strawberry wine color

[Smok1]

Bad lighting in my dungeon but heres the color of my strawberry rhubarb wine, left side.

Cant seem to get my photos right way up

 

[gordini]

I've made strawberry wine commercially for a few years. I've used only commercially available strawberries and in batches from 500 to 5,000 litres. I've tried many ways to maintain colour but have come to the conclusion that: strawberry anthocyanins are very weak and are easily affected by free sulphur and are also quickly bound to other phenolics in the wine, and drop out quickly to the bottom of the tank when settling. Altering pH can help a little, making the off brown/orange colour brighter. Higher temperature ferments help also. Blending some intensely coloured varieties such as alpine strawberries helps also. The only time I maintained colour is when I was making strawberry liqueur. I used a wild ferment on the pulp and took off the minimally fermented juice afgter 6 days and fortified it immediately. The ABV of 18% allowed the minimal use of sulphur.

 

[okwine]

I have been making strawberry wine for a lot of years now and the norm is orange. I have found that two to three pounds of blueberrys in a five gallon run makes a nice red strawberry wine.

Joe
Okwine

 

[Smok1]

I have been making strawberry wine for a lot of years now and the norm is orange. I have found that two to three pounds of blueberrys in a five gallon run makes a nice red strawberry wine.

Joe
Okwine

Oh that sounds like a great idea, i have access to lots of strawberrys and blueberrys. Thats my next batch.

 

[robert81650]

Does the blue berries change the taste in anyway of the true strawberry flavor?

 

[okwine]

If you have good fresh strawberries you will not taste the blueberries. The strawberry aroma will not be affected either.
Keep good notes and you can adjust the amount of blueberries in your next batch.

Joe
Okwine

 

[robert81650]

Thanks for info about adding few blueberries to batch. Will try that with current carboy by adding some fermented blueberry wine in small measured amounts.

 

[Forager]

Oh interesting! I've made strawberry wine a few times and the first time I made it, it came out a beautiful rose colour. I made a 3 gallon batch this year. It's currently just about finished in the primary (2 weeks), and it's a much darker, deeper red than last year, like the colour of cranberry juice. I used about 4.5 lbs of strawberries/gallon, so 13.5 lbs total.

I've had strawberry wine from a farmer's market and it was definitely orange. I thought at the time that it was due to the wine oxidizing a bit too much (it was a bit vinegary) but now I wonder if it comes down to the variety of strawberry used, and possibly how ripe it is. I get my strawberries from a u-pick farm and the variety they grow are red right down the core. Strawberries at the store almost always have a lot of white inside when you cut them down the middle. I guess those are a variety that ship well. The ones I picked would barely last one day on the counter. I'm wondering if strawberries with less red would have a harder time passing on their colour to the wine...