Ok, first I'd like to note that I am -completely- new at this, and haven't even bought the supplies yet.. I want to make sure I'm on the right track first, as this started out as just an idea of something I want to get into.. So here goes..

From gathering some information throughout the internet, I'm thinking of a recipe of something along these lines..

30lbs Strawberries (from farmers stand, stems and green removed)
5 Bananas Chopped (w/ peels)
5lbs Honey (I like the idea of honey)
5-8lbs Sugar

Now here's where I get kinda caught up, directions.. What I 'understand' is probably wrong, so advice is greatly appreciated.

1. Mix/Crush fruit in Straining bag, add Honey/Sugar, and toss into sanitized 1st stage fermenting pale with Wine Tannin, Campden,and Pectic Enzyme. Add "Almost Boiling" water to cover the mix, and let stand covered for 24 hours..

2. After 24 hours, fill to 6 gallons with water, add yeast and yeast nutrient, seal fermenting pale for 7-10 days(or until SG reaches 1.08 - 1.1? I'm aiming for sweat and strong)

3. Remove Straining bag and must, filter/transfer to Carboy and add Potassium Sorbate and Campden. Let Age for a month then filter/bottle?

As you can see, I left out the amounts of chemicals, was going to follow the directions on the labels. Also I think I may have missed a step or two. As stated above, I haven't even bought the equipment yet. I want to get a warm and fuzzy idea of what I'm doing before I start experimenting.

First, there is a web site that gives a complete chart of SG versus alcohol level you can expect with the finished wine.

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/hydrom.asp

There are probably as many different ways to start and make wine as there are wine makers. All of them basically will give you the same results.

I normally start out crushing or putting the fruit in a blender, depending of course how much fruit I am starting with. After crushed or blended you can pour into a straining bag. I use the large paint straining bags I buy from Home Depot. The campden is for sanitizing the fruit and killing off the wild bacteria. The pectic enzyme helps the fruit break down faster. The method you have will work OK. I tie off the straining bag with the fruit and put it in the primary container. I then add everything I need except for the yeast. I also add the sugar and all the water at this point. I set my SG to about 1.092 and let it set for 24 hours until the campden dissipates. I then add my yeast to the primary. You can use a lid and air lock or just an open container with a lint free towel over the top. I measure the SG every day and stir very lightly once or twice a day to get some oxygen to the yeast. Once the SG drops to about 1.02 I rack into a carboy with an air lock. (about 4 or 5 days) I squeeze all the juice out of the straining bag at this time. I leave it in this carboy for about 3 to 4 weeks, then rack again. After that I rack about every 60 days, until the wine clears. Once it clears I add campden and potassium sorbate at the same time. If the wine hasn't cleared I do not add the potassium sorbate. I continue to rack every 60 days. Use 1 campden tablet crushed per gallon every other racking or 1/2 campden tablet per gallon every racking. At the last racking you can add the potassium sorbate and campden at the same time and add sugar if you want a sweeter wine.

Some people like to filter and bottle quicker. I prefer to let the wine clear itself and although I use a filter it really isn't filter out much.

I'd like to thank you immensely for your wisdom. I'm going to stick with the above recipe, with the addition of racking after the first month and giving it an additional 60 days before I add the potassium sorbate. Going to try to get my SG up to 1.095 as well. At least I wasn't too far off in my process.

Whenever you add potassium sorbate always add campden at the same time. Otherwise your wine could get a very bad flavor.

If you are making a very dry wine and have allowed it to ferment out a few months potassium sorbate is not needed. Many people use the potassium sorbate if they are going to back sweeten their wine. Sometimes I use it sometimes not.

Ok, This is what I did today..

Cut off the stems, and used an Egg Slicer to slice up about 30lbs of strawberries.
Sliced 5 Bananas (with peels)

Put 5lbs of Sugar, 5lbs of Honey, 6 crushed campden tablets, 3tsp wine tannin, and 3tsp pectic enzyme into primary fermentation device.

Added almost boiling water, and stirred vigorously until the honey/sugar dissolved. (Water mark was at 9liters)

Tossed in Straining bad with fruit, which displaced the water to 19 liters.

