Controlling Strawberry Rocket fuel

Tom, I know what you're going through. I'm trying to control my % alcohol as well. Can I ask, how much sugar did you add per gallon? And are the strawberries fresh or frozen? I can compare what you're doing to my recipe and we can see what we come up with -- how does that sound? Darlene G-town, Wisconsin USA

You might consider getting a refractometer and measuring brix instead of SG

- or you can do both.

If you are getting high octane from strawberries it is because you are using too much sugar. Try cutting back considerably on you next batch. Use a hydrometer and aim for 11-12%.

Now, what to do with it. Sweeten it up. If it is a little flat after sweetening, add a bit of acid. Sweet wines call for more acid to balance them out. Then serve it as a desert wine. If you really want to go off the deep end and serve a great strong flavored desert strawberry wine -- after you have sweetened and adjusted it, then serve it half and half with cream. Strawberry wine and cream! You will be amazed!

Ray

The other thing you could do is blend it with a lower alcohol wine. I would consider rhubarb as an option.

Next time use a float & set your potential alcohol to 11 or 12%. Different fruit have different sugar content so using a 1 or 2 pounds per gallon formula across the board will ultimately give you various end results depending on what your using, fruitwise, for flavor. I like to check mine BEFORE adding any sugar to get a baseline on how much is needed for that particular batch. Just did some pear wine made from juice i bought from a local orchard & that stuff was 7% all by itself. Good luck.

Dar,

When I get a chance in the next day or two I'll pull my notes and get back with the data. Thanks a lot for the offer I'm curious as well. For starts though I can tell you fresh berries. Can't remember which recipe off hand, got it from Jacks site. But I have it.

Tom, I look forward to hearing from you. Just so you know, I made my 3rd batch of strawberry wine in February at about 12% (1.090 starting SG). I go to a u-pick in June, and then freeze the berries before I make the wine. I only make 1 gallon batches. Since I had a cherry wine which went to 15% and a Plum wine which went to 13%+, I've been really watching the sugar I add to a fruit must. It is very hard to know how much sugar is already in the fruit or how much has been added to the fruit when it is frozen. So, instead of adding all the sugar (which the recipe may call for) to the hot water at the beginning, I've gone to just adding 4 cups in the beginning. Then, when it comes to checking the SG before adding the yeast- if the starting SG is at

Hi Tom

As an alternative to the other suggestions here about what to do in future:

About the only time solids have to be left in the primary is when alcohol is needed to act as a solvent to extract certain desirable components from the solids. (such as is the case with red grape wines). Any time this is not the case, the juice is extracted _before_ ferment begins and the ferment is conducted as a "juice only fermentation". (such as is the case with white grape wines).

With Strawberries, I know of no such benefit, so, why not do these as "juice only" in the future. There are any number of ways to extract the juice prior assembling the must. Since the method of extraction can have a substantial effect on the outcome, you will want to choose the method according to your personal tastes.

And, doing it this way will eliminate the problem of adjusting pre-pitch PA to get exactly the amount of alcohol you want in the finished wine. HTH

Thanks Frederick, I might try the pure juice next year.

To Dar -

Sorry it took so long for me to check the recipe and get back to you. I used the Strawberry #2 from Jacks site. and in looking over my notes I think I see the problem. I strained and measured the SG of the must as best as possible and should have been around a 12% wine. But.... never took into consideration the sugar in the raisins. Which is impossible to measure as solids. I'm willing to bet that they were responsible for the 2%+ jump.

Tom, I'm glad you've got it figured out. Since I have not been at this too long - ending my 3rd year of wine making; I've found that the first attempt is truly an experiment. Even if you're following a tried & true recipe, there can always be room for "miscalculation". Your example of not quite knowing how much sugar is in the raisons - I'll add one more, how much sugar is really in the fruit. I think the second time I make it, I do alter things a bit to make the wine how I like it. If that comes out, then the

3rd try is usually my recipe which I'll follow from now on. So I'm just now making wine to match what I like.... Darlene

I've seen somewhere recently - likely Winemaker - that 1lb raisins corresponds to 1/2lb sugar.

