Strawberry Sparkling Wine

[Beanhead]

Hey guys,

I've mainly done kits in the past and this is my first attempt at doing anything from scratch. I have some fresh strawberries hand picked which I froze a few weeks ago, plus everything else I hopefully need, but I'm worried I might get the steps wrong and/or measure it out incorrectly.

Wondered if I could get a few pointers?

Ingredients:

- 2kg Fresh Strawberries (frozen)
- 7 ltrs Pure White Grape Juice (not from concentrate)
- Raisins (how much?)
- Lemons (how many for acid)
- Pectolase (how much?)
- Campden Tablets
- 2 kg Brewing Sugars
- Strong Tea (Tannin)
- Lalvin Champagne Yeast

I'm hoping to do the following;

1. Leave strawberries for 24 hours mixed with 1 kg sugar to bring out juices
2. Mash whatever's left, pass through fine straining bag into bucket.
3. Add grape juice, lemon juice (acid/citric), pectolase, tannin, campden tablets and leave for 24 hours
4. Make yeast starter in tepid water, yeast nutrient and yeast; add to FV
5. Leave to ferment.
6. Start to bottle once reaches destined gravity

My question is how much campden, acid and pectolase should I go for?
What is a good SG to make a 12-14% wine?
When should I start to bottle to keep it sparkling and ferment in the bottles?

Phew!

Apologies for all the questions, any help much appreciated!

Beans.

 

[Beanhead]

Right,

Have everything now, should be leaving the frozen strawberries in sugar tonight to draw out as much juice as I can before moving to FV tomorrow.

 

[Moley]

I assume you're going for 2 gallons?

Strawberries can be quite acidic, so maybe only one lemon.

Raisins: Maybe 500g ? Washed (because they are often tumbled in vegetable oil to give them a pleasant shine) and then chopped or minced.

If you're going for 2 gallons you've got way too much sugar and would get an OG around 1.136

If you're going for more than 2 gallons you haven't got enough fruit.

I would suggest no higher than 1.100 which would require 280g sugar in the litre.

9 x 280 = 2520g sugar required, less approx. 120g from the strawberries, 350g from the raisins and 1050g from the white grape juice means you only need an additional 1000g.

Pectolase: 1 tsp to the gallon.

 

[Wendy1971]

im going to make this it sounds really nice :thumb:

 

[screamlead]

You need to leave it with the sugar and strawbs for 36 hours for max juice extraction then strain through muslin into a spare bucket then lob in DJ. Agree with moley on sugar volumes too. You want about 2-3 t spoons of pectolase too added to DJ.
Then leave it well alone to do its thing - it will drop perfectly clear too.
You will then need to add sugar to the bottles or bulk prime to carb it up once its dropped clear and been racked off the trub.

 

[Beanhead]

Thanks moley and screamlead!

Can I just leave in sugar from frozen or should I de-frost first?

Also, would it be an issue for the fermentation if I use a full youngs 5 gallon FV to ferment rather than a DJ?

I was also under the assumption I had to bottle semi-fermented first and let it ferment out rather then clear and then batch prime the bottles?

I have roughly 11 champagne bottles which I'll be corking up.

 

[Gayle]

Frozen sugar? or do you mean the strawberries? It probably doesn't matter as they'll defrost quicky, I'm not sure if maybe you'll need to add a campden tab to the strawberry mash as freezing won't have destroyed all the bacteria. I was under the impression that using a big FV for a small batch could result in a bad-tasing brew, due to the amount of headspace :hmm: maybe use 5l water bottles if you don't have spare DJ's but using the 5gl FV would probably be a last resort, you'd be better off just multiplying all the ingredients and making a 5gl batch. It might be worth investing in a 2gl bucket for the smaller batches, I've got one and it's great for when I don't want to do 5gl but I know a 1gl brew won't be enough!

Do not bottle half-fermented wine. Let it ferment out and settle, rack off, then yes you can add sugar to batch prime (this is where you add sugar to the wine before in the bucket before bottling, not putting the sugar in the bottles. Either way is fine but batch priming produces consistent results.) There will be enough yeast napping in the wine that will wake up with the addition of the sugar, and will carbonate it then.

 

[screamlead]

Its better doing juice extraction from frozen yes - just lob the sugar on them and leave alone for 36 hours keep covered with a clean tea towel or something. I actually pressed mine this year after pouring off most of the liquid - but then again i did do 55 ltr.
Also yes let it clear on its own - although it looks perfectly clear believe me there are still some yeasties still in there and it will carb up fine.

 

[Beanhead]

Cheers guys,

Left over night from frozen (yep did mean strawberries) in sugar and alot of juice was extracted, mashed by hand and put through fine muslin bag which I've now tied and left in 5gl FV.

Added the grape juice, juice of one lemon, 500g diced and washed sultanas (didn't have raisins) and one strong tea.

I used 2 campden tablets in the FV (one for every gallon) and 2 teaspoons of pectolase.

I also used half the kilo of sugar during strawberry juice extraction and the rest in the FV.

Phew.

Will check again tomorrow and add the yeast starter; squished prune juice, teaspoon sugar, tepid water and lalvin champagne yeast.

Really worried about the head space now

 

[Gayle]

Don't worry too much about the headspace, I did a couple of smaller cider brews in my big FV and didn't notice anything off. I think it matters less during the start of fermentation, when the yeast uses oxygen and gives of CO2 and forms a protective layer - when racking off its better to have less headspace, most people top up the FVs to reduce the contact the brew has with oxygen. If you can do it then your wine might benefit from it but maybe someone else can help with that, I'm a relative newbie too!

