Strawberry Wine

[MadMasher]

Picked up 80lbs of strawberries today for $10. gonna try making some wine like in that bad ass deana carter song, so i can relive my youth. Anyone have experience with strawberry wine? I was just gonna mash em' up with some boiling water add some sugar, cool/aerate and add some ec1118. Potassium sorbate after its dry and a few racks then sugar back it to sweetness disired.

[Anemephistus]

Man it sounds like your on point.. I might do a few more things with it though if you want it just right...

Strawberries get ugly when you get then too hot, I'd put them in with the sugar you are going to add and I'd stir in pectic enzime. let them sit over night and get really really soft maybe two days. mash them and pasteurize the must slow, if memory serves 140 °f for 40minutes. Strawberries have a lot of natural fungus on them so check a pasteurization chart. then when you are going to put it in your primary fermenter I'd pour it through some cheese cloth, those seeds make a bitter taste in my opinion. Its a bit more work but I think you'll like what you get better.... good luck man let us know how it goes.

[MadMasher]

Well, they were already really soft, that's why they were so cheap. I just brought them to 200 for half hour then ground them up with a hand mixer. I didn't bother to strain but I will now that you mention that I will. Probably will get a huge cap and be hard to clear otherwise too.

[Matilda]

You need to use Pectolase to prevent hazing and to break down the strawberries.
For future reference, don't heat fruit!
Also, a dose of campden is good 24 hours before pitching yeast to kill off any wild yeasts.

I recommend http://www.homewinemaking.co.uk/yabb2/Y ... ct=General" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow for wine advice, and I tell them to come here for spirit advice.

[MadMasher]

Duly noted. I'll be sure to do more research before I start the next batch, I kinda figured if this one messes up I can just run it through the still, and I didn't have the space for em. Much appreciated for the info

[goose eye]

Get them cold or freeze em. It's easyer to cap em
when they hard.

So I'm tole

[MadMasher]

Is pectolase the same as the pectin at the grocery for making jams and jelly?

[MadMasher]

"No, pectin is what you want to break down by adding the pectolase aka pectic enzyme during fermentation. Once wine is finished fermenting the pectolase does not work and simply drops as sediment. Pectin is naturally found in fruits, apples and quince being the most rich in pectin. Some fruits like papaya and pineapple are loaded with a naturally occurring enzyme, so those wines usually clear quite easily. Pectin is what helps thicken jelly/jam as you make it. Pectin unaddressed in wine will almost always cause a hazy wine."

Found the answer and posted in case anyone else was curious. also picked up some pectolase, thanks

[MadMasher]

Looks like it might be a bust. The wine has a sulphur problem and I'm not really sure how to get rid of it. I tried racking it a few times and adding some air as well as pouring it through copper. I read adding some hydrogen peroxide could help? I'm not willing to use copper sulfate, i'm worried to poison someone. Any thoughts?

[wannab]

Check out Jack kellers Blog page His gig is wine, lots of info. http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/wineblognew.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow good luck Wannab

[MadMasher]

Thanks for the link. I've read some stuff on there before. I'll try to sort through it when I get a chance, I'm sure the answer is out there somewhere. It might be to scrap it and start over. I've got 50 more lbs of berries.

[Anemephistus]

I figure I'd add a couple of things too...Matilda is right about not heating fruit, and I've heard that many times. I have found in my personal experience that a low temp pasteurization does fine but it depends on how delicate the fruit is. Strawberries are real touchy, so is watermelon. You chose a good yeast though, its real competitive.

Lavalin's website has some info about hydrogen sulphide production and preventative measures as well

[MadMasher]

Thanks for the info. I decided to just start over with a better method so I've got 20 lbs of berries in buckets with pectic enzyme right now. Going to use Campden tabs instead of heating this time. I'm going to run the spoiled batch through the still next week.

[Anemephistus]

Campden will work fine and it will be easier than careful heating.

http://extension.psu.edu/food/safety/co ... e.pdf/view" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

In case the question ever comes up or anyone needs it. This is a link to the fda juice pasteurization chart. I found using a constant stir at minimum temps works really well. I try to avoid too much campden as a personal preference, one way or another there is a flavor change when prepping fruit and too many sulphites give me a headache. It takes practice but I've found several ways to carefully apply pasteurization without damaging flavor. I'm not intending to be negative about other methods, its just my practice to use low controlled heat.

The important thing in my experience with making fruit and berry wines is more of the same stuff that folks use to make any other alcohol bearing liquid. pH balance appropriate for the strain of yeast, nutrient availability, pectic enzyme, and oxygen during the breeding phase of the yeast life cycle. If you are working with a red fruit (in general) the problems that can occur from a late phase re-ariation are all bad. Check the yeast strain information and get appropriate O2 from the start.

I know your not new to making alcohol, but fruit and berries are funny. Its not that its hard to make somthing that will get you drunk but if you want to do it in style without wild unexpected and often unpleasant flavors it takes a couple of tries or a lot of research.

I think you are going to get what you want out of this next one. Campden is simpler and letting your berries have some time to get really well acquainted with that pectic enzime is going to get you off to a good start! I look forward to hearing how this goes for you, give us some pics and have fun with it!

[MadMasher]

So I went ahead and strained the juice out, got almost 5 gallons from the 6 gallons of berries, and pastuerized it very slowly, then quickly cooled it. I made sure to get more oxygen in it this time and I added some more pectolase as well as nutrients and a small bit of yeast energizer. I made a half gallon starter and waited a day before I pitched it. It started kicking in about an hour and is going strong. The smell this time is more like strawberries, very good. I did not test the Ph, but probably should. Thank you for the help. I think this time it will work out, only time will tell.

[cb_j]

I made a short-times strawberry "wine" once to distill..
i loaded too much sugar in with it..
It was still sweet by the end but distilled nice.
The end result was poor, but the hint of strawberry was a nice touch.
i watered it down to 40%, threw it in a big jar and macerated some strawberries, strained strawberries and then added a cup or two of sugar to the fruit and waited until that dissolved over a few days then added back to the alcohol.
a real girly strawberry liquor.. way too sweet though. should have watered down even more..

pretty much how i made the wine was like MadMasher, but i turned the strawberries into mush first and held in a grain bag during fermentation.

i used Vinters Harvest CY17 yeast (i think!).

all in all it wasn't too bad, but i probably wouldn't do it again...

[MadMasher]

So the strawberry wine turned out ok this time. Needs to age from what I hear. However, I used the lees to start some skeeter pee(lemon wine). It is excellent, strawberry lemonade @12% ABV. My fear is I won't have any left when summer comes, time to start some more soon I guess