# Strawberry wine using natural yeast?



## bnew17 (Jun 6, 2012)

Does anybody have a recipe they would mind sharing on making strawberry wine preferably using wild yeast? I have made muscadine wine using wild yeast and it turned out great.


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## winemaker (Mar 25, 2010)

Why don't you want to use wine yeast? Just use any recipe and don't add any yeast. Good luck


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## trimpy (Mar 30, 2011)

Wild yeasts are a gamble. You can get something good, or you can destroy your whole batch.

I do have a recipe for a strawberry semi sweet mead that turned out great:

5 gal recipe, 15# frozen strawberries, 15# honey, D-47 yeast, yeast nutrient. OG is usually 1.110-1.120 depending on the honey. I usually use orange blossom, or wildflower.

I ferment out the honey first as a plain mead. Once fermentation subsides I rack onto another container with the strawberries in the bottom. Fermentation will start back up as the yeasts work on the berries. I usually let it sit for a few months, then rack again, clear, then bottle.

You can sub any fruit, but i usually do strongly tasting tart berries (raspberry/blackberry) @ 1#/gal, mediums (blueberries) at 2#, and strawberries at 3-4#/gal.


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## SueMc (Jan 10, 2010)

I make strawberry wine in 5 gallon batches and would be too afraid to ruin 30 lbs of berries by not using wine yeast. I use Lalvin 71B 1122. It's less than a dollar.

Jack Keller's site http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request.asp has some great recipes
as does http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/


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## SueMc (Jan 10, 2010)

Besides, with all the cultures I have going on in my house, wine, cheeses, yogurt, kefir, ginger beer and sourdough, I'm afraid what my "wild" yeasts might be!


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## skootchingdog (Jun 30, 2013)

For my strawberry wine, I follow the "Purple Book" available from most homebrew stores or websites (Winemaker Recipe Handbook). Then I make a few alterations to the process, mostly around extracting the juice. All fruit batches I make use frozen then thawed fruit to greatly improve juice extraction, then I hold out water, so in the end it says use "x" pounds of fruit and 7 pints water per gallon, but I use about 5-6 pints of water per gallon with the balance being fruit juice.

For yeast I always use purchased for the risk reasons described above. You just don't know what you will get if you use wild yeast, plus it means you can't use camden tablets when you start, so there is a much higher chance of other contamination early in the process. The purchased yeasts I use vary, I've done batches with a champagne yeast, or with Red Star Montcherat, etc. Personally, I don't think it matters much because all will ferment out to 0.990 (very dry), but then I always back sweeten my wines.

Anyway, good luck. Strawberry is my second favorite wine, and all homemade is better than the store. :thumb:


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## JohnLeePettimore (Apr 19, 2011)

trimpy said:


> Wild yeasts are a gamble. You can get something good, or you can destroy your whole batch.





SueMc said:


> I make strawberry wine in 5 gallon batches and would be too afraid to ruin 30 lbs of berries by not using wine yeast. I use Lalvin 71B 1122. It's less than a dollar.


I can verify these concerns from actual experience. Just popped a bottle of "wild yeast" strawberry wine that has been aging for a year. The only reason I waited the whole year was because it tasted like **** after fermentation, and I was hoping for a miracle.
"Wild" isn't a good word. More like "uncivilized."

Only wasted 14# of strawberries.


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