 

[Thrupney_Bit]

Good to hear that your making some strawberry sparkling wine. I have a batch of strawberry, rosehip and pomegranate corked and wired as of last night.

With regards to bottling my preferred method is to ferment to dryness and rack off, checking that all sugar has been fermented. First, checking with hydrometer then with a diastix strip. I then add sugar at 68g per gallon to the whole DJ. This should yield around 50psi in your champers bottle. Pitch yeast and add to base wine. Fit airlock and confirm fermentation is under way then bottle up. Note this involves adding sugar to whole base wine rather than priming each bottle. This method is set out in the Making Sparkling Wines book by Restall & Hebbs. Perhaps different from what is normally applied to carbonate your bottle but having read it cover to cover I'm satisfied it makes sense. It also means that yeast is reintroduced after a fair bit of it has been racked off. This fresh yeast then sits in the bottle for a minimum of 12 months imparting it's flavour on the wine. Remember it's the amount of sugar that determines carbonation not amount of yeast so don't be put off by introducing more yeast into your wine.

All the best with your efforts. As a cider pressing/brewing enthusiast this is my first foray into the world of sparkling wines. I'm going to go the whole hog and freezing the necks to disgorge the yeast. Wish me luck!!! I'll report back in November 2013.

Lastly, this might be too late, but acidity wise you could skip the lemons and just add tartaric acid at approx 30 grams per gallon. That is what I used in my strawberry brew.

 

[Beanhead]

Thanks Thrupney,

Still trying to get round all this lingo!

So should I continue to ferment as I would a cider/lager until full fermentation is complete and move to secondary to clear.

Once complete, I add 136g sugar (68g per gallon), pitch yeast (i.e. just fling it in), mix and bottle?

Then use the champagne method (freezing neck and removing sediment).

 

[Thrupney_Bit]

Yes, ferment to dryness as per cider then rack off. I tend to rack twice using a Vinbrite filter for the last racking to minimise oxidation. Then indeed prime the whole DJ. You'll find that agitation will result in dissolving the sugar fully. I primed mine in the evening then gave it a good swill the following morning, all nicely dissolved. Then pitch yeast (I use warmed grape juice to rehydrated the yeast) and add around a pint of your base wine to this. Let your starter really get going. Leave over night to start bubbling and popping. Ideally, if your organised then pitch your yeast a day in advance so it's good to go in the DJ once you've primed it. Add starter and quarter of a yeast nutrient tablet to primed DJ. No more than a quarter though or flavours may go a bit off. Fit airlock to DJ to confirm that your pitched yeast is doing the business and then bottle up in true champagne bottles. Leave 12 months minimum horizontally in cool conditions.

I can't take credit for this knowledge as it's in the book I referenced in earlier post. It's essential to the discerning sparkling wine maker!

 

[Beanhead]

Thanks Thrupney,

My FV is currently going off like a rocket and even with the large head space, its still bubbling away nicely :thumb:

I usually rack to a secondary once fermentation is complete to clear. You're saying I should add sugar at this stage and leave for 24 hours while doing your starter, add together and bottle?

 

[Thrupney_Bit]

That's right. Rack off and then reintroduce the sugar followed by bubbling starter. It might seems odd adding fresh yeast to the racked wine but this will give your wine bouquet (as well as sparkle) as it rests in the bottle. Just make sure that you have definitely fermented to dryness before adding priming sugar or you will be creating bottle bombs. Wire down corks or use a crown capper, from memory I think you'll need 29mm caps. Crowns hold the pressure a little better and with the addition of a bidule can still capture yeast and be disgorged in the usual manner. I have a whole box of hollow stoppers and wire cages, plus my capper can't do 29mm caps so don't cap mine.

A top tip that I was given and use was to fill up a small screw top coke bottle with your primed wine. After a couple of weeks you can unscrew and confirm good carbonation has been achieved.

Lastly, I referenced it earlier but I use this to confirm fermentation is finished;

http://www.diastix.com/

Available from Boots or online pharmacy. I can't recommend them enough, gives me complete piece of mind. I take a hydrometer reading first, if that shows fermentation is over I then dip one of these to confirm no sugar present.

If you feel the need to sweeten your wine before bottling then something like splenda will do the job as it is pretty much unfermentable. I say pretty much as advice on another forum indicates that malto dextrin (an inhredient of Splenda) is partially fermentable but not enough to present a problems so the small amount you need to add to sweeten won't cause any issues with pressure.

 

[Beanhead]

Thanks thrupney,

Can you get diastix without prescription?

Will keep you updated, its been bubbling like a trooper since Saturday and hasn't stopped.

I only have non-hollow plastic corks and cages, how difficult do you find freezing the necks and removing the sediment?

 

[Thrupney_Bit]

No prescription needed. They're not drugs/medication just indicator strips for presence of glucose. You can buy them online too.

Hollow corks will be easier and optimum. You can buy them from most LHBS. If you have trouble sourcing then PM me and I'll give you contact details for mail order shop I use.

Disgorging is a skill. Perhaps best to practice a dummy run with a champagne bottle filled with fizzy pop to get a feel for what it's like. Practice makes perfect. You don't have to disgorge if you don't want to it just means the last glass of your brew will be yeasty, high in vitamin B12!

 

[Alanc16]

I started this a couple of days ago and has been going crazy, one thing that confuses me though is why would it turn yellow? :hmm:

 

[Beanhead]

Hi Alanc16,

Did you follow the recipe to the tee?

Mine has gone from bright red to a pinky orange, just waiting for it to clear now.

 

[Alanc16]

Yes followed it perfectly, it's like an orangey colour and down to 1.010 ATM so will see what it tasts like in few days