How to Make Strawberry Wine

Home Made Wine

Introduction: When you think of wine more than likely you immediately think of the juice of fermented grapes as you may have seen at commercial wineries. Excellent quality wine can be made from other ingredients including strawberries at home. While strawberry wine may not be too common on the shelves of your local wine shop or grocery store you can make it at home.

You don’t have to be a master vintner or a laboratory full of expensive equipment to make wine. Home wine making is not something that’s new, it has been a practice of civilizations for centuries. It is quite easy to make wine and it is an inexpensive hobby. You don’t have to buy bottles. Use recycled wine bottles that can be collected from friends, family or from your local recycling center. If you do not grow your own strawberries they are inexpensive to buy from a local grower.

Making Strawberry Wine:

Contrary to what you might think, strawberry wine is not syrupy or sickly sweet wine. It has a nuanced, multi-dimensional flavor with a fruitiness that shines through even if the wine is dry. Keep in mind that no wine can be better than the fruit used to make it. This recipe produces about three gallons of strawberry wine.

Ingredients:

· 8 pounds whole fresh picked strawberries, washed and hulled

· 2 gallons boiling water

· Juice from 1 lemon

· 5 pounds sugar

· ¼ teaspoon of yeast dissolved in warm water

Preparing the ingredients:

· Mash the strawberries in a large earthenware crock or stainless steel container. Cover the strawberries with boiling water, add the lemon juice and stir briskly for about two to three minutes. Cover the container with a clean linen cloth and set in a cool, dark place. Stir the contents daily for one week.

· After approximately seven days, strain through a double layer of cheesecloth into a clean container and discarding the pulp. Combine the strawberry liquid, sugar, and yeast and stir the mixture. Pour into a clean crock or stainless steel container and let it stand for another week, stirring daily.

· At the end of the second week pour the liquid into a five gallon glass bottle and cork loosely or use a bubbler to prevent air from entering the container. A large water bottle will work just fine. Let stand in a cool dark place while it ferments for four weeks. At the end the fermentation period bottled it into individual wine bottles, cork and age at least 1 year before drinking.

This recipe will make a great strawberry wine that you will want to repeat year after year.

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