Strawberry wine
- Thread starter keepitlow
- Start date
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Strawberries, and most fruits that aren't grapes, do not have enough sugar to make wine at a sufficient alcohol concentration that will keep well, so sugar has to be added. Not to mention that we typically don't use pure juice, we water it down.
You will notice with most recipes for wines or meads it will be recommended that you add your sugar to the fruit and water, measure the specific gravity, then pitch your yeast. You want to add your sugar early while the yeast is still active (first week or so, generally) otherwise it has a hard time chewing through it and it will be much slower. I can attest to this personally, I made my first strawberry wine too dilute (it would have been around 7% alcohol) and added more sugar in secondary and the darned stuff wouldn't stop bubbling, it bubbled for over a year.
The other problem with adding it in secondary is that if you add straight sugar it may not dissolve and if you dissolve it in water it messes with your concentration when you go to calculate your final alcohol content.
You will notice with most recipes for wines or meads it will be recommended that you add your sugar to the fruit and water, measure the specific gravity, then pitch your yeast. You want to add your sugar early while the yeast is still active (first week or so, generally) otherwise it has a hard time chewing through it and it will be much slower. I can attest to this personally, I made my first strawberry wine too dilute (it would have been around 7% alcohol) and added more sugar in secondary and the darned stuff wouldn't stop bubbling, it bubbled for over a year.
The other problem with adding it in secondary is that if you add straight sugar it may not dissolve and if you dissolve it in water it messes with your concentration when you go to calculate your final alcohol content.
Thanks!
I kind of jumped the gun. I bought a bunch of strawberries yesterday and when I got home to taste them they had little flavor. They smelled OK at the store. Next time will buy a pack to test first.
Same problem with peaches. But they all have no smell in the store, so almost never buy them.
I kind of jumped the gun. I bought a bunch of strawberries yesterday and when I got home to taste them they had little flavor. They smelled OK at the store. Next time will buy a pack to test first.
Same problem with peaches. But they all have no smell in the store, so almost never buy them.
Some people might add additional sugar in secondary for backsweetening, but adding the main fermentable amount of sugar is secondary is just going to stress the yeast out.
Check out your local farmers market. You can usually taste the fruit before you buy it, and being local it is fresh. Depending on where you live, strawberries might still be in season.
