Strawberry sugar formula

[pwrose]

I am starting the process of 375 lbs of strawberries into juice for this years strawberry wine. I am planning to make 3 gallons worth without adding any sugar, instead I am going to condense the juice down enough to get the correct SG. With that in mind I need a formula on how to figure how much water/liquid needs to be removed in order to produce the correct SG.

Starting SG is unknown right now but will find out once I have enough juice to make the three gallon batch. So lets use some hypo numbers,,,,

Starting SG being 1.025
Final SG being 1.090 with a total of 3.5 gallons

How much should I start with in order to get the SG up to 1.090 and have 3-3.5 gallons of must.

Please post the formula so that I can use it in case the starting SG is different.

I will have another thread with pics of the whole process and totals of what I end up with from the 375 lbs of berries.

 

[Stressbaby]

Someone please jump in if you see an error here, but I would calculate the total sugar and then calculate the volume that amount of sugar must be distributed in to get 1.090. And I would use sugar in a gallon instead of sugar to a gallon...column two here.

So if you had 10 gallons at 1.020, with 5.8 ounces of sugar/gallon (from col two), then 5.8 x 10 = 58 oz sugar in the entire 10 gallon batch.

To get 1.090, you need 31.6 oz sugar/gallon, so that 10 gallons at 1.020 has enough sugar for 1.84 gallons at 1.090.

Confirmation needed.

 

[pwrose]

Lets see if I get this
10 gallons @ 1.025 = 75 oz of sugar (1 gallon @ 7.5 oz sugar)
1 gallons @ 1.090 = 31.6 oz of sugar
So 75 / 31.6 = 2.37 gallons from 10 gallons of must

 

[seth8530]

Leme give it a shot and then we can compare asnwers.

 

[saramc]

Out of curiosity, how are you planning to condense?

 

[pwrose]

The way I do my strawberries is by cooking them down to juice and removing pulp stems and whatever else is in the berries. I do this because with the amount of berries I deal with is too great to have to destem and clean each berry. By cooking them I can aquire the juice without a lot of work. So far it doesn't or should I say hasn't affected the wine made, ie off flavors or wine going bad.
Now to answer the question I plan to take whatever the amount of juice needed to get 3 gallons at 1.090 and cook on low heat until it is condensed down to the 3 gallons. The other option I was thinking was to take half that amount and condense it down even further and add it back to the uncooked or non condensed juice.
Right now its just a matter of getting it all juiced, LOL

 

[seth8530]

Hang on, I am in the progress of writing a short computer program to solve this.

 

[seth8530]

Ok, I have created a light weight calculator that should do you well. It is attached as .ZIP since the forum does not allow you to upload .EXE files. One thing to note is that their are many different cooked juice sugar concentrations and cooked down juice volumes that will give you good results. I wrote this code so that the sugar concentration of the cooked juice would not exceed the max SG on most hydrometers. So once it hits that mark then the program starts to increase the volume of the concentrate to add in.

Also, the code will calculate how much of your juice that you need to boil assuming it starts out at the same SG as the rest of your juice. Getting a volume of exactly 3.5 gallons will be difficult because of the condition I put on the hydrometer limitation.

UPDATE!!!

I am also gona go ahead and upload a version of the program that has a very high limit on the max sugar concentration of the concentrate. This version of the code will likely give you a boiled down strawberry juice that SG will be too high for your hydrometer to read.. But, the numbers should be good. This version will not require you to use so much juice and might actually be a lot more feasible for what you want to do.

I decided it would be better to give you two choices.

BTW reference this webpage for relations between SG and sugar concentrations in g/l

View attachment SethConcentrationProg.zip

View attachment SethConcentrationProg high limit on concentrate sugar level.zip

 

[jamesngalveston]

dang, would never had thought it from the funny hat guy...
you a coder also.

 

[pwrose]

says im missing a dll.
which dll's did you reference

edit:
says im missing
salfibc.dll

 

[seth8530]

Hmm, I did not reference any that I know of.. Leme take a look at what I did.

 

[seth8530]

Ok, Its the compiler I am using. I am going to test my solution on my brothers PC first before I subject you to it. But it involves you getting a .dll and putting it in your windows directory.

 

[seth8530]

Ok, I tested it and it works!

Go to this link http://dsavas.staff.shef.ac.uk/software/fortran/fortrand.htm and follow the instructoins under SALFORD WIN32 RUN TIME LIBRARY heading.

To run the program from the command line by typing CMD in search and the dragging and dropping the .EXE on top of the command line.. Tell me if that works and dont forget I have two different flavours of the program uploaded.

