Strawberry wine questions

[fivebk]

Hi, everyone

I started a batch of strawberry wine ( ended up being 2 gallons). It has been in secondary for a couple of weeks. I racked it off of the lees, added K-meta and K-sorbate and an F-pack ,then backsweetened.

The questions I have are as follows:

When you add K-Meta why does it remove so much color from the wine?

What can I add now or at bottling time to make it look more like strawberry (instead of who knows what)!!!!!!

Thanks

BOB

 

[Tom]

Don't worry about the color. That comes from the Strawberry. Some berry varieties give better color. Concentrate on the "taste" more than the color. After you add the f-pac you may need to clairify again or, let time take over.

I don't beleive the k-met removes any color. Fermentation does.

Sit back and enjoy.. Let it clear and age a while before you bottle.

 

[smokegrub]

I have made two strawberry wines and both had good color and both were treated with KMeta. What was the source of your berries and what quantity did you use?

I have a strawberry in secondary that I sweetened with a bottle of a Taste of Florida Strawberry Mix that is used to make strawberry daquiris. It is too early for me to recommend doing this to others but the color is very dark red and the taste is great. I will report more on this later.

 

[Wade E]

I dont under stand your thinking of k-meta taking color away. Please explain further.

 

[grapeman]

I have a suspicion that the loss of color was due to some clearing. Strawberry when you start it has a lot of red solids in suspension. As fermentation slows way down, it is determined as being finished fermenting. At that time you add campden or powderd sufites. That finishes killing the very weak yeast, may even cause some foaming and that removes much dissoved C02 in the wine. As a result the solids with the red color drop to the bottom as lees, you rack it off and it is clearer, but without the red color you had. You see it as the k-meta taking the color out, but it isn't really. I can't be certain of this, but it is likely the reason.

 

[fivebk]

After I racked the wine off of the leesI added K-Sorbate, then I added an F-Pack that I made myself. It added some color back to the already weak color. I was not really concerned because I had read about strawberry wine losing It's color on this site. After I added the F-Pack I realized that I had not yet added the K-Meta. As soon as I added it to the wine and stirred it in the color of the wine was almost back to where It was when I started. I saw the color fade as I stirred .It still doesn't bother me any I was just curious as to why it seems to do this with srawberry . Would some red grape welch's concentrate add color without covering up too much of the strawberry flavor, Or should I just leave well enough alone. For being so very young The taste of this wine is good , and hopefully will only get better with time.

Thanks

BOB

 

[Waldo]

Welches may work ok but this will definately add the color you want. About 1 TBSP in a gallon should do fine and it will not be enough to mask your Strawberry flavor.
http://www.finevinewines.com/ProdDetA.asp?PartNumber=6377

 

[fivebk]

Thanks Waldo

 

[uavwmn]

About 3 weeks ago I added my F-Pac to my 1 gal strawberry wine. I strained the F-Pac thru a paint strainer bag.


I have about 2" of lees on the bottom of the jug.

I am asking if I should rack again, maybe into a 1/2 gal jug and let it bulk age for a couple of months??

 

[fivebk]

I think I got concerned about the color of this wine before I gave it a chance to do it's thing. What do you think???

 

[Tom]

I would worry more with the Flavor and Taste. The colorof Strawberry wine is all depending on the color of the fruit. Don't worry about the color. It has nothing to do with the end results. It will be a blush either way

 

[fivebk]

What I meant to say about the color of this wine was that I kinda like the way it turned out.

BOB

 

[Tom]

Yes I like the color also.
If you really want to see a difference run it thru a filter for polishing.

 

[grapeman]

I think it looks great!

 

[uavwmn]

Tepe, I still have my little gallon of strawberry wine I started. I cannot bring myself to toss it. Something about the fruit and the yeast and all the fun these ingredients had together.

So, there are still alot of the lees at the bottom. I was wondering if, when at bottling time, I can run this wine thru the filter pump, this will be successful?

 

[Tom]

Doing a gallon of wine is not really worth it. You must rack off the lees. You would be lucky to get 3 bottles. The idea is to have the wine as clear as possible before bottling. This is much easier thuu 3-6 gallon batches. Did you add any fining agents? How manyX did you rack? Remind me what you did..

 

[uavwmn]

Tepe, definitely will do a 3 gallon batch of fruit wine next time. (Note to self)


I have racked off the lees once. When I siphon off the wine, the lees cloudys up the wine again.
I tried pouring the wine thru the paint strainer bag. And that helped some.
Think I should try that again?

 

[Tom]

Tepe, definitely will do a 3 gallon batch of fruit wine next time. (Note to self)


I have racked off the lees once. When I siphon off the wine, the lees cloudys up the wine again.
I tried pouring the wine thru the paint strainer bag. And that helped some.
Think I should try that again?

yea let it sit for a week. Fruit wines need to be racked a number of times. Why don't you backsweeten now if you havent done it yet

 

[Tom]

BTW I made a Strawberry / Kiwi last week 6-gallon

And

A mixed fruit 6-gallon today Pineapple,Peach Strawberry, Mango, Blueberry.

 

[smokegrub]

Your wine looks great.