Pp

what are the ways you would suggest extracting juice only from strawberries? pressing in cheesecloth? juice extractor? victorio strainer? just curious about the different kinds of methods you might use, especially for something as finely pulped and heavily seeded as strawberries.

Rick

Hmmm.....The term "juice only" here seems to have caused some confusion. Maybe if I changed that to read "Liquids only fermentation", or, "Without solids fermentation", it would make more sense.

IOW - If you are working from a "country" recipe that calls for 2 pounds of fruit, you _still_ use just 2 pounds of fruit. You just extract the juice and discard the solids, then use that amount of juice to assemble the must.

Hope it makes more sense this way. HTH

Frederick

Hi Rick

For separating juice from solids, I use a fine mesh strainer, or "jelly bag" type material. We buy material at the dry goods store and make our own bags.

However, my reference to "methods" was intended to convey the differences in end product between "hot process", "cold process", and "room temp process" wines. Briefly:

1. Hot process - done pretty much exactly as you would when preparing juice to make jelly. In this case, the heat not only drives off many of the volatiles, but it forms a substance called furfural which gives things that "cooked" flavor. Some folks won't eat a fresh strawberry, but just love strawberry jelly. Here is one solution for such personal preferences.

1. Room temp - Pretty much self explanatory.

2. Cold process - This can be done by first chilling the fruit to about 40f in a refrigerator. Since sugar will have to be added when assembling the must anyway, I usually do these as a sugar extraction. Process the fruit while still cold. Slice or dice (not too finely), or lightly mash berries. Add sugar and stir. Add sulfite to neutralize the browning enzymes and take care of at least some of the oxidizing that might otherwise occur. Cover and return to refrigerator. Stir twice a day. The sugar should do it's work in about 48 hours. It helps if you then add some water and give it another 24 hours to finish. The juice is then separated from the solids and the juice used to assemble the must. Proceed with a normal "cool ferment" technique.

Keep in mind that any time you smell something, it had to be volatile enough to escape from the juice/must/wine in order to reach your nose. Things which escape in this manner will no longer be present in the finished wine. Thus, the "cold process" and "cool ferment" techniques are the best guaranty of a "fruity" wine because they minimize the loss of volatiles. HTH

Frederick

strawberries?

Frederick offered some good background on extraction approaches. If I may add to that some pros/cons and effects:

Some winemakers would avoid juice extractors because they (1) can seriously oxidise and, (2) are hard (in terms of maceration) on the fruit.

Pressing (cheesecloth style) is a good approach IMO and offers a high degree of control if you have a good press. It results in better control of the press fractions (e.g. later press fractions will be more tannic, so you can include/disclude them) and lower SS which is more favourable for clean, fruity styles. Though winemakers should be careful with oxidation.

Heat extraction is a hotly debatable issue. Some winemakers like the "stewed"/"cooked" flavours that are a result of using heat, others do not, and believe they drive off valuable aromatics in the process.

If you're aiming for a fruity styled wine, I wouldn't recommend room temperature processes at all. In fact, a lot of winemakers cool down their fruit deliberately and then extract the juice immediately (without any maceration). So that's actually an additional approach. I would call "cold maceration" (essentially what Frederick called the "cold process") a different process (which might be seen as an extention of this). Cold maceration does lead to a different result however, because you get extended aqeuous extraction- rather than alcoholic (with pulp fermentations), or none at all (in the case of immediate juice extraction and juice-only fermentation). I personally like it, and see it as a good option for fruity styles where a bit of phenolic character isn't a problem. It also presents a primitive alternative immediate juice extraction followed by cold settling technqiues.

All these options are really stylistic choices. For a Strawberry, I'd personally go for one of the following, depending on how you like the wine: (1) (cold-pressed) extraction and juice-only ferementation (2) cold maceration followed by juice-only ferementation (3) short (2-3 day) pulp fermentation.

(2) will give more phenolics, and (3) will give even more. Some winemakers dislike "seed character". (1) will give a more clean, fruity style but will be lighter.

Ben

Improved Winemaking