Wine Blog: Strawberry
So, I never mentioned last entry, but my goal for the strawberry is definitely a fruity dessert wine - strong, with significant residual sweetness and acidity to balance, very strawberry flavour - not aiming for complex, just strawberry.
Last blog on July 10 (really late Wednesday July 9th) I said that on Thursday July 10 I would reserve and freeze juice to flavour the cider, and add the yeast nutrient, and that on Friday July 11 I would pitch the yeast. Didn't manage to do that - hopefully the sitting time before innoculation will not affect the wine.
Monday evening, July 14: Previously tested the potential alcohol at 19%, and I'll be using Narbonne yeast which can get to 14% in good conditions, I will let it ferment to completion and should be left with a 12-14% wine and plenty of residual sweetness.
Tested the acid level - 7.0 g/L, which is pretty high, but hopefully it'll work for the strawberry, I think tartness will be an important component for a sweet strawberry wine - I want the first sip to start you salivating like crazy! If it doesn't work for whatever reason, perhaps a malo-lactic would benefit it - I shouldn't have to use sorbate to kill the yeast, it should die due to alcohol levels above its toxicity limit, so geranium flavour isn't a likely danger, and a malo-lactic would not necessarily be a bad thing to reduce the tartness - as long as it's not so sour that the malo-lactic can't get a hold. We'll see.
I added 1/2t pectic enzyme and 1/2t yeast nutrient and shook to mix, and let sit overnight. I noticed a slightly "off" smell as I added the yeast nutrient, but I'm pretty sure that was just the yeast nutrient.
Tuesday evening, July 15: I re-hydrated a packet of Narbonne yeast, pitched it in, covered it, and shook to aerate and really distribute the yeast (there's a lot in one of those packets for a 1/2 gallon batch, so I hope this really helps it take off and ferment to completion!) Then I realized that I don't have an airlock for it - mine have been cracking and leaking and getting tossed, and suddenly I'm one short! The jar I'm using as a primary fermenter is a screw-top that I can partly-screw so that it's closed but not air-tight, so I left it like that - I need to get another airlock and put it in the glass 1/2-gallon for the secondary fermenter. Then I moved it downstairs under the stairs, where it will be dark, consistently 19-20C, and not likely to be disturbed!
Again, I need to check on this, to make sure the fermentation is going.
B.
Last blog on July 10 (really late Wednesday July 9th) I said that on Thursday July 10 I would reserve and freeze juice to flavour the cider, and add the yeast nutrient, and that on Friday July 11 I would pitch the yeast. Didn't manage to do that - hopefully the sitting time before innoculation will not affect the wine.
Monday evening, July 14: Previously tested the potential alcohol at 19%, and I'll be using Narbonne yeast which can get to 14% in good conditions, I will let it ferment to completion and should be left with a 12-14% wine and plenty of residual sweetness.
Tested the acid level - 7.0 g/L, which is pretty high, but hopefully it'll work for the strawberry, I think tartness will be an important component for a sweet strawberry wine - I want the first sip to start you salivating like crazy! If it doesn't work for whatever reason, perhaps a malo-lactic would benefit it - I shouldn't have to use sorbate to kill the yeast, it should die due to alcohol levels above its toxicity limit, so geranium flavour isn't a likely danger, and a malo-lactic would not necessarily be a bad thing to reduce the tartness - as long as it's not so sour that the malo-lactic can't get a hold. We'll see.
I added 1/2t pectic enzyme and 1/2t yeast nutrient and shook to mix, and let sit overnight. I noticed a slightly "off" smell as I added the yeast nutrient, but I'm pretty sure that was just the yeast nutrient.
Tuesday evening, July 15: I re-hydrated a packet of Narbonne yeast, pitched it in, covered it, and shook to aerate and really distribute the yeast (there's a lot in one of those packets for a 1/2 gallon batch, so I hope this really helps it take off and ferment to completion!) Then I realized that I don't have an airlock for it - mine have been cracking and leaking and getting tossed, and suddenly I'm one short! The jar I'm using as a primary fermenter is a screw-top that I can partly-screw so that it's closed but not air-tight, so I left it like that - I need to get another airlock and put it in the glass 1/2-gallon for the secondary fermenter. Then I moved it downstairs under the stairs, where it will be dark, consistently 19-20C, and not likely to be disturbed!
Again, I need to check on this, to make sure the fermentation is going.
B.