Freezing Strawberries

[shadow47]

Just got 1Kg of Strawberries from ASDA, haven't got a spare Demijohn available so I'm going to freeze them.

What's the best way of doing it? Shall I remove the green leaves or leave them on?

Shall I treat with Sodium Met solution before freezing to kill any wild yeast that's on the fruit? Or does freezing kill all of the yeast anyway?

Thanks :drunk:

 

[Moley]

Remove the green and give them a rinse in a weak SodMet solution :thumb:

By “weak” I mean no more than a quarter of a teaspoonful to a gallon of water and just give them a sloosh about for a minute or two. I've overdone the sulphite rinse before now and had a couple of very stubborn starters.

 

[shadow47]

Thanks Moley!

Do you think 1KG of strawberries is enough for a gallon or should I buy more?

Oh and quarter of a teaspoon I'd guess to be like 3 campden tablets?

 

[Moley]

Personally, I wouldn't use strawberries on their own and would prefer to add a pound/ 500g of raspberries.

And yes, 1 level 5ml tsp of SodMet is meant to be equivalent to 10 CTs.

 

[the shadow]

i tend to frezee all my soft fruit. help to get the juice out i fined

 

[Moley]

Agreed, the expanding ice crystals break the cell walls and you get much better juice extraction :thumb:

 

[tonyhibbett]

Strawberries alone make a dissappointing wine, even using 2 kg per gallon, a tablespoon of citric acid and some tannin. Out of season, non organically grown ones are pretty tasteless anyway, but even if they taste good, freezing adversely affects the flavour. However, using them in combination with other fresh soft fruit or juice, can produce excellent results.

 

[user 1290]

using them in combination with other fresh soft fruit or juice, can produce excellent results.

I find that as little as 125g added to wines containing red fruits/carton juices can be enough to enhance the flavour.