purpose of bulk aging being ability to make adjustments. Ehhh what ever tasted bad even after adding things that did help. My intent was to turn it to vinager. Pushed to the back hit with kmeta and my dad passed away keeping me busy for awhile. After being asked what about that one while sharing a tasting session with my aunt i pulled her a sample of it and she said it was her favorite, so I sampled it myself. Holy crap what happened. Long storey short i entered it in competition and earned gold. Of course an early batch with no starting recipie and poor to nonexistent notes, so many lessons learned the hard way.


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