Strawberry wine

John, Where are you getting your strawberries (pick your own, grocery store)? And how to extract your color? And do you freeze your berries? The reason I ask is that I'm in the midst of my third batch of strawberry wine using Jack's recipe - I don't have any complaints about acid or color. I do add 1 can of frozen 100% Welch's grape juice to the recipe. My strawberries are picked at a local farm, frozen, and then thawed to make wine. I do use hot sugar water to extract color, which I know some do not like to do. I'm currently picking my strawberries for my next batch which I'll make in the fall. Darlene G'town WI USA

I just picked 10-12 lbs of strawberries for a 3 gallon batch. this will be my third time. My first was better than my second, my second has a bit of harshness to it, although I was able to get some strawberry concentrate in a "sample" from a juice supplier...I was tempted to drink the whole thing without adding it to the wine, it was so good...thus my second has a more pronounced strawberry flavour. Third time's the charm? we'll see.

welches....the white? or the purple concord?

Rick

I used the concord grape for my most recent batch. But I did use the white Welch's for my first batch, which was very good. The grape seems to enhance the color already there. I'm making cranberry now, and I added the grape Welch's - the color is much deeper than my first batch. I think it adds a bit more body to the wine. Darlene

Dar, I bought half from a berry farm, and the other half I picked myself and all are very ripe. I use 5 lbs+ per gallon and put them in a straining bag. I have used the hot water method in the past with no complaints, but I plan on using just warm water this time as it seems a bit fruitier. I always try to freeze the berries first to help break them down and aid extraction. I think that you have to be cautious not to over press or "grind up" the seeds on the strawberrries to avoid the bitterness I think Rick is alluding to. So I just mush up the berries in the bag and give it a kneeding type squeeze and stir daily until I pull the berries out. Much like my raspberry I dont wring the bag out, but rather let it drip out for a few hours and then toss it. As a general rule I make an acid correction on all of my fruit wines to the area of .65 TA. In regards to the color- it isn't a problem per se, I just think a bright red like the raspberry would be more appealing than the off red rusty color I end up with. It looks as red as could be in the carboy, but in a glass it just doesn't carry the color as well. Likely I wont add any artificial coloring, but as always I am interested in other's experiences with things I haven't tried yet. I haven't seen an appreciable difference in the color from hot or cold extraction, so I am moving more towards the cold side for now. John Dixon

John I make a strawberry every year and without going into recipe details ( I use about 20 lbs for 5 gals Imp). Some years I make it into a dry sparkling wine with a lot of effort -- and it is eventually very good. Anyway on to the colour factor. Two years ago I added a red wine concentrate (oh gosh where are my records) -- from a 1 gallon wine kit type thingy --- to the must, before I adjusted the sugar to the level I wanted. The end result in bulk looked a bit dark but the glass "look" after a year was great -- a slightly darker than rosé look to it without effecting the flavour at all. An additional point -- I have always found that the strawberry flavour is very intense and I have never made strawberry wine in total fruit. I have also found that my strawberry wines are probably better ( for me anyway) during their second year after initial fermentation. I always ferment to total dryness. When drinking I also prefer to cool the wine rather than to chill it -- about 1/2 to 1 hr in the fridge and without being too cold the strawberry bouquet is quite delicious -- for me anyway -- my younger son & his wife disagree ( but they tend to be wine snobs!)

Hope this is useful to you!

John, You do not by chance bulk age in a lighted area do you? Color in berry wine is very susseptible to light bleaching. There has been a lot of discussion in the past and the general opinion is that green bottles may not stop this.

Ray

For what it's worth, I made Lum's strawberry wine recipe two years ago, and I pureed the raw fruit in a blender, though it says somewhere not to do that. Anyhow, it presented no problems, and fell perfectly clear. It did have a thick pale cap during the primary though. Ken