When I think of June, I think of strawberries. They are at their absolute sweetest this month, and I just can’t get enough of them. We are so lucky to have an abundance of u-pick places in the Hudson Valley and Capital Region (see a listing at the end of the article). Picking your own somehow makes the fruit that much more delicious and special.
There are oodles of things you can make with strawberries. You have to have enough self control to not simply gobble them all up before you get to your recipes. Pies, cakes, muffins, jam – strawberries are quite versatile.
When I was dreaming of strawberries in April to write this article, it occurred to me that it would be fun to make something with strawberries that was extra-special for me. What might that be? Wine, of course!
“Wine” not?
It turns out that making strawberry wine is actually pretty easy. The ingredients are targeted, but minimal, so long as the strawberries are as ripe as possible. The equipment is a bit cumbersome. I live in a fairly small apartment so I am particularly challenged. I was happy to find a recipe that used a one-gallon glass carboy instead of a two-gallon ceramic crock fermenter. If I had a shed or garage or even a basement where I had the appropriate space for the two-gallon fermenter, I’d probably opt for that. (It all worked out in the end.)
At some point you’ll want to bottle the wine, but since the time necessary to ferment is at least eight weeks, you can start stashing some of your empties until you get to that step.
Making wine is akin to making bread. It’s wondrous and wonderful to instigate and interact with fermentation – the magic that happens when yeast eats sugar and starts to transform fruit or grain. Having this going on in your living space is like inviting friendly aliens to visit. You can’t turn them away once they’ve arrived, and you’re not exactly sure what will happen by the time their visit has run its course, but it’s a delightful experience.
Getting ready
I was eager to get started. First stop, the Internet, of course, where I perused several recipes for strawberry wine. My goal was to keep things simple and streamlined and affordable. I found the recipe I liked best on the site Practical Self Reliance, which touted, “hands-on guides for foragers, gardeners, preservers, and homesteaders.” The first sentence of the piece on making strawberry wine is, “Strawberry wine is simple to make at home with minimal equipment” (https://practicalselfreliance.com/homemade-strawberry-wine). I was sold.
I wanted to make sure I was getting the right supplies. First and foremost, I needed containers for the immersion of the fruit in sugar to initiate the fermentation and then a fermentation vessel that would hold the juice in process for several weeks. I did an online search and found something with lots of good reviews. Then I remembered that there is an amazing resource for homebrewers right here outside of Albany. It’s Hennessy Homebrew Emporium on North Greenbush Road in Rensselaer, NY (beerbrew.com). They have everything and then some for doing this kind of thing. I headed over.
Owner Russell Savoy was behind the counter when I arrived shy of noon on a Thursday. Hennessy Homebrew is a key resource for brewers of all kinds throughout New York’s Capital Region and into the Hudson Valley and beyond. My desire to follow an online recipe for strawberry wine could have been greeted with some ambivalence. Instead, Russell dove into exploring what I might need with a passion that matched my own.
We talked through containers and ingredients and directions. He pulled out a fruit wine-making booklet that he’s been referring to for years so that we could compare and contrast recipes. He made suggestions about alternate ingredients, advised me on yeast selection, and even customized a pre-packaged kit for me so that I would only buy what I needed. What a great experience! If you get interested in trying this yourself, you MUST go to Hennessy Homebrew Emporium and talk to Russell.
Berry good!
Now all I needed was strawberries and sugar. I know from experience that the best fruit makes the best wine. I did not want to use frozen strawberries, though recipes do say this is an option. I would have, however, if the strawberries I found in a store at the end of April didn’t look real and ripe (and many don’t). I went to the Honest Weight Coop in Albany to see what was available. It was my day. From the great experience I had with Russell to finding beautiful, ripe, organic strawberries at the Coop (and on sale!), I was going down the right path.
With all of the ingredients and equipment I needed to make the wine, I was eager to get started.
