Strawberry wine secondary

Ericphotoart · Mar 28, 2022

I racked my strawberry wine to secondary March 12 at OG 1.036. It looks like the fermentation is almost over now. A little bit of pressure in the carboy but I didn't check gravity. I plan on racking to a clean carboy to get rid of the lees. Should I add KMeta at this point or let it ferment the rest of the sugar if any. Also, since this is my first strawberry wine, is just 2 weeks in secondary a little fast? I have apple wine in the secondary that is still fermenting pretty well and it is over a month now.

Jovimaple · Mar 28, 2022

If it were me, I would rack it again with kmeta after the s.g. is down to .995 or below. If there are a lot of lees after that, I would rack again 2 to 3 weeks later, without kmeta, then bulk age, adding kmeta every 3 months and racking if it has more lees.

Ericphotoart · Apr 4, 2022

I racked the wine yesterday. gravity was 0.990. I didn't add kmeta this time. Wine is far from clear. This is my first country strawberry wine so I'm curious how fast strawberry wine clears. The carboy now is in a 55-60 F temperature.

Vern · Apr 4, 2022

I would add k-meta and wait 3 months . It will clear with more time. You wine looks very normal and photo shows the top part is starting to clear.

Bob’sYourUncle · Apr 4, 2022

I bottled 6 gallons of strawberry (from frozen fruit) a couple of months ago. Per my notes I did add k after “degassing the heck out of it” and it went clear in about 5 weeks at 65 degrees (YMMV). Most folks on here have WAY more experience and knowledge than I can lend. In my experience with country wines, the better you degas, the faster they clear.

I typically don’t bulk age country wines anymore. Not that it doesn’t help, I just don’t have that many extra carboys and I find that my meads get more benefit from bulking so that is where I tend to tie up the carboy space.

Best of luck. Cheers!