Added water to the 30 liter mark. (Hopefully with the displacement of the fruit, should come back down to 23 liters when the must is removed)

Stirred a little, and topped with an airlock. I'll check the S.G. tomorrow. Do you think topping to 30liters will be alright, or perhaps too watered down?

After my fruit is either whirred up in a blender or just crushed it goes into a strainer bag. For little batches I can use the Home Depot paint strainer bag. For larger batches my wife makes up a bag from net material from Walmart.

For small batches I can lift the strainer bag out to estimate how much actual water I will need. For large batches it is more of an estimate. In addition gross lees will drop and if you plan on using a 6 gallon carboy you would probably need more water. It will probably work out for 5 gallons. I try to have several sizes of carboys on hand so I can come out pretty close when I rack. When I am a little short I have used just about everything to top off, water, juice etc. For strawberry wine if you have to top off using some white grape probably would work without changing the color. Or juice some strawberries in a juicer and use that juice.

I checked my S.G. yesterday and it had been at about 1.07. I added 5 cups of sugar and some more honey. After stirring, it read close to 1.09. I decided to let it sit for 24 hours and let the sugar dissolve enough. I went to check today, and my hydrometer literally fell apart in the test jar. Not was I was expecting.. Now I have to order another hydrometer to get my final reading later. I pitched the yeast and yeast nutrient regardless. It 'should' be close enough. And the strawberries would be a loss if I waited for a second hydrometer.

So, I had started out trying to be more specific with my recipe. Unfortunately I now have had to 'guess' twice. On the bright side, it does look good. Fingers crossed on it turning out alright.

wyo wino: You mentioned about topping off the carboy. I was just going to accept however short I was. Perhaps a bottle less to fill. Would there be any reason I'd need to top it off?

You want very little air space between the top of the wine and the airlock. Within reason of course. If the carboy is too full it will over flow into the air lock. There is less chance of the over flow if the SG is down to 1.02 or a little lower before you rack.

Despite not knowing my exact original S.G. I believe everything is going smoothly. The yeast seems to be doing it's job, and as of today I'm down to 1.04. So, I'm thinking it will be down to 1.02ish either tomorrow or the next day. (5-6 days after adding the yeast.) I'll rack to the carboy then. Will racking 'early' before I'm down to 0.999 cause any adverse reactions?

S.G. finally got below 1.02 today. It was at 1.015 before I racked it into a 6 gallon carboy. I squeezed the juices out of the fruit and actually had a little more then a gallon left over in the bucket. Too bad I didn't have a 1 gal container for it. It all went down the drain. However, the 6 gallons I do have, look like a fruit smoothie. Hopefully that is a good sign?

I am hoping that this batch comes out pretty good. If not, it has been a great learning experience, and I will be better prepared next year. I'll give it a month before I rack again, and start on the clearing process.

Sometimes there is a lot of guessing on what size carboys to have on hand. Cheapest way to get the gallon size is to buy wine in the glass gallon carboy. Drink the wine and save the carboy. they take a little bit smaller rubber cork. 6 1/2 instead of 7, if I recall. I like to have a 6, 5, 3, and 1 gallon carboy on hand. When you rack the next time, in about 3 weeks, off of those gross lees, you may lose another gallon. After that you won't lose as much at each racking.

Hey there wyo wino. You know with something like strawberry that I am pretty sure I will backsweeten I like to go ahead and stabilize and add some juice to it while its clearing. I like the white grape concentrate to backsweeten strawberry so this is one I would just go ahead and sweeten early.

If you want to back sweeten you need to add potassium sorbate and campden when you add your back sweetening sugar or it will start fermenting out more.

Just a recap.

I had added a bit too much water to the batch in the beginning. At the end I had almost 28 liters instead of the 23 needed for a six gallon. Which left a good bit left over. The batch did come out, the alcohol content was good, however the strawberry taste was a little watered down. Not bad for my very first attempt! I'll adjust the recipe on my next attempt.

I'll be trying again this year very shortly. I'll be attempting to make 6 gallons of Strawberry, and 2 gallons of Mango(The wife demands it). I'll be writing another topic as a log for it again, it made the project a little more fun with keeping a log. As well the additional information from wyo definitely kept me from making a good deal of mistakes!

Otherwise your wine could get a very bad flavor.


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