Strawberry Wine

[Mattb91]

I will be making one or two batches of strawberry wine later this year, as the owner of our allotments went crazy with strawberry plants over lockdown, and has way more than he knows what to do with. He has been freezing them as he picks them and will have more than enough for a couple of batches.

I'm looking at using the recipe on wineturtle.com, which calls for 5lbs of strawberries and a gallon of water. My question is, has anyone tried using more strawberries and less water and sugar? What was the result? Is there a limit to how many strawberries should be used in place of water?

Also, has anyone tried backsweetening the wine, or is it better left dry?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Gigglyanya]

I saw a recipe that is made in mason jars using barely any water and wild yeast.

https://practicalselfreliance.com/homemade-strawberry-wine/
For my Strawberry Watermelon Wine that I have on the go now, I didn't add any water. The sweetness is on the high side so I don't expect to have to back sweeten at all. My yeast will only go to 18% but the must when I tested it had a potential of 30%! Figure it will end up as a nice sweet wine when done.

 

[winemaker81]

The recipe on wineturtle looks fine to me, although I'd make a few changes.

Strawberry Wine Recipe: The Best Homemade Wine in the World (wineturtle.com)

5 lbs of strawberries per US gallon is a minimum -- if you have the fruit, double it to 10 lbs/gallon. You'll get better strawberry flavor.

2 lbs of sugar per gallon is probably fine. If you're being cautious, add 1-3/4 lb sugar per gallon and check the SG. Add more if it's low. I suggest a SG of 1.085 to 1.100 for a good fermentation. If you are using a yeast such as Lalvin EC-1118, this will ferment dry.

Most fruit wines benefit from backsweetening -- they can be astringent and/or sharp without it. You can sweeten to taste prior to bottling.

Prior to backsweetening, add potassium sorbate (typically 1/2 tsp/ gallon) and K-meta (1/4 tsp / 5 gallons or 1 Campden per gallon) to prevent a renewed fermentation.

There are several recent strawberry wine threads in the Country Fruit Winemaking forum -- I suggest you read them for more tips.

 

[Rice_Guy]

you do have a lot of leeway on how you make your wine. One of the recent threads. . . . . and this continues for several pages (answers) beyond this quote,

I’m trying to make wine for the first time.
Does anybody has experience making strawberry's wine from 100% strawberry and no water? I read about it on an old tread and wanted to try it myself.

So I went out and bought 8kg of fresh strawberries I cleaned them and I mashed them. Eventually I had 7kg of mash. Then I froze them. A couple days later I thawed them. Once the temperature of the must was about 12 degrees Celsius I added some pectic enzyme and let that do it’s work for 12h. Then I added some sulphite and waited for 12h.
It was difficult to read the hydrometer because of the fruit particles ithe must. I guess I measured about 1022 SG.
I set the goal at 1092 SG. Took the refractometer and added sugar till about 22,5 brix. I hope I was about right on this conversion
Then I added some yeast nutrients and put in the yeast starter. I also used Lalvin 71b
This was yesterday around 11pm. This morning a little cap had formed in the middle of the bucket and it smelled yeasty. I gave it a stir. At about 5pm there was a cap covering the whole bucket. Again I pushed the cap down into the must. I just measured the temperature of the must and it is about 25 degrees Celsius. I’m trying to cool it down a little in the fridge till about 19 degrees. Then I will remove it from the fridge and put the bucket on a colder spot on the ground. I guess 25 degrees is too hot and the yeast will blow trough all the sugars in a few days…
I hope I didn’t make big mistakes already.
I’m wondering when I should remove the cap (foamy fruit-parts) from the must? Should I wait to remove this until I measure about an SG of 1020 and I transfer the must to a carboy? Or do I remove this sooner?

 

[Gigglyanya]

So I decided to try a strawberry wine after posting my comment earlier in the thread. I did a 2kg bag of frozen strawberries and 3kg of sugar. Put that plus pectic enzyme in a covered bucket. I let it sit, stirring once a day for 2 days. The fruit thawing plus the sugar pulled out lots of juice. I scooped out the strawberries and blended them instead of mashing cause I'm lazy lol.

Then put in EC-1118 yeast and popped on a cover with airlock. Stirred once a day. Once I stopped seeing bubbles in the air lock (about 6 days), I used a nylon bag as a filter and strained it into a 3 gallon carboy. I had just over a gallon and a half. Taste tested and it was like a strawberry liqueur, almost syrup like. I could have bottled it then and drank it mixed with 7up. But since I was looking for more of a wine, I added a bit more pectic enzyme and added a gallon of water. Stirred well and now I'm waiting to see if it is going to ferment again. Looking forward to seeing end result.

 

[Gigglyanya]

Update: Cleared in a week.
Half the batch all bottled up. So yummy!

 

[Jesse Brown]

I've made quite a few gallons of strawberry wine and experimented with different recipes. I have concluded that 100% strawberry juice is best. I don't find the flavor over powering. I use straight juice and add enough sugar to get my alcohol content to 10%.

 

[cenk57]

Update: Cleared in a week.
Half the batch all bottled up. So yummy!

I hate to be negative but it doesn't appear clear at all. You may want to wait a little longer before bottling next time. It may not affect taste, but I have never bottled a wine that cloudy. I'm just making this comment so new winemakers do not come on here and think that is "clear". But, everyone has their own ways and I'm not here to judge the quality of your wine. Cheers!

