Thin Strawberry

[Skinny5382]

I started my first ever batch of strawberry back in January of this new. I'm pretty sure I added too much water as I ended up with 8 gals from 20 lbs of berries, about 2.5 lbs per gallon. Also it took forever to clear, I ended up using Super Kleer last weekend and now brilliantly clear.
My question is what would you guys suggest to back sweeten with? Is there a frozen concentrate I could use to give more flavor without clouding it back up? I've read on here about "F-Pac". would that be an alternative? I would like to bottle this weekend.
Thanks for the advice in advance.

 

[Tom]

Since Strawberrys have alot of water I use 36# for ppromary. when you use that much you need to split it in half as ie you are making 2-3 gallons batch

 

[Julie]

Way too much water, if you can find some strawberry concentrate you that but remember to stabilize first.

 

[Skinny5382]

Since Strawberrys have alot of water I use 36# for ppromary. when you use that much you need to split it in half as ie you are making 2-3 gallons batch

Lessons learned for this guy. I was shooting for 6 gallon finished product but didn't realize how much the berries liquefied.

 

[Skinny5382]

Way too much water, if you can find some strawberry concentrate you that but remember to stabilize first.

I did a batch of Apple last winter and used frozen concentrate to back sweeten. It turned out really good. I was looking for strawberry concentrate hoping for the same result. But to my surprise haven't found any yet. I think Welches makes a strawberry breeze frozen concentrate. Has anyone ever tried using it?

 

[Arne]

I did a batch of Apple last winter and used frozen concentrate to back sweeten. It turned out really good. I was looking for strawberry concentrate hoping for the same result. But to my surprise haven't found any yet. I think Welches makes a strawberry breeze frozen concentrate. Has anyone ever tried using it?

Yep, I have used it. Make sure you stabalize first, then put the concentrate in. Worst part, you are going to have to wait for it to clear again. How does the wine taste now? Probably pretty thin. The concentrate will help with that some. Arne.

 

[Skinny5382]

How does the wine taste now? Probably pretty thin. The concentrate will help with that some. Arne.

Honesty I haven't tasted it yet, it smells really good though. I'm going to be working with it over the weekend, I will taste then.
But thanks for letting me know you've used the Strawberry Breeze, now I know it works. I will taste and decide Saturday which to do - back sweeten with sugar and bottle or use the Breeze and wait some more. I'm kind of thinking (if it doesn't taste horrible) to use sugar and bottle. I had to use a clearing agent to get it where its at now and it brilliantly clear. Hate to start over.

 

[Skinny5382]

I worked with the strawberry over the weekend and I'm not real happy with the taste. It has a bitter taste. The acid was a little low (.55) so I added acid blend to bring it up to .625. Also back sweetened to +5 Brix.
I have a total of 8 gallons, and the above was done on 3 of the 8. I still have 6 gals to work with. I bottled the 3 gal so maybe a little time in the bottle will mellow it out???
Any suggestions for the remaining 6 gallons??

 

[T_Baggins]

try jacking it! I did a 3 gallon batch and it rhino farted on me... I degassed the crap out of it at first, that did nothing. I bulk aged it for a few months, that did nothing. So I jacked it in the freezer and even that did nothing (for the fart) but I bottled it anyway for a year and that did the trick! It smelled heavenly and tasted friggin awesome! Jacking it not only concentrated the ABV but the flavors as well, and any remaining sugars.

 

[Julie]

Just a caution, we cannot talk about distilling on this site and "jacking" is a form of distilling.

 

[Turock]

Well, you could make an f-pac from frozen berries but then you'd need to allow it to clear. Get a package of strawberry daiquiri mix and add it to the wine. This does a very good job of adding good strawberry flavor. If one isn't enough, then add more depending on how thin the wine is on flavor.