If you could take springtime and put it into a bottle you would most likely end up with something close to a strawberry wine. For me, strawberry wine is the very essence of spring. Its flavor is bright and fresh. Its aroma is floral and sweet. As far as I’m concerned strawberry wine represents all things spring quite well.
If fresh strawberries are not already available in your area, they will be soon. With that in mind here is a strawberry wine recipe that you can use to get your springtime groove on. It’s a wine recipe I have used several times with great results. I couldn’t think of a better time to share it than right now!
Strawberry Wine Recipe
(5 Gallons)
19 lbs. Strawberries
10 lbs. Cane Sugar (1.090)
4 Tsp. Acid Blend
5 Tsp. Yeast Nutrient
1/2 Tsp. Wine Tannin
Pectic Enzyme (as directed on package)
1/4 Tsp. Potassium Metabisulfite (or 5 Campden Tablets)
Wine Yeast (recommend Lalvin 71B-1122)
10 Campden Tablets (5 before fermentation, 5 before bottling)
You can use the basic wine making directions that are on our website for making this strawberry wine recipe. Just be sure to remove any stem or green parts of the strawberry before using. You do not need to crush the strawberries. Just give them a coarse chopping. The strawberries will breakdown and release all their goodness during the fermentation.
One variation I have done a couple of time when making this is to exchange 2 pounds of the sugar for 3 pounds of raspberry spun honey. This exchange will keep your starting specific gravity about the same. The raspberry honey will intensify the sweet, perfume-y bouquet this wine likes to give. Essentially, it’s giving you more of one of the features that makes strawberry wine so great.
Another great thing about making this strawberry wine recipe is that it does not need much aging. So many wines are consumed before they reach their best simply because they need so much aging. Fortunately, that’s not the case with making strawberry wine.
I would not attempt to bulk-age the wine for any length of time, at all. Give it plenty of time to clear, but after that go straight into the wine bottles. Once in the bottles, give your strawberry wine at least one month to develop its bouquet. It will taste its best at around 4 to 6 months. Don’t let it sit around for any more than 1 year. Drink up!
Do you have a strawberry wine recipe you’d like to share with other home winemakers? Just leave it in the comments below. We’d love to see what you’ve got cookin’!
Happy Wine Making,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.
Thank You for the recipe. I know things are sweetened to the taste of the consumer. But it you had to give a ball park, how much sugar to add to sweeten? If you would please respond to my email address. Thanks
Kevin, for a 5 gallon batch, it could be anywhere from 1/2 pound ( 1 cup) to 2 pounds (4 cups) of sugar. And, from time to time I have seen people add more. Be sure to pre-dissolve the sugar into a syrup first and to also add potassium sorbate (wine stabilizer) to the wine along with it, otherwise the wine will most likely start fermenting again.
Hi Ed. How much potassium sorbate should be added while sweetening the wine?
Edsel, the potassium sorbate that we carry is 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of wine.
I’ve kept your recipe for raspberry wine for better than a year. …and hiding my last year’s harvest of raspberries from my wife in our freezer’s bottom…til now…
This past week I started fermentation on 3 primary-5 gal-fermenters, each with 20 lbs of raspberries…
That is around 70+ bottles of wine in the making…and the aroma that attacks my home-office is great…and of course subject to comments by my wife and her divorce attorney :>)
Hi Ed. These recipes always sound great, but I’m working with a pretty small garden– I don’t get anywhere near 19 lbs. of strawberries, for instance. Any chance you can post some of these country wine recipes for smaller batches? Like maybe a gallon at a time? Thanks!
Emily, you will be happy to know that you can cut pretty much any wine recipe down to a gallon by dividing any of the ingredients by 5. The only exception is the wine yeast. You will always want to use a whole packet, regardless of the size of the batch. For other readers, if you are making larger batches you will want to us 1 packet of wine yeast for every 5 or 6 gallons of wine you are making.
