Would this work - Strawberry?

[dmrevis]

My mind has been wandering while at work and i was wondering if this would work:
6 bottles worth of water
Sugar
wine yeast
stawberries
strawberry flavouring

Not sure if it would work, would this make a decent wine? If not, could i ferment and prime to make a weak sparkling drink?

 

[percival]

Berry suggests citric acid, nutrient and grape tannin in addition to what is on your list. doesn't use flavouring, and neither would i but thats only one of my things to avoid which plenty of others use.

 

[arturobandini]

Strawberries don't make very good wine as it seems that they don't impart much of their flavour for whatever reason. Worth a try for experimentation sake.

 

[percival]

i can believe that. The only wine i've made that really has a strong flavour of the fruit it comes from is the orange wine. Even the mint doesnt taste at all strongly of mint. Thankfully the parsnip wine hasn't got a whiff of parsnip about it either! i'm hoping to have a go at pineapple sometime soon, and hoping it will have a distinct pineapple flavour rather than a hint of it.

 

[dmrevis]

Strawberries don't make very good wine as it seems that they don't impart much of their flavour for whatever reason. Worth a try for experimentation sake.

Thats why i was wondering about adding the strawberry flavouring near the end before bottling.

 

[trunky]

I have made a nice Strawberry wine in the past, when using some additional white grape juice it turns out to be a nice pale rose colour. Sometimes you get a secondary fermentaion theat delivers a slight (yeast free) sparkle in the bottle.

 

[percival]

whether or not you add flavourings, artificial or natural, is just a personal preference dm. It's neither right nor wrong. The advantage of using them is that you'll be able to more precisely control the flavour of your wine to what you want. Thats part of what its all about. If you want to drink your homebrew, but don't like it, then it kinda defeats the purpose eh! You gotta brew how it suits you at the end of the day. It could be worth considering using something like jam or juice instead of strawberries tho, it'll probably be cheaper and less hassle. if you use jam then you'll probably need some pectic enzyme, unless you buy some expensive jam which would kinda defeat the cost cutting purpose. And you don't get the fun of playing with fresh fruit.

Its good that arturo highlighted the flavour issue tho because it can be a source of disappointment if the results are way off what you expected. On the other hand when you make a country wine that tastes like a decent grape wine .....

 

[arturobandini]

Yeah, I wasn't trying to do down the idea of strawberry wine or anything just wanted to throw that in there so you were aware. As it turns out you had your base covered with the strawberry flavouring. No idea what flavouring you are going to be using or whether that too will be lost in fermentation. Perhaps trying to prime with some Strawberry syrup (Somthing by Monin for example who make syrups for mixing with water and for adding to Coffee) or adding some after the initial fermentation subsides.

I'm a big fan of experimentation especially in cost effective country wines/ciders/meads so if you go ahead with this then please document your results for the rest of us.

Sometimes you get a secondary fermentaion theat delivers a slight (yeast free) sparkle in the bottle.

People used to think that happened when the fruit itself came into season! Hard to ferment sugars and a slight yeast in suspension will do it, not enough to form a deposit or cloud the wine though. Sparkling Strawberry wine is an ambition of mine (along with gooseberry) and i'll be looking at trying to get some strawberry flavour into it in as natural a way as possible too.

 

[dmrevis]

Thanks for all the advice, its good to have more experienced brewers to call on for information.

 

[trunky]

Sometimes you get a secondary fermentaion theat delivers a slight (yeast free) sparkle in the bottle.

People used to think that happened when the fruit itself came into season! Hard to ferment sugars and a slight yeast in suspension will do it, not enough to form a deposit or cloud the wine though. Sparkling Strawberry wine is an ambition of mine (along with gooseberry) and i'll be looking at trying to get some strawberry flavour into it in as natural a way as possible too.

Actually, I could not think of the name (head full of cold) now I recall it and its definitely not a yeast based fermentaion, it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malolactic_fermentation

 

[arturobandini]

Actually, I could not think of the name (head full of cold) now I recall it and its definitely not a yeast based fermentaion, it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malolactic_fermentation

You mean Wine that had some time in the bottle (about a year) and suffers a change in temperature. Those carbonations are not yeast or sugar based but as a result of enzymes and micro-organisms. Not had one happen to me but I tend to lay down my wines in areas of consistent temperature.

 

[falafael]

just buy the youngs country definitive strawberry wine...you won't regret it mate!! top wine! :clap: