100% Strawberry / Budget

Just started a small batch of strawberry with 100% strawberry juice - no dilution. I used about 8 pounds of frozen strawberries. When thawed and crushed (by hand in a nylon straining bag) they yeilded about 9.5 cups of thick juice (no visible seeds). Unfortunately the juice was too thick to accurately measure SG so I used estimates from the web (thanks, Ben Rotter) of about 1.026 SG for the juice and added an additional 12 ounces of sugar dissolved in 8 oz of water (12 oz total) to arrive at an 11 cup must with a SG of around 1.085. The acid was surprisingly in an aceptable range of 5-7 g/l though it was tough to get an accurate reading with the acid test kit. After 24 hours with campden, 3/16 tsp of tannin and pectic enzyme I added Lalvin EC1118 and 1/2 tsp of nutrient. A nice ferementation began within hours. My plan is to rack into strain into a 1/2 secondary on Day 5 with hopefully 375 ml remaining to top off after future rackings.

One of my biggest concerns with this batch was the per bottle expense because of the amount of fruit involved. To alleviate my fears I built a budget spreadsheet that totalled the cost of all ingredients and additives along with an allocated percentage of the cost of all my non-perishable equipment. To do the latter I had to assume a useful life (in gallons produced) for all my equipment that I have ever purchased. I had forgotten most of the prices I paid so I used Grape and Granary's current prices as estimates. Surprisingly I found that the strawberry (assuming a yield of 2.5 750 ml bottles) came out to about $11.00 per bottle - a little lower than expected. Other batches with a more mainstream level of fruit came in in the $4.00 - $5.00 range. Hopefully the strawberry will be worth the premium!

I hope this helps others who are interested in the 100% juice experiment but are concerned about the extra cost.

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JJC
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