Strawberry Wine

Recipe

Makes one gallon.

Combine and boil

• 1/2 gal water
• 6 lb strawberries
• 1 lb raspberries
• 2 lb sugar

Then put in primary and add

• 1 t acid
• 1 t pectolase
• 1/4 t tannin
• crushed camden tablet
• 1/2 gal water

then blend or mash

After 12 hours, make up a yeast starter and add with 1 T yeast nutrient.

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. 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.

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.

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.