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This is our first year making strawberry wine, so I'm not sure exactly what our final product will be like, but the initial stages of the ferment smell wonderful and are packing quite a kick. Due to reader requests, I'm sharing the easy strawberry wine recipe we used.
It doesn't get much more straightforward than this unless yougo wild – berries, sugar, yeast, acid, nutrient and water.
Make sure you use good quality berries. There are no tricks or other flavors to cover bad fruit here. Previously frozen berries should work as well as fresh, as long as they are nice and ripe. (Use them as soon as possible after thawing for best color.)
Easy Strawberry Wine Recipe
Adapted from Jack Keller's Winemaking page. Jack says about this wine, “The first is the simplest strawberry wine recipe I know of. Use only the sweetest, freshest berries and you'll be rewarded with an exquisite, delicate wine.”
Ingredients
- 3 pounds fresh strawberries
- 2 pounds granulated cane sugar
- 2 teaspoons citric acid or wine acid blend
- 5 pints clean water (non-chlorinated)
- 1 teaspoon yeastnutrient
- 1 package of wine yeast
Directions
For a single batch, place strawberries, sugar and citric acid in a 2 gallon crock. (The berry mix will bubble in the early stages of fermentation and may rise out of a one gallon crock.)
Crush fruit with a potato masher or pastry blender.Cover berry/sugar mix with 5 pints boiling water.
Stir wine mustwith wooden spoonto dissolve sugar and simultaneously mash the strawberries.
When cooled to 85°F (29°C), add yeast and yeast nutrient. Cover and stir daily for seven days.
One the 7th day, strain through cheesecloth or a flour sack towel. Transfer to secondary fermentation vessel with airlock. (I used one gallon glass jugs. A carboy would also work.)
Add sterilized water to top up to one gallon of liquid and seal with a fermentation cap. (A fermentation cap is an airlock that allows carbon dioxide to escape but keeps oxygen out.)
Store out of direct sunlight for 30 days. Rack into a clean fermentation vessel. Store for 30 days more, rack again. Allow to settle 3-5 days and bottle when clear.
Age for at least 6 months. Flavor improves up to a year. From Jack's description, this looks like a wine that will not improve with much longer storage, so it's okay to enjoy it young.
Ingredients and Equipment List
To recap, you will need:
- Strawberries and sugar
- 2 gallon crock
- acid blend
- wine yeast
- yeast nutrient
- flour sack towel
- wooden spoon
- secondary fermentation vessel (gallon jar with airlock)
- wine siphon or siphon hose for racking
- empty wine bottles
- wine corks
- wine corker
A Note on Finding the Best Strawberries
The 2016 strawberry season was a bountiful one at our favorite local u-pick farm, Red Grouse Farm. Becky and her family spend long hours out in the berry patch, tending everything by hand so I don't have to. 😉
They don't use any herbicides or pesticides, and use holistic farming practices that build the soil instead of mining it like conventional farming.
Becky (the owner) and I had a great conversation about some of our favorite soil and permaculture gurus as she helped us fill our strawberry baskets for this wine.
I've had a number of readers ask why we don't grow our own strawberries. We have land, but strawberries are labor intensive, and since I have a source I trust close by, I support their efforts.
Meanwhile, we're focusing on crops I can't find elsewhere, and/or those that are more expensive, like blueberries, raspberries, gooseberries, aronia berries, bush cherries, seaberries, hardy kiwis and others.
Watch out for “Dirty” Berries
If at all possible, get your berries from someone you trust, and ask them what, if anything, they spray.
Conventional strawberries are on the Dirty Dozen list. The Environmental Working Group found 17 different pesticides on a single strawberry sample. There's no way I want to turn that into wine.
Organic strawberries may not be much better.
Recently, a neighbor of mine shared her own concerns about organic strawberries.
She used to buy a large carton of organic strawberries for her family at a local bulk foods club. One of the kids would clean and slice them when they were brought home, and they'd get eaten in a day or two.
This batch was different. No one in the family liked the taste, and eventually they were tossed to the chickens. The chickens refused to eat the organic strawberries.
It's no lab test, but it did me wonder what the heck was on those berries.
What's your favorite way to enjoy strawberries?
My youngest is a huge strawberry fan, so while they're in season we keep a big bowl in the fridge for fresh eating.
To enjoy them year round, I use the recipe in the post12 Ways to Preserve Strawberries – Plus Tips to Keep Berries Fresh Longer.
We also enjoy:
- Fresh Strawberry Pie
- Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble
- Strawberry Shortcake with Strawberry Whipped Cream
What's your favorite way to enjoy strawberries? Leave me a comment and let me know!
Easy Strawberry Wine
5 Stars4 Stars3 Stars2 Stars1 Star
5 from 3 reviews
Add a little kick to your strawberry season! This homemade strawberry wine recipe comes together in minutes and is ready to enjoy in just a few months.
Ingredients
UnitsScale
- 3 pounds fresh strawberries
- 2 pounds granulated cane sugar
- 2 teaspoons citric acid or wine acid blend
- 5 pints clean water (non-chlorinated)
- 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
- 1 package of wine yeast
Instructions
- For a single batch, place strawberries, sugar and citric acid in a 2 gallon crock. (The berry mix will bubble in the early stages of fermentation and may rise out of a one gallon crock.)
- Crush fruit with a potato masher or pastry blender. Cover berry/sugar mix with 5 pints boiling water.
- Stir wine must with wooden spoon to dissolve sugar and simultaneously mash the strawberries.
- When cooled to 85°F (29°C), add yeast and yeast nutrient. Cover and stir daily for seven days.
- One the 7th day, strain through cheesecloth or a flour sack towel. Transfer to secondary fermentation vessel with airlock.
- Add sterilized water to top up to one gallon of liquid and seal with a fermentation cap. (A fermentation cap is an airlock that allows carbon dioxide to escape but keeps oxygen out.)
- Store out of direct sunlight for 30 days. Rack into a clean fermentation vessel. Store for 30 days more, rack again. Allow to settle 3-5 days and bottle when clear.
- Age for at least 6 months. Flavor improves up to a year.
Notes
The option to double or triple the recipe will automatically double or triple the amount of yeast. This in not required. One package of yeast is enough to make up to five gallons of wine.