 

[Ramrod2021]

Ok well i jus racked my first batch of strawberry wine and it appears to have well mildew of some sort idk if its riunt.i tried drinking the pulp (left overs) and it is mighty tastey doesn't appear to be high alcohol content.question is it riunt or right on que?anything i can do too make it better.i used 15 pounds of friut to ten pounds of white sugar.only first rackin.so dont know if i should pour it out and not waste my time??

 

[Ramrod2021]

I think ill rack again to get that white substance off the top.water y'all think?

 

[Jovimaple]

Is it still fermenting? What is the s.g.?

 

[DizzyIzzy]

I hate to be negative but it doesn't appear clear at all. You may want to wait a little longer before bottling next time. It may not affect taste, but I have never bottled a wine that cloudy. I'm just making this comment so new winemakers do not come on here and think that is "clear". But, everyone has their own ways and I'm not here to judge the quality of your wine. Cheers!

I don't view your commentary as "negative", but rather, "informative" to newer winemakers. After all, this is an educational forum. Good work!

 

[Gigglyanya]

I hate to be negative but it doesn't appear clear at all. You may want to wait a little longer before bottling next time. It may not affect taste, but I have never bottled a wine that cloudy.

I think the cloudy that stayed was because I didn't use enough pectic enzyme. It was an old fashioned recipe I found that didn't call for additives so I had to guess on how much to use. Next time I'll likely go double what I used to see if that helps. I cleared the other gallon of the wine using a different clearing method to see if it got clearer but it ended up nearly the same which is why I'm thinking it is pectic haze.

A friend who tested it with me said the taste was like "alcoholic strawberry jam" lol I've been told I need to make this yearly now lol

 

[Mattb91]

I think the cloudy that stayed was because I didn't use enough pectic enzyme. It was an old fashioned recipe I found that didn't call for additives so I had to guess on how much to use. Next time I'll likely go double what I used to see if that helps. I cleared the other gallon of the wine using a different clearing method to see if it got clearer but it ended up nearly the same which is why I'm thinking it is pectic haze.

A friend who tested it with me said the taste was like "alcoholic strawberry jam" lol I've been told I need to make this yearly now lol

I like the sound of alcoholic strawberry jam.

I might try both recipes if I can get enough strawberries.

I actually started a plum wine first, as I had 30kg of plums from one of my trees. I also have enough apples on my trees for a cider, and the strawberries are all frozen, so will probably be a few more weeks before I start the strawberry wine.

I have a question on the plum wine...I halved and de-stoned the plums, added 1.5kg of sugar and 1gal of hot water and steeped for a while, then squeezed as much juice as possible out of the plums through a straining bag. Thr colour and flavour was good, but the sg was only 1.052. I added another 500g sugar to bring it up to 1.07, and I'm planning on leaving the straining bag full of plums in the fv for a week, hoping to end up with a wine at around 12-13%. Can anyone tell me roughly how much more sugar will come from the plums in the straining bag? Am I taking a risk by leaving them in that the abv will be too high?

 

[Rice_Guy]

You will not change the sugar once you freeze them/ start fermenting. Plums like peaches will continue to ripen and soften and eventually get soft and jam like if kept at room temperature.
You can get more flavor and some color by having the bag in the fermentor.

I have a question on the plum wine...I halved and de-stoned the plums, added 1.5kg of sugar and 1gal of hot water and steeped for a while, then squeezed as much juice as possible out of the plums through a straining bag. Thr colour and flavour was good, but the sg was only 1.052. I added another 500g sugar to bring it up to 1.07, and I'm planning on leaving the straining bag full of plums in the fv for a week, hoping to end up with a wine at around 12-13%. Can anyone tell me roughly how much more sugar will come from the plums in the straining bag? Am I taking a risk by leaving them in that the abv will be too high?

 

[OrchardRoad]

We made a beautiful strawberry basil wine this summer that's blowing even wine industry folks out of the water with just 16 lbs of very ripe fruit with 8 lbs sugar for 5 gallons. Strawberries are local, organic (we live in the strawberry capitol of CA) and very juicy which we helped along by freezing the fruit after processing it for 48 hrs before defrosting & starting the wine. It's semi-dry to dry at about 14% with light crisp strawberry flavor. I have a strawberry nectarine going right now and am experimenting with trying to naturally adjust the PH by doing stone fruit/berry combinations in my wines in general. So far the results are good. With 55 lbs of prepped strawberries in the freezer I think I want to try a "jammier" strawberry with more fruit- it just sounds so good! All hail the heart shaped berry!

 

[Rembee]

We made a beautiful strawberry basil wine this summer that's blowing even wine industry folks out of the water with just 16 lbs of very ripe fruit with 8 lbs sugar for 5 gallons.

Very interesting paring of flavors. What flavor did the basil lend to the wine?

 

[Rice_Guy]

your blending is what I would call using “natural foods“ industry rules. I have been doing similar blends as rhubarb/peach (1:1) or gooseberry/Juneberry (1:3). To me TA or the buffer capacity is the hard part. I like the creativity as blending basil to add interesting flavors.

. . . I have a strawberry nectarine going right now and am experimenting with trying to naturally adjust the PH by doing stone fruit/berry combinations in my wines in general. So far the results are good.

keep me up to date on how the blending works

off OP, , but with your blackberry/strawberry/plum wine have you come across astringent flavors? any fixes? Thanks

 

[DylanNoah]

Thanks for sharing this useful information.

 

[OrchardRoad]

Very interesting paring of flavors. What flavor did the basil lend to the wine?

The basil rides under the strawberry flavor as a sturdy, earthier flavor w a hint of citrus. It anchors the strawberry.