Ingredients:
- 1 can strawberry pulp and juice
- Water to make 3 gallons
- 7 lbs sugar
- Acid blend
- Yeast nutrient
- pectin enzyme
Since the pulp was mostly juice there was no need to let it sit overnight so I dumped everything in the jug. I heated water to melt the sugar. I was surprised at how much sugar it needed. Below is the first ferment. It started bubbling voraciously on the first day and has been cooking for a week. I'll take it off of the pulp this weekend. I usually do this after a week. I don't want to chance it getting a weird taste.
9/15/2017 - I racked the wine to a second fermentation after a week. I took a taste and it is very sweet and delicious. It still measured 5%-10% so it has a ways to go. After almost a week on the second ferment it is still bubbling like crazy. The airlock is popping every 20 seconds or so. Nice.
10/3/2017 - Still a few wee tiny bubbles happening. I'm pretty sure that the bubbles are coming up from the spent yeast on the bottom and that it's not really still in a fermenting stage. After writing this I decided to rack the wine to take it off of the old yeast. It wasn't at zero yet and was still a little sweet to my liking but very tasty. An airlock confirmed that the wine is still fermenting.
10/27/2017 - The wine had completely stopped for a week or so. Time to bottle it. I checked the gravity and it is not completely to zero. Tastes pretty strong so I guess it stopped because of the strength. Bottled really pretty. Got 11 bottles out of it. Should be nicely mellowed for Lyric's birthday and beyond.
1/4/2018 - Opened for Lyric's birthday. Absolutely delicious. Brought a bottle to Aunt T's to share as well and everyone loved it. The character definitely changed with a little age and I feel like the taste and octane increased. Shared with Matt from work. He and his wife liked it as well so it's a hit.
9/15/2017 - I racked the wine to a second fermentation after a week. I took a taste and it is very sweet and delicious. It still measured 5%-10% so it has a ways to go. After almost a week on the second ferment it is still bubbling like crazy. The airlock is popping every 20 seconds or so. Nice.
10/3/2017 - Still a few wee tiny bubbles happening. I'm pretty sure that the bubbles are coming up from the spent yeast on the bottom and that it's not really still in a fermenting stage. After writing this I decided to rack the wine to take it off of the old yeast. It wasn't at zero yet and was still a little sweet to my liking but very tasty. An airlock confirmed that the wine is still fermenting.
10/27/2017 - The wine had completely stopped for a week or so. Time to bottle it. I checked the gravity and it is not completely to zero. Tastes pretty strong so I guess it stopped because of the strength. Bottled really pretty. Got 11 bottles out of it. Should be nicely mellowed for Lyric's birthday and beyond.
1/4/2018 - Opened for Lyric's birthday. Absolutely delicious. Brought a bottle to Aunt T's to share as well and everyone loved it. The character definitely changed with a little age and I feel like the taste and octane increased. Shared with Matt from work. He and his wife liked it as well so it's a hit.
Mixing the batch. Day one.
Racked to new jug October 3
Bottled October 27
Opened January 4 2018 Happy Birthday
