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

[M38A1]

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.

 

[Johnd]

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.

 

[M38A1]

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!

 

[meadmaker1]

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

 

[Johnd]

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”.

 

[M38A1]

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!

 

[Cxwgfamily]

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???

 

[JuiceMan]

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

 

[M38A1]

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!

 

[porkchopmessiah]

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

 

[M38A1]

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.

 

[HarvestWine]

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!

 

[drunton]

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.

 

[Ignoble Grape]

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!

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

 

[porkchopmessiah]

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

 

[M38A1]

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.

 

[pillswoj]

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

 

[M38A1]

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.....

 

[pillswoj]

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

 

[meadmaker1]

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.