Strawberry Wine

Recipe

Makes one gallon.

Combine and boil

• 20-40 lbs strawberries
• 1 T (?) pectolase
• ~12lbs sugar
• 2 T yeast nutrient
• yeast
• 12 campden tablets

Mash strawberries by hand combine with pectolase and 6 crushed campden tablets. After 2 days, extract juice and add water to reach 6 gallons.

If hydrometer, get to around 15%. If not, add about 10lbs of sugar and after a week, check the flavor every 3 days and add sugar as necessary. Warning, it will foam like mad when adding sugar so start by just adding 1/4t at a time and increase as the gasses are released.

Add yeast nutrient, sprinkle yeast on top. After 5-7 days rack to carboy. After a week rack again. When fermentation stops add 6 crushed campden tablets. Let it sit for a few days then bottle.

Mead

• ~12lbs Strawberries
• 240oz/ 15lbs
• 1 T pectolase
• 2 T yeast nutrient
• yeast
• campden tablets

Cost

Fruit was ~$25, so this is a bit more expensive ($5/bottle).

Fresh strawberries in late May @Meijer

• 2017 : $1.50/lb
• 2018 : $1.00/lb : 5/28

In 2018 the price was stable through May at $2/lb, then at the very end of the month dropped to $1/lb. But it was only there for a few days then jumped up to $1.25. So plan on making this the last weekend of May or first weekend of June.

Frozen berries are $12/4lb or $3/lb so around $4 a bottle.

Processing

Using a blender releases some unpleasant flavors. Crushing is better.

The best method seems to be to pluck the stems off many strawberries. Wash the batches as you go, then wash the whole thing again. Let them sit in water with pectolase and campden tablets for a day. Then crush by hand first at 24 hours, then at 48 hours, then process at 72 hours. Strawberries above the water line will start to mold quickly, so it is important that some crushing happens within the first 24 hours. To process, first run through a coarse strainer (~1/8" holes). Rinse the excess and run again. Put the excess aside in a bowl. Run through a mesh strainer, scraping with a spatula to keep it from clogging. If the mesh strainer is too small, sit inside the coarse strainer. Finally, process through a nylon bag in small batches. Doing about 6 cups at a time in a large mesh bag kept it from clogging and was easy to manage. After each batch, the strainer needs to be flipped inside out and cleaned off.

Early 2017

I made one batch that came out decently well. But I over sweetened it. There was one bottle left a year later and it was ok, but it was both too sweet and too acidic.

2017-06

I started a batch of 6 gallons on 6/25. About 35lbs of strawberries. Boiled all of them and let them sit overnight with 2T pectolase and 2 camden tablets. The next day I got as much of the pulp out as I could and added enough water to get it up to 6 gallons. It was only at about 3%PAV. I added sugar until it was around 10%PAV (~4lbs), then I ran out of sugar. I added 2 T yeast nutrient and the yeast. The sulpher smell was pretty strong, that might be because it's more than I'm used to making or that the natural strawberries have more nutrients.

I want to be really careful with this batch - it was a lot of work and kind of expensive ($90 or $2.50/lb for the strawberries). When I sweeten it, I want to have another wine for comparison - I want to keep it kind of dry.

Next year I want to get the strawberries a little sooner.

It ended up being too dry so I back sweetened and it started to ferment in the bottle. Which brought it back to being too dry and it was sparkling. I got a lot of compliments on the sparkle, but it could have popped the corks or burst the bottle.

2018

Bought 40lbs of strawberries spread over 3 days. I used the immersion blender plus pectin. In review, a lot of wine makers recommend not blending the strawberries. I'm not sure I accept this argument - the main reason is that it crushes the seeds, but they seemed mostly in tact to me. Anyway, I'll keep an eye on it. I think this approach should let me get more juice from the strawberries, but I'm flying blind - there was no way for me to check my PAV. My plan is to get it close then add sugar slowly until it stops fermenting. The second to last batch I made was very acidic so I decided not to add any additional acid.

On the 3rd night of prepping strawberries, I added camden tablets (6) and let it sit overnight. There mash should have been fairly sterile because it was boiled and the bucket was disinfected. The next evening I started some yeast. I dissolved about 5lbs of sugar and added that, then I added the yeast. I was able to scrape some of the strawberry pulp off the top.

The next morning, it was bubbling happily. A little bit had overflowed the bucket (next year, keep it in the sink until this risk has passed). A lot of the pulp had floated to the top and formed a nice dry layer that I was able to remove.

Looking around at 5 gallon recipes, they seem to call for a lot less. 13-25lbs of strawberries. Worth a shot next year if only because it would be cheaper. Another idea to consider is mashing the strawberries literally by hand.

