Fresh Picked Strawberry Wine June 2020

June 12, 2020

Mary B went strawberry picking and grabbed extra so I could make some more strawberry wine.  This will be my first batch using fresh.  I made some from a kit previously.  I checked some online recipes and got the basic gist of the proportions.

• 6 pounds fresh strawberries with the tops cut off
• 6-7 cups of sugar (dehydrated cane juice)
• Water
• Pectin

I used a wine bucket to make it easier to work with the berries.  I poured the berries in and added water to around 2 gallons.  I added some sugar to get things started and used a hand mixer to grind up the berries.  I didn't want to cook them for fear that some of the wonderful flavors and smells would go up in steam.  I had to hand mash some of the berries.  I checked the gravity and it was at about 20% sugar.  I like my wine a little stronger so I added 4 more cups of sugar.  2 cups is one pound so the additional sugar probably only raised the sugar a little.  I'll let it get started and will add some sugar later, maybe.

June 21 - Getting ready to travel to the beach so I didn't want the wine to sit on the mash too long and possibly get funky.  So I racked it.  Very tasty.  Has about 3-5% still to go.  It's still bubbling pretty well and the airlock was bubbling almost right away.  One thing that was fun was I took some of the mash, mixed it with sugar, and put it on my english muffins.  Tasty.

July 19 - Got back from the beach and it had cleared really nicely so I decided to bottle it.  I didn't want it getting funky or anything.  It came out beautiful and so tasty.  Very rich strawberry flavor.  Definitely another to try in the future.  I can't wait to enjoy it in the spring.