Strawberry wine recipe

[johnnyjojo]

Has anyone got a decent strawberry wine recipe?

I've looked online and recipes range from 3 to 12lb of fruit per gallon, some with raspberries, peaches or rhubarb added and with or without pectolase, campden tabs etc but i can't seem to find a decent, robust recipe?

i've got just over 8lb of de-stalked and frozen strawberries that i've grown myself and I don't want to waste all that hard work by making an off or weak flavoured wine.

any suggestions would be most appreciated

 

[oldbloke]

I've done it a few times now, with frozen strawbs from Costco. It's a fave here. It needs a good dose of pectolase and may want finings (I only use them when I have to)

2011-08-18 4lbs Costco frozen strawberries, chopped in blender; 2.5lbs sugar; 1 Campden, crushed; Steeped 2 days, stirring every half day
2011-08-20 Strained and sparged; Into demi with: Mug Earl Grey; tsp citric; tsp nutrient; Lalvin Bourgovin RC212 yeast rehydrated and pitched
2011-10-09 Racked. Taste promising 2011-10-21 Bottled.

2012-02-23 4lbs Costco frozen strawberries, 2.5lbs sugar, 1 Campden (crushed) into bucket with 1.5litres just-boiled water; Hand blender when thawed; Steeped 1 day, stirring occasionally
2012-02-24 1tsp citric, 1tsp nutrient; 1/2pkt Gervin GV2 2012-02-26 Funneled to demi; Mug Earl Grey;
2012-03-14 Racked. Sulphite, despite still bubbling. Tastes good, still plenty of sugar left to ferment
2012-04-02 Racked - partly syphoned, partly poured through muslin-lined sieve. Only way to get rid of pulp.
2012-05-11 Added finings 2012-05-15 Bottled with sorbate and Campden.

2012-11-07 4lb strawbs, 1200g sugar, Campden, 1.5l water; Given time to thaw then mashed with the hand blender; Steeped 2 days
2012-11-09 Strain&sparge to demi NB Don't use hand blender next time, or just sieve it; Mug tea, tsp citric, ysp pectolase, tsp nutrient, yeast: GV2
2013-01-31 Racked 2013-02-08 Extra pectolase (also a bit of amylase by mistake...)
2013-02-12 Racked and stabilised 2013-02-26 Bentonite 2013-03-02 Bottled

All 3 are (were!) delicious. Don't mash them too much, the pulp is horrendous and leads to clearing problmes. Just a rough chop, let the sugar draw out the flavour from the berries. It may try to turn into jam if you don't use enough pectolase.

 

[oldbloke]

You know, though, next time, I might bung a few sultanas in.

 

[johnnyjojo]

brill thanks.

like to keep the additives to a minimum so don't like to use campden etc if poss but will deff try one of these with recipes with the pectolase and see waht happens.

approx how long after bottling before drinkable?

 

[oldbloke]

Campden advisable during that early steeping period, to stymie any wild yeasts or other nasties. It decays to pretty much nothing in a few days anyway.
Although if you've frozen those berries that may be enough, actually.

I haven't kept notes of how old it was when it got good, but it was fairly young - try a bottle at say 3 or 4 weeks after bottling, see what you think. You'll get a reasonable idea off the syphon when you bottle - if it's just a little sharp, that'll go in a couple of weeks. It gets progressively better with more time though.

 

[screamlead]

I always steep mine after freezing them - 36 hours in a bucket with the sugar then sparge with bottled water to get as much juice and colour out as possible. Alway use pectolase too, citric and tannin or tea. Mine always clear on their own - i have found using campdens at racking especially on any red fruit tends to lose its colour so i dont bother now i just bottle once clear.
Last batch was 40kg for 55ltr of wine. :

 

[Jonny69]

I've done it a few times now, with frozen strawbs from Costco. It's a fave here. It needs a good dose of pectolase and may want finings (I only use them when I have to)

2011-08-18 4lbs Costco frozen strawberries, chopped in blender; 2.5lbs sugar; 1 Campden, crushed; Steeped 2 days, stirring every half day
2011-08-20 Strained and sparged; Into demi with: Mug Earl Grey; tsp citric; tsp nutrient; Lalvin Bourgovin RC212 yeast rehydrated and pitched
2011-10-09 Racked. Taste promising 2011-10-21 Bottled.

