Getting ready to bottle my Strawberry wine. 3 questions

[scottyg354]

Ok guys, first off I made a strawberry wine about a month and a half ago. Primary for a week. Secondary for a month and just re racked it this past Saturday, stabilized and back sweetened (with an F-Pack I made). Anyhow, I have 3 questions:

-Is it ok to using a clearing agent after I back sweetened?

-The wine is still has a pretty strong alcohol taste to it, along with flavors that don't seem to blended, with the mend overtime?

-Also, if I bottle this weekend, will the wine be drinkable by June/July as I was hoping to have this ready for the summer.

 

[Sammyk]

My strawberry wine is 8 months old and nowhere near drinkable yet. In my opinion you need to let it age more in the bulk. I used many pounds of fresh strawberries. I plan to let it age for a year and then sample again.
Clarity does not mean that is ready to drink.

 

[scottyg354]

I know clarity doesn't mean its ready. Mine is a lighter bodied table strawberry wine. Not a real heavy bodied desert wine. I used the vinters harvest juice for 5 gallons. I have a blackberry that is heavier bodied that I plan on bulk aging longer. My main concern was using a clearing agent after back sweetening.

 

[Scott]

Ok guys, first off I made a strawberry wine about a month and a half ago. Primary for a week. Secondary for a month and just re racked it this past Saturday, stabilized and back sweetened (with an F-Pack I made). Anyhow, I have 3 questions:

-Is it ok to using a clearing agent after I back sweetened? Yes but will clear on it's own

-The wine is still has a pretty strong alcohol taste to it, along with flavors that don't seem to blended, with the mend overtime? Yes give it a year

-Also, if I bottle this weekend, will the wine be drinkable by June/July as I was hoping to have this ready for the summer.

Not really, needs a good year to start coming around. Don't bottle too early

Good luck

 

[REDBOATNY]

Agree with above post. You have time to make some skeeter pee which can be flavored with different fruit juice concentrates. This would be ready to consume by the time you stated.

 

[scottyg354]

Can you guys send me a link for some skeeter pee?

 

[scottyg354]

NM Just searched for one. Any recipes that don't include tons of lemon/lime juice. That would kill me GERD.

 

[Sammyk]

Scotty we have the same problem with acid reflux. I made SP 3 different times and each time I reduced the lemon that was in the recipe. The last recipe I only used one small bottle at the beginning. That did help but still bothered us, just not as bad. I stopped making it because I had to give away all 3 batches. I did have rave reviews on it from our families.

Check out Dragon Blood that Dave makes, I am thinking he did not use any lemon at all - I am not sure. There are a bunch of threads on here about it.

 

[Sammyk]

Scotty look at the Island Mist or Orchard Breezin', they are early drinkers and are very good.

I have made 4, kiwi/melon, blueberry shiraz, pear/kiwi, black raspberry. We like them all.

Bump the sugar up - add 4 pounds of inverted sugar to get the ABV up. If you follow the directions the ABV is like 6.9. What I did was hold back 2 quarts of the water you need to add to the primary and inverted 4 pounds of sugar. My OG was around 1.080

There are a lot of threads on here about those type kits, while they are a summer wine to drink on ice, they are good for all year with the higher ABV.

I honestly do not think you will go wrong with this type of early drinker. Everyone who has tried them, loved them.

 

[Sammyk]

One more piece of advice if you do not mind. With the Vinters Harvest do 3 gallons instead of 5, add some bananas and or raisins so it is not so thin.

I did 4 of the Vinters Harvest when I was "new". They were thin and not much flavor even doing a 3 gallon batch. I doctored them up with matching pure extract and inverted sugar. Strawberry extract in your case.

Make sure it is pure extract and not artificial. Look up Olive Nation. I threw away a bottle of blueberry that was artificial and then bought pure blueberry extract and that made a world of difference.

 

[scottyg354]

What I did when backsweetning was simmer 4 pound of strawberries in 3 cups of water and 2.5 cups of sugar 1/4 TSP acid blend. made a pretty nice flavored F Pack. Strawberry taste is there slightly up from, but big in the background and aftertaste.

 

[scottyg354]

I have a vinters harvest blackberry that I did a 3 gallon batch of.

 

[Sammyk]

How long ago did you start it? You might be able to still add some ripe bananas or raisins to bring up the body of the wine.