 

[pwrose]

ok got it to work except one issue
I put in the first SG then the liters then final sg
once I hit enter after the final sg it closes the program out, both of them. I don't get to see what it says for an answer

ok solved that problem, however wow what a calculation
starting sg 1.030
starting liters 12 (for 3 gallons)
final sg 1.090
says I need to start with 57 gallons and stop at .32 gallons
something don't add up there

 

[seth8530]

Make sure that you are entering the sugar concentration in units of g/l This is different than specific gravity.

So for instants I set initial sugar concentration to 83 g/l the target sweetness to 242 g/l and my initial volume to 12 liters.

Using the program with a high limit on the sugar concentration on the boiled juice I get start boil with 8.76 gallons and end boil with .9 gallons giving a total volume of 4.07 gallons.

Using the program with the hydrometer based limit I get

When I use the version with a limit on the sugar concentration based on the hydrometer using the same numbers I get
Start boil with 17.39 Gallons End boil with 3.86 Gallons and Final Volume of 7.032 gallons.

BTW I am uploading a new version of the code that is easier to start, all you need to do with this guy is double click it.


Tell me if this helps.

View attachment Concentrate.zip

 

[pwrose]

I think I got it all figured out now, Had to play with it for a few but got it now.
I got this (actual SG reading on strawberries that were juiced today was 1.030)
76 g/l on initial SG (about 1.030)
shooting for 3+ gallons so entered 12 liters in the program
240 g/l on final SG (about 1.090)
Starting must was 3.16 gallons
start boil with 9.8 gallons
end boil with .93 gallons
final volume was 4.1 gallons with a SG reading of 1.090

That sound bout right

 

[Deezil]

Just trying to understand..

So that means you'd have 3.16 gallons set aside.. Then take another 9.8 gallons and simmer it down to about 1 gallon... Then add that 1 gallon of concentrate to the 3.16 gallons of juice for 4.1 gallons @ 1.090?

How would the results differ from taking that same 9.8 + 3.16 = 12.96 gallons of juice and simmering it down to 1.030 / 4.1 gallons of juice? Same end point right?

Just wondering if the over-concentration of part of the must is going to affect the flavors, making them come across more "cooked" in the final wine..

 

[seth8530]

I think I got it all figured out now, Had to play with it for a few but got it now.
I got this (actual SG reading on strawberries that were juiced today was 1.030)
76 g/l on initial SG (about 1.030)
shooting for 3+ gallons so entered 12 liters in the program
240 g/l on final SG (about 1.090)
Starting must was 3.16 gallons
start boil with 9.8 gallons
end boil with .93 gallons
final volume was 4.1 gallons with a SG reading of 1.090

That sound bout right

Sounds like you about have it figured out! Try using both the programs and compare the different volumes and concentrations you would need.

Just trying to understand..

So that means you'd have 3.16 gallons set aside.. Then take another 9.8 gallons and simmer it down to about 1 gallon... Then add that 1 gallon of concentrate to the 3.16 gallons of juice for 4.1 gallons @ 1.090?

How would the results differ from taking that same 9.8 + 3.16 = 12.96 gallons of juice and simmering it down to 1.030 / 4.1 gallons of juice? Same end point right?

Just wondering if the over-concentration of part of the must is going to affect the flavors, making them come across more "cooked" in the final wine..

Just different methods of doing things is all. This way you do not have to heat nearly as much liquid thus less time to boil. Also, you can use this guy as an F pack calculator as well which is kinda neat. I imagine that heating the whole batch of wine might also have a different impact than just a small fraction of it as well..

 

[pwrose]

Just trying to understand..

So that means you'd have 3.16 gallons set aside.. Then take another 9.8 gallons and simmer it down to about 1 gallon... Then add that 1 gallon of concentrate to the 3.16 gallons of juice for 4.1 gallons @ 1.090?

How would the results differ from taking that same 9.8 + 3.16 = 12.96 gallons of juice and simmering it down to 1.030 / 4.1 gallons of juice? Same end point right?

Just wondering if the over-concentration of part of the must is going to affect the flavors, making them come across more "cooked" in the final wine..

My original plan was to do just that, and concentrate the must down to a 3 gallon batch with a SG of 1.090. That is where the question originally started, however it has taken a turn and now has two possible ways of doing it.
The first way of boiling it all down to the correct SG might take a little longer and in the long run might be better, or should I say more even if there were any off flavors show up. Since it was all cooked down together it should all taste the same right.
The second way would ensure you have the original flavors from the first 3 gallons, however the concentrated juice could add some unwanted flavors which would hopefully be offset by the original 3 gallons.

All in all I am thinking its probably 6 of one and half dozen of the other.

BTW thank you seth

 

[seth8530]

No problem, I like playing around with these things. I would be inclined to think you would be better off making a concentrated addition to your wine instead of boiling the whole thing down since I think that will help you preserve a lot of originally hat existed.. But, yea many ways to do the same thing. Perhaps, the more useful part of this program might end up be using it as a F-Pack calculator.