Strawberry Wine Help

[AJH89]

Alright second day in a row of a SG reading at 1.000. Tomorrow is the moment of truth.

 

[sour_grapes]

Alright second day in a row of a SG reading at 1.000. Tomorrow is the moment of truth.

And there is absolutely no rush on this, you know!

 

[KCCam]

At SG=1.000, this wine could be 18-20% ABV. It has likely stalled from high alcohol with some residual sugar. I believe @AJH89 needs to add sorbate, or will the high ABV prevent refermentation? Also, without sorbate, is there a chance that fermentation will restart if he tops up a future racking with water or wine, which would drop the ABV slightly. Or does the high alcohol actually kill all the yeast?

 

[Scooter68]

Well to borrow a Clint Eastwood line - "Do You Feel Lucky?" Once it's finished I would still add the sorbate, unless you are 100% certain of the alcohol level being at least 18%. No harm in adding it AND you don't have to add it now. Let it age a while. Just add the K-Meta and wait until shortly before bottling to add the sorbate.

 

[AJH89]

Alright fellas, 3 days of the same SG reading, I have racked it over to my 5 gallon carboy. @Scooter68 my plan is to add K-Meta right now (how much though?) Let my wine naturally drop sediment for a month and then add sparkalloid, let sit for a week, maybe 2 and then add one more dose of kmeta with potassium Sorbate before bottling. What's your take? Keep in mind I have already added 5 5 k-meta tablets on day 1 and it's been 4 weeks from start till now. She's sure is starting to look pretty though!

 

[Scooter68]

1/4 tsp of K-Meta powder or 5 Campden tablets crushed and dissolved into a few ozs of water. That's all for 3 months then rack and repeat. You can rack again in 2-3 weeks if there is a lot of sediment but you don't need to add any more K-meta that soon. Just repeat that dosage every 3 months.

 

[AJH89]

1/4 tsp of K-Meta powder or 5 Campden tablets crushed and dissolved into a few ozs of water. That's all for 3 months then rack and repeat. You can rack again in 2-3 weeks if there is a lot of sediment but you don't need to add any more K-meta that soon. Just repeat that dosage every 3 months.

Perfect, that's exactly what I added. I'll keep ya'll updated with monthly pictures. Everyone on this thread has been very helpful and I appreciate the advice. Can't wait to show ya'll final bottled product, thanks!

 

[AJH89]

Alright guys, it's getting closer to bottling. My wine has been sitting for 2 months now. I added the sparkalloid, it's working amazingly. Literally got crystal clear in 24 hours, I was shocked. After I let it sit for 2 weeks I'll be adding potassium sorbate and back sweetening it. My question is, how much sugar do I need to add? I don't like my wine sweet, I'm not trying to make a Moscato here. I want to add just enough sugar to bring out the flavor profile in my wine. I've heard anywhere from 1%-6% residual sugar is typical for wines. What's your input?

 

[AJH89]

Also after I add the sorbate and sugar I will be immediately bottling it afterwards do I need to add K-Metta too?

 

[Scooter68]

You back sweeten to taste - Never to a number. Taking an SG is just for your own knowledge - AFTER the backsweetening is completed to your satisfaction.

Typical process it to prepare a simple syrup of 1 part water to 2 parts sugar (1 cup water & 2 cups sugar)
1 Heat the water to boiling, turn off the heat,
2 Stir in the sugar until it's all dissolved.
I use a microwave & occasionally have to reheat the water after the sugar is added.
(1 cup initially heated for 3 minutes, add sugar, stir, reheat for 1 minute. Stir, Let that cool)

Take 1 cup of wine and get yourself a medium plastic syringe with cc markings.

I normally use a cup of wine and start with 5 cc of simple syrup. Add that stir and taste.

Add until it's just a little less sweet than you want - use that quantity of syrup and multiply times the number of cups in your batch (5 gallons = 80 cups (Minus the one you already sweetened.)

So if you added 5 cc of simple syrup to the cup and liked that - hen 79 x 5 - 395 cc's of simple syrup = 13.35 oz of simple syrup to your 5 gallon batch.

And you can go ahead an drink that testing cup of wine since you already replaced that volume with simple syrup

 

[Scooter68]

Normally I bottle after at end of one of my 3 month periods of aging (3, 6, 9, 12 months racking points during aging) So I am normally at a point where K-Meta is needed so... short answer is YES. So if your win has been aging for 3 months then a normal dose of K-meta (1/4 oz per 5-6 gallons) If it's been aging 1 month or you might skip that dosage - anywhere in between you might cut the amount accordingly.

 

[AJH89]

Normally I bottle after at end of one of my 3 month periods of aging (3, 6, 9, 12 months racking points during aging) So I am normally at a point where K-Meta is needed so... short answer is YES. So if your win has been aging for 3 months then a normal dose of K-meta (1/4 oz per 5-6 gallons) If it's been aging 1 month or you might skip that dosage - anywhere in between you might cut the amount accordingly.

It would be 2 weeks shy of 3 months so I'd assume maybe just 1 less campden tablet

 

[Scooter68]

Pretty early to bottle but as to dosage - I'd go with standard dosage at this point -1/4 tsp per 5-6 gallons.

