Strawberry Wine...

I have never made wine before, but my parents fermented anything that grew.  All types of berries <strawberry, black-red-wild raspberries, current, blackberry, elderberry, etc> , roses, dandelion, fruits of all kinds <apple, pear, plum, sweet cherry, sour cherry, etc>, and even tomato.  Of course, guess who picked all the stuff.  Us kids. 

Last fall I made some hard cider out of apple cider, sugar, yeast, orange peel, and heather tips.  It turned out fantastic, and a friend, who owns Lancaster Homebrew, told me he guesstimated it was about 20% ABV.   It wasn't my intention of making it that strong.  <yeah, right>.  After giving some to friends, the rest is sitting in the basement "aging" till Thanksgiving. This is what it looked like after bottling.

Now we return to our regularly scheduled program... Strawberry Wine.

Here's the berry's.  They are Earliglow variety, which are smaller, but have a superior flavor... perfect for jams or wine... more about jams in another post.  About 18qts or 25lbs... give or take...

and some pretty closeups... <like you have never seen strawberries before>

 

Here is 25lbs of strawberries mashed up in a 6gal bucket.  This is called the must, or wort.  To this I added the pectic enzyme to break down the berries, and sodium metabisulphite to kill any wild yeast that is on the berries.  

The must sat for 24 hrs before adding the water, yeast, and yeast nutrient.  And my first video!!!!   WoooHooo