One thing I do is to place the berries in a mesh bag. With the necessary pectic enzyme they basically disintegrate, so it’s a lot easier to get the bulk of the solids out by simply lifting out the bag and letting it drip out. Enjoy!
I use 20lbs + of berries in my recipe. I also add the juice of 10 fresh lemons. In addition I choose to ferment mine out a little longer by adding an additional 2lbs of sugar after the first racking. The additional alcohol content requires a longer storage before consumption. I’ve bottled it very dry and I’ve also sweetened it at bottling. My guests prefer the sweetened version every time. If you can grow your own berries I would encourage it. That way you can get the best berries when they are at their peak. I also encourage making 10 gallons as it tends to go quickly!
I’ve been using all kits to make my wine currently, so I have a six gal carboy and six gal bucket. Is it going to taste a lot different if I use the six gallon tubs to make a five gallon batch?
Hannah, we recommend that you start off the fermentation in a bucket-type fermenter. This will allow the fermentation to be more vigorous because of the additional surface area for the yeast. Also, the additional air at this stage of the fermentation will help the fermentation to grow. Once the fermentation starts to slow, then it is racked into the carboy per your directions with the kit. Whether you notice a difference in the wine’s flavor or not, I do not know, but what I can say is that overall you are more likely to have a cleaning tasting wine by starting the fermentation in a a bucket-style fermenter. The yeast will be less stressed and less likely to produce off-flavor byproducts.
I have seen a winery in the south that make a strawberry shortcake wine. Do you have a recipe for this of a fix for your basic recipe above? I’ve been toying with the idea of adding a 750ml bottle of maybe a whipped cream vodka at bottling. Your thoughts on this? Thanks
Ron,I am sorry, we do not have a Strawberry Shortcake recipe nor have we had any experience with Strawberry Shortcake wine. What you are suggesting does seem plausible. You can always experiment and let us know how it turns out.
This is my 1st batch ever, but your recipe does not state how much Wine yeast to add after the 24 hours. Is it 1 packet? 1 for every gallon?
Thanks!
I am really looking forward to this batch turning out!
Mari, one packet of yeast will ferment up to 5-gallons of wine so you just need one packet.
Where can I find your bananaberry wine recipe?
Jerry, below you will find the link for the Bananaberry Wine recipe.
Bananaberry Wine
http://www.eckraus.com/blog/banana-berry-fruit-wine-recipe
I tried to find the bannaberry wine recipe it didn’t come up?
I have crafted together many fruit wine combinations over the years. One I make I call my Nanna Patch, made of banana and strawberry. Here is the recipe I made up:
8 lbs. bananas… I cooked them for ½ hr., using 1/3 of the peels as well, minus the tips.
8 lbs. frozen strawberries
10 t acid blend
5 t pectin enzyme
5 t yeast nutrient
¼ t sodium metibisulfite
1 t tannin
1 – 15 oz box of white raisins
10 lbs sugar
I use Red Star Cote de Blanc in most of my fruit wines.
My wife told me I was crazy when making this one, but she had no trouble consuming it!
On your banana berry recipe, can I sub the blackberries for blueberries? I do not have access to blackberries.
Carol, I see no problem with substituting the blackberries.
The best strawberry wine we’ve made is our most recent. VERY red and smooth. We blended ours with about 7% dry red wine.
I’ve made strawberry wine for years, and just recently started to not top them, just put them straight into the straining bad. I can’t tell any difference in the final product. Definitely saves a lot of time!
Is this recipe for a sweet or dry wine? I prefer dry. I’m going strawberry picking this weekend!! (weather permitting 😉 )
Kate, anytime you make wine and the fermentation completes, it results in a dry wine. However, you can back-sweeten any wine to your taste at bottling time. The article posted below will discuss this in more detail.
Making Sweet Wines
http://eckraus.com/making-sweet-wines/
Wondering if frozen berries will work for this. I received quite a bit for free and have been looking for a way to use em.
Nic, you can absolutely use frozen berries to make wine. There are actually benefits to freezing the fruit like breaking down the fiber to help extract more color and flavor. The article below will discuss more advantages of freezing fruit when making wine.