 

[AJH89]

Pretty early to bottle but as to dosage - I'd go with standard dosage at this point -1/4 tsp per 5-6 gallons.

Okay, well what's 2 more weeks of waiting then. I'll just wait till the 3 months, add the sorbate, kmetta and backsweeten to taste. I'll post picture results of final product. Thanks for the help!

 

[Scooter68]

You can bottle now just add K-meta - If you want to guesstimate a little less than 1/4 teaspoon per 5-6 gallons go for it. Some folks do a test to tell them exactly how much k-Meta to add, the rest of us just follow basic guidelines. Remember after bottling it's best to wait about a month before opening the first bottle. You can read up on "Bottle Shock" to see why the 1 month wait time exists. Again there are few hard fast rules to wine making so unless you are planning on keeping some of this batch for more than a year or two it should be fine.

 

[AJH89]

You can bottle now just add K-meta - If you want to guesstimate a little less than 1/4 teaspoon per 5-6 gallons go for it. Some folks do a test to tell them exactly how much k-Meta to add, the rest of us just follow basic guidelines. Remember after bottling it's best to wait about a month before opening the first bottle. You can read up on "Bottle Shock" to see why the 1 month wait time exists. Again there are few hard fast rules to wine making so unless you are planning on keeping some of this batch for more than a year or two it should be fine.

Wow, I'm so grateful I found this website/forum. An associate of mine has been doing this for a while now and I noticed his way was very rudimentary so I was really searching for the best way to make it the best! It took me a lot and I found this site and knew instantly I found the right place. glad you told me about the month after bottling "bottle shock", I'll have to look into it cause I had no clue about it, but now I can tell my family and friends to wait. I am giving this to mostly family for Christmas so time is not completely of the essence I'm shooting early cause I'm impatient

You can bottle now just add K-meta - If you want to guesstimate a little less than 1/4 teaspoon per 5-6 gallons go for it. Some folks do a test to tell them exactly how much k-Meta to add, the rest of us just follow basic guidelines. Remember after bottling it's best to wait about a month before opening the first bottle. You can read up on "Bottle Shock" to see why the 1 month wait time exists. Again there are few hard fast rules to wine making so unless you are planning on keeping some of this batch for more than a year or two it should be fine.

Wow, I'm so grateful I found this website/forum and all you guys. An associate of mine has been doing this for a while now and he inspired me to do it but I noticed his way was very rudimentary so I was really searching for the best way to make it the best! It took me a lot and I found this site and knew instantly I found the right place. glad you told me about the month after bottling "bottle shock", I'll have to look into it cause I had no clue about it, but now I can tell my family and friends to wait. I am giving this to mostly family for Christmas so time is not completely of the essence I'm shooting early cause I'm impatient, lol. I just want it gifted by Christmas. If they gotta wait to try it then they wait. I was wondering shelf life though. I did want it to last like wine at a store.. practically forever. Is that not possible homemade? Just wondering cause of your last sentence. I'd like it to last much longer than a year or 2

 

[Rice_Guy]

Oxygen is your enemy! Even store purchased wine will change if it is opened and then it sits for a year or 2

Potassium metabisulphite is your friend since it scavenges free oxidized chemicals. , , , , in the early 2000‘s I collected mom’s carboys which included a 1971 raspberry that was still sealed and in good shape. I killed it by bottling without dosing fresh metabisulphite.

 

[Scooter68]

Keep in mind that nowadays liquor store bought wines are commonly expected to be consumed within months not years. What you may be thinking about is the classic "High Quality" wines made at old wineries with reputations going back 40-50 years or more. Nowadays most wine (Eg Sam's club, Aldi's, etc are high rate wines made inexpensively and not intended to grace the tables of the wealthy. Now "I aint trailer trash" but I don't spend $50,.00 a bottle or more for a wine either so wines you see on shelves at $10.00 - $20.00 are not typically wines made to be kept for years. Those are the wine I might buy if I am going to buy a wine.
Also I will tell you that I followed a path similar to yours my first year. Started a batch of blueberry in July, bottled it in November and opened it with friends in December when we visited them. It was certainly good - BUT when I opened another bottle 5-6 months later I wondered what happened to it? THIS bottle was GREAT ! Suddenly I was embarassed that I had rushed the wine not so much into the bottle, because it was crystal clear and no sediment ever dropped out, but; rather the taste improved SO MUCH in just another 5-6 months. So give that wine and maybe even open a bottle but tell folks you give it to that they are having a wine that is young and after another 6-12 months it will transform like a caterpillar into a butterfly.

 

[AJH89]

Great info @Scooter68 . So 6-12 months after bottling is a good drinking point, got it. And how long is the shelf life though?

 

[Scooter68]

I heard when I first got started that Strawberry has a shorter shelf life than other wines but since then I've hear a variety of things. I should guess that 2-3 years will be fine.

As far as aging time - I think most folks count aging time from end of fermentation until you open the bottle to drink. You can age it in bulk or in a bottle. The reason many more folks age in a bulk (Carboy/Barrel - At least a year in most cases) is so that they can make any needed adjustments, filter, back-sweeten, change pH, and of course avoid any surprise sediment dropping out before they lock it down in a bottle.