fast strawberry??!!

[mala54]

could this be ready to bottle already
started with:
3/4 gallon of fresh strawberry pulp
4 1/2 gal. water
12 lbs of sugar
Red Star Cote des Blancs yeast
beginning SG 1.100

It fermented and foamed vigorously for 10 days
then I racked it to 5 gal. secondary
SG was 1.014

while in the secondary there has been very little signs of fermentation

but now(3o days later) the SG is down to 0.990!!!

Is this wine ready to be bottled??

Also, I would like to sweeten it some
How can I sweeten the wine at this point???

thank you for any help and advice

 

[skiboarder72]

Rack it into another carboy, leave the sediment behind.

Degass.

Add your sulfites.

Sweeten to taste using dissolved sugar.

Add sorbate.

Let it sit until it clears.

Rack it over again.

Let it sit another 1-2 months.

Add sulfites.

Then bottle!

 

[mmadmikes1]

first: yes it is finished fermenting, ready for bottles is a differnt subject. You need to stablize it now, Use 1/2 teasspoon of Kmet and someone will correct me if I am wrong but 3/4 teaspoon per gallon of sorbate( I am not at home to check)allow to set for at least a day then take aout a gallon and sweeten it to taste,. Keep trak of home much you add. If it gets to sweet you dont add as much per gallon as you did during testing. Remember sweeting seems to come out more with age so go alittle light. I would allow it to set in Carboy for a Min of a month berfore bottling because more will settle out , if it is already clear. If it isnt clear you can add a finning agent likr isoglass to speed the clearing, but the wine will clear on its own if you can wait. Have you degassed. It will not clear very well if you havent.

 

[Tom]

Dont seam like enough strawberry. What do you mean 3/4 gal of pulp?
You need 5-6#'s per gallon
12# of sugar us SUPER HIGH!
How does it taste? looks like rocket fuel to me.

 

[mala54]

how do I degass?
what is the purpose??

 

[mmadmikes1]

something is messed up Tom she said SG was 1.100 and it would have been a lot higher if she had put 12# in.
Degassing if releasing the dissolved co2 from wine and removing it. Without a degassing spinner thingy do do what I do, shake the hell out of it. I put the bung with a hole in it and shake, stop and move finger off hole to release gas. You will hear it. I do this over and over till I dont hear anymore gas release. The purpose is to remove the gas, It makes wine taste weird and hold partials in suspension you want to settle out. You also dont want bottles to uncork themselves in warm weather. Tom is right ,I hoped you just typed out what you made or that will be sweet alcohol water with a hint of red. You needed way more berries.f that is the case, before you add Kmet and sorbate add more fruit like 25 pounds and let it ferments some more

 

[myakkagldwngr]

I also think it might be weak tasting.
I'm picturing the 3/4 of a gallon of pulp compared to the 5 gallons and it just isn't enough strawberries.
My fresh strawberries were 80 pounds cleaned and they filled a 32 gallon garbage can 3/4 full while they sat with the pectin enzyme. I got about 15 gallons of liquid out of those after covering with about 10 gallons of water.
Even that was still a little weak, so I have F-pac'd it twice.

 

[mala54]

are you guys suggesting that I put it all back into a primary bucket and add more strawberry and start the whole process over??

how much strawberry and do I add more sugar and yeast??

 

[Tom]

or toss it!
You started way to LOW on fruit and way to HIGH sugar. Your call..
It would be hard for a newB to fix.

 

[mmadmikes1]

Toms right, we have all tossed batches and this one will be a cheap one to throw out. I like inexpensive mistakes the best

 

[Tom]

Toms right, we have all tossed batches and this one will be a cheap one to throw out. I like inexpensive mistakes the best

YES toss. Now before you start again ask here first. You just were misinformed who told you what to do.
Remember 5-6#'s of fruit per gallon

 

[myakkagldwngr]

I'm no pro, but the only suggestion I could add is when you take the 5 or 6 pounds of fruit, don't think immediately that you need to add a gallon of water.
Use just enough to cover the fruit in the primary and then let the berries give you some juice too.
If you immediately add the gallon, then you might get a quart or so of berrie juice, now you're up to a gallon plus.
For an example, I had 28 pounds of black berries. I used only 2 1/2 gallons of water to cover them. The I used an additional 3/4 gallon of water to boil and dissolve the sugar in. But now that I've pressed the pulp bag, the berry juice up my total close to 5 1/2 gallons.

 

[Tom]

This is true but;
Making fruit wines you will have alot of sediment. Multiple rackings will bring this down to below a gallon. Also if making a f-pac and back sweetening will increase the volume. When I make 6 gallon of fruit wine I use 6 gallons of water
Example I made Plum wine fro. canned plums from Aldi. Used the syrup and added enough water to make 6 gallons Then, I added the plums. Upon racking I got 6 1/2 gal of wine. Already you can see more sediment so I will be adding the extra in future rackings

 

[SherrysJubilee]

Toms right, we have all tossed batches and this one will be a cheap one to throw out. I like inexpensive mistakes the best

Well that's a shame, I was hoping it wouldn't have to be tossed, because if it was ok, I would try it... simply because it was so fast!
Sherr

 

[mala54]

I tossed it

think I'll try again, but use fruit concentrate fron Vinter's Harvest this time
instead of locally grown fresh berries and
I'll follow their directions carefully

 

[SherrysJubilee]

I tossed it

think I'll try again, but use fruit concentrate fron Vinter's Harvest this time
instead of locally grown fresh berries and
I'll follow their directions carefully

Mala, How did it work out?

 

[mala54]

it is in the secondary fermentor and doing very well
not ready to bottle yet
it's just sitting there getting better and better!!