Freezing Wine Making Fruit
http://blog.eckraus.com/freezing-wine-making-fruit
What abv do you end up with following this recipe? Also do you add all of the sugar to the primary?
Thanks
Randal
Randal, this recipe will result in a wine with approximately 10-13 percent alcohol when the fermentation completes. Yes, you can put all of the sugar called for in the recipe into the primary. After doing so you can use your hydrometer to test the potential alcohol content the juice.
I have access to Lalvin EC-1118 AND K1-V1116 which do you think would be a better substitute for the yeast you suggest? Ilike it stong and medium dry.
C Ben, actually either one of those yeast will be fine to use for your Strawberry Wine.
Could you explain what raspberry spun honey is and where to get it?
Thanks
Jeff, creamed or spun honey is honey that has been processed to control crystallization. Raspberry Sun Honey has been blended with Raspberry. Unfortunately, we cant tell you where you can purchase it locally. You might possibly find it at your local grocery store. IF you cant locate it, you can purchase it online.
do you have a recipe for making home made wine using store bought
juice
thank you
BIG RED
Big Red, you can follow our recipe for Welch’s Grape Juice.
Welch’s Grape Juice Wine Recipe
http://blog.eckraus.com/can-i-use-grape-juice-from-the-grocery-store-to-make-wine
How do you get that bright red color? My batch from last year has more of a yellow tinge to it. This year’s might too, I just racked to secondary, so it’s to cloudy to tell right now.
Thanks,
Fay
Fay, if you are getting more yellow than red, it could partially be due to oxidation, but it may also be that you are not leaving the pulp in the fermentation long enough to extract the necessary color. Almost all the color of a wine comes from the skin of the grape. Also, it you do not add pectic enzyme to your wine musts, I would recommend that you start doing so. This will help with color extract as well as extracting flavor.
I read your Blog on Strawberry Wine. I have a couple of cans of County Fair Strawberry Fruit Base & 1 can of CF Cherry Fruit Base . Would these 3 cans together in a must be equivalent to your 19lbs of Fresh Strawberries to make 5 Gal of Fruit Wine? WoodmanTeel
Woody, Each can of of the County Fair Strawberry and Cherry Fruit base is the equivalent to about 5-6 pounds of fruit. So 3 cans of the base is the equivalent to about 15-18 pounds of produce.
According to Domino Sugar, 1 pound of granulated sugar contains approximately 2 1/4 cups of sugar, not the 2 pounds you say!
He’s merely approximating, as most do when converting lbs. of granulated sugar to cups. If you prefer exact, you’d best weigh it, then learn it’s closer to 2.27 cups, depending on how coarse the sugar actually is and how precise that measuring cup is.
Hi Ed, thanks for the recipe. I’ve been meaning to make a strawberry wine for a while; I’ll try it now since I’m locked inside anyway with quite a lot of strawberries on-hand.
Just a question though – I don’t have any tannin powder. What else do you reckon I can use as a tannin source during fermentation? I have some medium toasted French oak chips at home, and I also read that cinnamon sticks can work as a tannin source as well. Which would you recommend using?
Personally speaking, I’m not sure if I want the oaky flavour in a strawberry wine, so I’m slightly leaning towards using the cinnamon sticks. Anyway, what do you think?
You are better off with the oak chips. All you need is a very small amount, about will you can scoop with a tablespoon. Then take the chips an put then in a blender to break it up to a level consistent with saw dust. Add the powder to the wine in place of the tannin.
I have learned SO much from your site! Though I still have a hard time understanding two things. If I add more water at the first racking to fill the carboy up so it is fuller- will this lower the end alcohol percentage, if so, can I tell by how much or is there a good way to guess? Also, I don’t quite grasp why we would use a full packet of yeast for a one gallon batch and how that wouldn’t affect the flavor in the end or ferret all the sugar too quickly or something? I trust you that its right! I just don’t understand it. Thank you so much and cheers to you.