Use of a bag when making fruit wines

[Cxwgfamily]

I am making my second batch of strawberry wine. I am using frozen strawberries. Instead of cutting the berries up, I used a food processor and made a "strawberry smoothie" for lack of a better description. I did not use a bag for the must. I am just looking for some advise on how to proceed to minimize any haze that may develop. My first batch didn't clear up well and it took 3 years in. The bottle before it developed into a good drinking wine. Right now I am in primary fermentation and the batch is proceeding really well.
Thanks a million.

 

[salcoco]

one use pectin enzyme another is use some betonite.

 

[Tnuscan]

Also with strawberry I would suggest a straining bag, so many little seeds. The processer and blender work, but can add flavors you wouldn't get by just smashing. Or slight squeezing of the strainer bag.

 

[dcbrown73]

I'm a newbie to this, but I thought I read somewhere that using a food processor isn't good as it chops up the strawberry seeds and that can impart a different taste and it's harder to clear.

Please take that with a grain of salt as I honestly do not know if it's true or not. Just what I've read.

 

[Tnuscan]

dcbrown73 is correct, those fast moving blades work with things like apple, pear etc. But... this is minus seeds steams and the like, and in short bursts to leave smaller pieces and not mush. From what I have experienced.

 

[Mismost]

I like the paint strainer bags for fruit...good, cheap, and fast. Easy to load up, easy to stir, easy to mash up/squeeze, and easy to pull and move the fruit off the wine when the time comes. At two-three bucks each, worth every penny. FWIW, the last batch of plum wine clear much better, much faster....and I think it was the bag that was a huge help there.

I also use them for kit wines when I add currants or rasins or bananas...for the same reasons. I use older discolored ones to hold oak sawdust or chips. Just makes cleanup or removal a breeze.

Also agree you should not use a blender with all those seeds...my reading says it makes for a bitter wine...which may be why it took yours three years to come around.

 

[Cxwgfamily]

Thanks, I will start using a bag. I assume you will want to cut the strawberries in quarters to make it easier for the petic acid to get to the inside of the berry. I am I on the right path here.

 

[Noontime]

As others have said, you don't want the seeds to impart flavor into your wine. They tend to have much more astringent tannins; so just having them in there is not ideal, but chopping them up is probably not what you want to do in the future.

Most fruit will fall apart pretty quickly as the yeast munch on it, so a gentle squeeze or crush to break the skins is usually enough. The only benefit to pulverizing the fruit is you get a quicker more accurate SG reading at the beginning of the fermentation, but I think the negatives far outweigh that benefit.

The bags don't stop anything that will have an effect on clarity. Tiny little particles will still get through the bag and settle out. The bags are absolutely wonderful and we use them all the time, but anything that's going to make your wine cloudy (like proteins or pectin) are going through that bag like it's not there. We make mango wines and I'll use 2 bags (one inside the other), and there's still a few inches of fibrous material that settles out in secondary.

 

[willie]

I am making my second batch of strawberry wine. I am using frozen strawberries. Instead of cutting the berries up, I used a food processor and made a "strawberry smoothie" for lack of a better description. I did not use a bag for the must. I am just looking for some advise on how to proceed to minimize any haze that may develop. My first batch didn't clear up well and it took 3 years in. The bottle before it developed into a good drinking wine. Right now I am in primary fermentation and the batch is proceeding really well.
Thanks a million.

Sounds like your first batch of Strawberry had Pectic Haze which you can cure by adding 3 tsp. or so of Pectic Enzyme added to your wine if it doesn't clear in a week or two. Put your 6 lbs or more I like using 12 lbs. of the frozen Strawberry's in the nylon straining bag then tie the bag up as suggested by others and squeeze the bag good each day. Check out Danger Dave's, Dragon Blood process. He has a wonderful recipe called Sweet Strawberry Tart also you might be interested in. I have made it 3 times and it's just wonderful. I will be making two, 6 gal. batches again this coming Christmas.

Will

 

[FTC Wines]

CXWB, if you didn't use a straining bag & havent racked yet do what I do. I ferment on diced fruit, then when ferment is done I put a straining bag, i.e. Paint bag sterilized into another bucket & pour the must into it. Then I squeeze the bag. That takes care of most of the lees. Just don't squeeze too hard. Roy

 

[Johnd]

I do the same Roy, all fruit, grapes, etc goes in loose and stays in there til I go to glass, dump into a bag inside of a second bucket to catch all of the fruit. I do, however, put the bag into my press and press the juice out fairly vigorously. I like my results.

 

[wpt-me]

A side note do most clean their bags and reuse or just toss? I have just pitched them !

Bill

 

[FTC Wines]

Bill, I used to clean them all the time. Rinse well in the laundry tub, turning inside & out. Then run the bag thru the washer. Then sterilize. Getting lazier, now sometimes I just throw them out. Roy

 

[Johnd]

A side note do most clean their bags and reuse or just toss? I have just pitched them !

Bill

If you're using the kind of bags that come in the wine kits that have grape packs, those I typically discard.

I bought some nicer ones that fit my press basket, they are white and made of a nylon like material (I don't know what it is). I clean and reuse those all of the time. Hose them in the sink with hot water, turn inside out and repeat. Throw them in my washing machine with no soap, hot water, on the steam/sanitize setting and then air dry them when they are done. Works like a charm.