2012-02-23 4lbs Costco frozen strawberries, 2.5lbs sugar, 1 Campden (crushed) into bucket with 1.5litres just-boiled water; Hand blender when thawed; Steeped 1 day, stirring occasionally
2012-02-24 1tsp citric, 1tsp nutrient; 1/2pkt Gervin GV2 2012-02-26 Funneled to demi; Mug Earl Grey;
2012-03-14 Racked. Sulphite, despite still bubbling. Tastes good, still plenty of sugar left to ferment
2012-04-02 Racked - partly syphoned, partly poured through muslin-lined sieve. Only way to get rid of pulp.
2012-05-11 Added finings 2012-05-15 Bottled with sorbate and Campden.

2012-11-07 4lb strawbs, 1200g sugar, Campden, 1.5l water; Given time to thaw then mashed with the hand blender; Steeped 2 days
2012-11-09 Strain&sparge to demi NB Don't use hand blender next time, or just sieve it; Mug tea, tsp citric, ysp pectolase, tsp nutrient, yeast: GV2
2013-01-31 Racked 2013-02-08 Extra pectolase (also a bit of amylase by mistake...)
2013-02-12 Racked and stabilised 2013-02-26 Bentonite 2013-03-02 Bottled

All 3 are (were!) delicious. Don't mash them too much, the pulp is horrendous and leads to clearing problmes. Just a rough chop, let the sugar draw out the flavour from the berries. It may try to turn into jam if you don't use enough pectolase.

I need to try this! When you say strain and sparge, what do you mean by that? And I take it you topped up to one gallon with water at some point?

 

[oldbloke]

I need to try this! When you say strain and sparge, what do you mean by that? And I take it you topped up to one gallon with water at some point?

Anything I make that's got lots of solids or pulp generally goes in the straining bag from t'missus's jam making kit - has its own tripod thingy so you can just leave it to drain into a fermenting bucket or whatever. But sometimes I just use a big sieve. As you never get a full gallon of liquid out, and you want to get as much flavour compounds and sugars out, I usually pour boiled-and-cooled water through it as well - that's sparging.
It can be a bit tedious with anything very pulpy, it tends to hold the liquid and you end up pressing it through with a big spoon - try not to mash stuff up too much, and freezing is good for popping cell walls of fruit and veg so flavours come out easier.

Yeh, there's always a top-up at some point. Usually fill demijohn to about 3.5 litres for the first few days then fill it when initial mad ferment dies down. And if it was very pulpy there'll maybe be a racking to lose what settles out sometime before it's actually ready to bottle, too, so a bit more top-up then.

 

[Jonny69]

Thanks, that all makes sense!

 

[johnnyjojo]

was thinking of using champagne yeast to add a little sparkle. What do we think?

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Using a champagne yeast doesn't automatically make a wine sparkling, that's down to how you process the wine at the bottling stage. Champagne yeasts are commonly used for sparkling wines because they are particularly good at restarting ferments and have a high tolerance for alcohol, however they are also used for still white wines and cider. For making your own sparkling wines it's only the alcohol tolerance that's important so any high-tolerance wine yeast should do the job.

You should use champagne bottles as ordinary wine bottles won't necessarily cope with the pressure of sparkling wine and bottle bombs can be both messy and dangerous. You'll need champagne stoppers and cages too, both of which you should be able to get at your local home-brew shop. The stoppers are reusable. Alternatively, PET bottles that contained carbonated soft drinks like cola or lemonade will usually cope well, if you don't have any/enough champagne bottles.

To make it sparkle, let the wine ferment until it has run out of sugar, and allow to clear. As soon as it's clear, rack off the lees, "prime" the wine by adding 30-45g (1-1.5oz) of sugar per gallon, then bottle. Using dry to medium wine is important because you need to be reasonably sure of how much sugar is in the wine when you bottle it. Too little and the sparkle will be a damp squib; too much and removing the stopper will release a geyser - or worse, it'll force its own way out, potentially destroying the bottle in the process.

 

[chrissy]

Have you a recipe for strawberry with rhubarb really want to try but can't find any thing to go by ,fairly new to all this done a couple of kits want to make my own