Two things have contributed to my delving into the art of winemaking – one, strawberries were on sale at Reasor’s and two, I have always been curious about making my own booze. I have done quite a bit of reading sporadically over the years over winemaking, beer brewing and distilling. One thing I find is not often do people involved in these processes lay down a clear step by step process. They get sidetracked by giving a history lesson or what you could add or they simply like to hear themselves talk. Also another annoying thing is most recipes are to make 5 gallons that is like 25 bottles! I dont think I have drank 25 bottles of wine in the past 20 years. 😛
I am using this post as a running log so that if this actually turns out to be drinkable – it will be a “recipe” and I will move it to recipes. If you try to follow this before this process is finished – do not get mad at me if it turns out to be nasty. 😉
Ok in this rundown assume everything that comes into contact with the wine is sterile. That means boiled or rinsed in a chlorine water solution.
Strawberry Wine – Day 1
3 lbs. Strawberries
1/4 tsp. Potassium Metabisulfite
1/4 tsp. Wine Tannin
1/2 tsp.Pectic Enzyme
1 3/4 tsps. Acid Blend
De-stem and chop up the strawberries. Add the rest of the ingredients. Add enough water to cover. Stir and cover.
Strawberry Wine – Day 2-7
1 gal water
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp Yeast nutrient
1/4 Packet of Wine Yeast
On day two I opened up the bucket and put in the water, sugar, yeast nutrient and yeast. Stir, stir, stir and then snap on the lid with air lock.
Strawberry Wine – Day 8-22
I “racked” (a painful sounding term for siphoning the liquid) the wine from the bucket to a 1 gallon glass carboy. First I used a strainer spoon to remove all the strawberry bits I could. Then I set it back in the cupboard to do it’s thing for 14 days.
Strawberry Wine – Day 22 – ??
The wine has started to clear up nicely. I racked it again and sucked up a bit of sediment so will have to do it one more time. The full fermentation makes the wine super dry so I am topping up (after you rack there will be empty space at the top of the bottle) with a 2 to 1 sugar syrup (2 cups sugar to one cup water heated up till all the sugar dissolves). Will take more pictures when I rack the wine again in another week.