Strawberry Wine Turning Orange!

[hulsey24]

My strawberry wine was a deep red at first, But know it is an orange color! I went ahead and racked it into my secondary, Is this normal or is there something wrong?

 

[Torch404]

Sounds like it is just normal suspended particles. They should drop out of suspension leaving you nice red wine again. Unless it is oxidation and your wine is shifting to brown color. How much head room are you leaving in the carboy?

 

[winemaker_3352]

That was my first thought too torch - oxidation.

 

[non-grapenut]

I think it depends on the type of strawberries used, too. My strawberry wine started off red, too, and became more and more orange. I did an F-pak using twice the amount of strawberries required and it helped a lot. If worse comes to worse, use a couple drops of red food coloring (gasp!)

 

[ffemt128]

My strawberry did the same thing, I think this may be normal. I did get some of the red back when I added my fpac but it's still orangeish in color. It's tasty so I'm not worried about color. As non-grapenut said, you could always add a few drops of red food coloring. I don't know as that would hurt anything.

 

[Luc]

Sounds like normal to me.

Strawberry leaves a lot of pulp that is suspended at first but settles when the wine stops fermenting. All the pulp drops to a thick layer and you are left with a beautiful orange colored blush wine.

You should be ok.

Luc

 

[vk7tpg]

Colour Change in Strawberry

The loss of colour is due to the fermentation process affecting the anthocyanins in the strawberries ( i.e.the red color is due to the anthocyanins). They are affected by change in pH, heat and a range of other factors. From some other replies on another forum it is suggested this can be minimized by using either blueberries or elderberries in the primary or adding strawberries to the secondary. Apparently this doesn't affect the flavour. Can anyone verify this for me??

 

[Snowbird]

How long have they been fermenting? Just curious, cause I have some and its been going for about 6 mo. and it's still a nice red in one of the clear jugs, the others I can not see (Brown jugs).

 

[vk7tpg]

The question of change of colour in strawberry wine originally was pointed out to me by a commercial fruit winemaker friend of mine in Victoria Australia a few years ago. I have observed the same happening with strawberry wines made locally in Tasmania, Australia. It may be that it depends on the type of strawberry being fermented. I am fairly sure that it is the anthocyanins that are affected but I would like someone to be able to tell me for sure.

 

[mxsteve625]

My strawberry did the same thing and ended up like Luc says a orange colored blush. It's a good wine and everybody loves it. I only have two bottles left and they are hidden.

 

[FishNiX]

Mine was the same -- a nice orange blush even after an fpac. I ended up adding about 8oz of pomegranate concentrate which gave it a much deeper color and a nice flavor.