After about 4 days I transferred from primary to secondary. 4 days after that, a lot of pulp had settled so I racked it. When I moved it, a lot of the pulp kicked up and the racking didn't do as well as it could. In the future, move the carboy the night before and rack it in the morning so it has ~10 hours to settle. At that point it was already moderately dry and a week later it's still bubbling quite a bit. I racked it again about a week later. Still quite a bit of pulp. At that point it was quite dry, I added a little more sugar.

When fermentation was done, I back sweetened just a little with honey. Bottled on 6/26. After about a month, this batch was ok, but just a little acidic and the slightest bit bitter.

Batch 2

I started a second batch when prices dropped to $1/lb. This used 20lbs of strawberries. I think I did this correctly, though it took more effort. I crushed some strawberries by hand and some with a potato masher - the potato masher was easier, do it in one of the big jugs. I added some water, pectolase and campden and let it sit for 24 hours. The next day I first ran the mash through a wire sieve, then ran the juice through a mesh bag. I added 10lbs of sugar and enough water to reach 6 gallons. Then I measured the PAV and added sugar until it was 14%. Once the mixture cooled to 110F, I added the yeast.

For $25 in ingredients, I should get about 30 bottles, so less than $1/bottle.

After about a week, I racked it into a carboy. There was very little pulp left behind. The flavor was much weaker than the 40lb batch, but it still had strawberry flavor. The alcohol stood out much more.

Back sweetened just a little with honey. Bottled on 6/27. After a month, this batch was very good. Tastes nothing like strawberry, an almost whiskey flavor. Very dry. I want to try this method again next year with about 30 lbs of strawberry.

2019

Batch 1

Bought 32lbs from Costco for $1.25/lb ($6/4lb) 5/24. Crush by hand the next day. Two days later I strained out the juice, added 10lbs of sugar, yeast nutrient and yeast.

A week later I racked it to a carboy. At two points, I've tasted the wine to check it's sweetness and added 1lb because it was a little dry. I'll keep doing this until fermentation stops. I can just hold it around the right sweetness.

Another week and I racked again and added one more lb of sugar. I think that will be the last. It's good now, strong, and just a hint sweet. So I expect the last bit of fermentation to make it good.

Bottled on 7/27. Got 27 bottles, though I set enough aside in the fridge to get the sediment out, I could have probably got 2 more. At the time of bottling, this was really good. Hit the mark of not too sweet but not too dry.

Strawberry Mead

Bought 12lbs from Costco for $2/lb(?) 6/7. Life got in the way and it took 2 days for me to crush them.

About 3 days later I filtered the juice and added 240oz of honey, yeast nutrient and yeast.

A week later I racked it. The sample I tasted was really good, I have high hopes for this batch.

Bottled on 7/28, came out really good. Got 29 bottles.

2020

Bought 12lbs strawberry on 5/29 at Meijer for $4/2lbs. They sat in water for pre-processing too long and a few got a little moldy. Rather than risk expensive honey, I switched over to making strawberry wine with cheaper sugar.

On 6/2 I bought 32lbs of strawberries at Meijer for $1.88/2lbs. These were processed successfully with the new method. They soaked in water, pectolase and potassium metabisulfite for a day, crushed by hand and then a day later was processed for juice. The juice was divide 3/8th was used for mead and the rest was brought up to 11%PAV and added to the strawberry wine already in progress. Since I was running low on yeast, I added a few cups of the wine to mead as a starter.

On 6/10 I bought another 12lbs at Meijer for $1.88/2lbs. The same processing method was used and a second batch of mead started.

For both batches of mead I think I used 20lbs of honey instead of the 15lbs because I did math wrong. I later confirmed that my mead notes were wrong. It should be about 15lbs of honey.

Strawberry wine was racked and a bit more sugar added on 6/12. Flavor had a little bit of funk, but I've run into that before with strawberry and had it go away later in the batch.

Sometime around October? I racked again and the mead was still way too sweet.

On 1/20 I bottled the strawberry wine. It was good, but just a little sweet.

On 1/21 I bottled the strawberry mead. I had 6 gallons of it in a carboy and about 5 gallons in a bucket. The stuff in the carboy was too sweet and the stuff in the bucket was too dry so I mixed them until I reached a good flavor. There was some sweet mead left over.

Both the wine and the mead ended up way over carbonated. I lost a lot of bottles to blown corks and a few to burst bottles. In the future, I need to degas better, use more campden and make sure all fermentation is done.

2021

On 6/4 I bought 20lbs of strawberries for $2.45/lb at Costco. Pulled the stems off and put them in water with campden and pectolase on 6/5. Sooner would have been better. Only a few started to get moldy, but I probably lost 2lbs. On 6/6 I mashed them up by hand.

On 6/7 I got separated the juice. I added honey and water to get to 16% PABV and about 6 gallons. I used the Lalvin EC 1118 yeast which seems to go up to a very high ABV. I also added 2T of yeast nutrient.