Strawberry Wine

Started 9/20/2003
Bottled 11/28/2003

Alcohol 11%
Initial SG 1.084
Final SG 0.990 - sweetened to 1.003
pH ND TA ND

Tasting Notes

Color is a light brown/red. Slightly sweet and cloying strawberry flavor.

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9/20/2003

19.6 pounds strawberries from local farm picked in June and frozen --- thawed in microwave
3 gallons nearly boiling water added.

Fruit was mashed by hand and with a paint stirrer after the hot water was added

1 tbsp citric acid
1 tbsp tartaric acid
1/2 tsp tannin
1 gallon niagra white grape juice

Allowed to cool and pectic enzyme was added.

9/21/2003

The pulp was strained – not much pulp – the berries have completely disintegrated. This yielded almost 6 gallons of must. The SG of the must measured 1.020. 10 pounds of sugar were added raising the SG to 1.084. Lavlin K1-V1116 yeast was sprinkled on top.

9/23/2003

No sign of fermentation. Another package of yeast was added.

9/24/2003

Fermentation has started!

9/27/2003

Looks like fermentation is slow – SG still 1.070. The must was stirred vigorously and more yeast was added. These packages were a little bit old, so it is not clear whether they will work. 2 packages Red Star premier cuvee and 1 package red star Pasteur champagne yeast were added. After 30 minues, the must looks like it is fermenting vigorously again. Must be the aeration.

9/28/2003

Fermentation looks much better – SG 1.044. Transferred into a 6 gallon carboy and an imperial gallon bottle. A little more than 6 gallons was obtained.

10/19/2003

SG 0.990. Racked into 5 gallon, 1/2 gallon, and 750 mL bottled. The taste is very nice dry. Some samples with sugar added were tested. Off dry the strawberry is really muted – taste declines. When enough sugar is added to border on a sweet wine, the strawberry pops back out. This may be sweetened later, we’ll see. It is still good as a dry wine.

11/22/03

SG 0.990. The wine was sweetened with 25 oz of sugar dissolved in about a pint of water. The gravity after sweetening the batch was 1.003 – this is about 4% residual sugar. The wine is really well balanced at this level and makes a nice semi-sweet wine. 2.4 g sulfite and 4.75 g potassium sorbate added. The sweetened wine was racked into a 5 gallon carboy, 3 750 mL bottles and a 12 oz bottle. This will probably be filtered and bottled next week if stable.

11/28/03

Wine was filtered through #3 pads to give a very clear wine. 1 g sulfite added and bottled into 24 bottles. TA measured at 0.82.