Al,
I make strawberry every year and cant make enough of it for the family
and friends. A couple of tips for you- as Trevor eluded to it is helpful to
freeze the strawberries before you start. Also take all of the greens off
BEFORE you freeze as they are a real pain to get off slimy frozen
strawberries. I then put all of the strawberries in a nylon straining bag
before mashing them up. At this point I add acid blend, tannin, nutrient and
warm water (some use hot, some cold, and others none at all for various
reasons and preferences). I like to use at least 5 lbs of berries per gallon
of wine minimum. Adjust your sugar(I use cane, some use brown sugar- but the
taste is not to my liking) and let it sit overnight. If you didn't use real
hot water you can add the Pectin enzyme at this point, otherwise add it the
next day when you pitch the yeast. I also double check the sugar level the
next day before it gets fermenting along as the sugar levels tend to come up
after a day or so, you have to watch you don't add too much sugar from the
get go. Give it a stir and mush it about daily for however long you want to
keep it in the primary (usually around 5-7 days or so). Pull up the bag and
let it drip for a couple of hours to get the rest of the juice out.
I don't recommend pressing the berries for a couple of reasons. One is
the fine fruit particles that will end up in your wine making it a pain to
rack and clarify and could lead to a hydrogen sulphide problem, and the
other is the little tiny seeds on the berries that are Tannic and bitter. I
use roughly the same method for Raspberry wine particularly the draining
only part. Once transferred to the secondary try to keep light off the wine
as it is prone to bleaching. I also limit my sulphite use in the Strawberry
as I think it bleaches some of the color out of the wine. HTH
John Dixon
"Al Davis" > wrote in message
om...
> hey everyone i am attempting to make a strawberry wine and i was
> wondering what is the best way to extract the flavor. this will be my
> first wine to make from scratch and i was just hoping to find some
> advice. thanx everyone
> al