Screenshot
Making the wine
I got home and washed everything – bucket and berries. Since the berries I had were pretty big, I not only cut off the green tops and sometimes the seed-thick bottom, but I also cut many of them in half. The recipe said to put the sugar in with the strawberries, and in a few hours the strawberries would yield the first juice. I put the berries in the strainer bag Russell had recommended I use to make siphoning easier when it was time, I put the berries in the bucket, and I poured the sugar on top of them.
Sure enough, when I peeked in the bucket a few hours later, the berries had started juicing. I gave the bucket a little shake to encourage more.
Next was the addition of acid blend, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, and a Campden tablet. A Campden tablet contains sodium metabisulfite and potassium metabisulfite that inhibits wild yeast and bacteria growth. It helps sterilize things and prevent unwanted flavors in the long run. Russell suggested I mix these in some warm water, which I did. I poured that over the berries. Then I added the 7 pints (14 cups) of water indicated in the recipe I had taken a picture of at Hennessy Homebrew. The berries were now submerged.
Here’s another reason I’m so happy I had Russell’s input. The recipe I was going to use advised dissolving the yeast in ¼ cup of water for at least five minutes to “rehydrate” it. In other words, to make sure it’s alive and will do its thing. We often did this with the batches of yeast we would activate in our winemaking at Hudson-Chatham Winery, and I’d done that when making bread before. Russell told me that sometimes that doesn’t work, and then your yeast won’t do its thing. He said sprinkling it directly on the fruit soaking in the water with the other ingredients was a better way to rehydrate the yeast. In fact, the recipe he shared with me said that the berries with the acid blend, pectic enzyme, and yeast nutrient added should sit with water and sugar for 24 hours before the yeast gets sprinkled on. So that’s what I did.
In the bucket…for now
My strawberry wine is doing its thing in the bucket with the lid on and the airlock in place. The next step will be siphoning the juice off the berries and into a glass carboy. Once that’s done, it will go through its next step of fermentation, which is six to eight weeks. That’s mid July! Fingers crossed!
I won’t be enjoying this wine until well after fresh strawberry season is over. Since I have the ingredients and my bucket will be empty by the time strawberries are in full season here in the Hudson Valley, I may go ahead and make another batch. It’ll be interesting to compare the flavors.
My conclusion? It’s true that with only a few ingredients and some basic equipment, I have a batch of homemade strawberry wine in the works. The investment was less than $100, including the berries. Like any DIY project you take on when you know little to nothing about it from the start but you take the time to figure it out – and you get advice from a trustworthy source – there’s a great feeling of satisfaction in having learned and done something new.
Your turn! If you take this on, let me know how it goes for you. Cheers!
Where to find fresh strawberries
If you know some fields where wild strawberries grow, those are the absolute best. Typically the size of a shelled peanut, you’ll need lots of them to make wine, but it will be as tasty as it gets. Actually, you may want to just eat any wild berries you have access to. They are just too good for anything else.
Next best is the strawberries you get at a local farm. Here is a partial list of farms in alphabetical order (no particular preferences). For more info on each – or all – find them on social media or through an Internet search. Many of them have family friendly activities to enjoy as part of the picking experience. Happy strawberry season!
U-pick farms: DuBois Farms, Fishkill Farms, Greig Farm, Kelder’s Farm, Kristy’s Barn, Rose Hill Farm, Samascott Orchards, Saunderskill Farm, Story Farms, Thompson-Finch Farm.
Making strawberry wine
This recipe is the combination of the one by Ashley Adamant of Practical Self Reliance and the one from the Hennessy Homebrew pamphlet.
Ingredients
5 lbs strawberries
2 lbs sugar (4 ½ cups)
1 tsp acid blend
1 tsp yeast nutrient
½ tsp pectic enzyme
1 Campden tablet, crushed
1 packet wine yeast (Lalvin K1-V1116)
Equipment
Everything you need (except the strainer bag) is in the Vintner’s Best One Gallon Wine Making Equipment Kit). It includes:
1-gallon fermenting bucket
1-gallon glass carboy
Siphoning tubes
Airlock and stopper
Strainer bag
Bottle filler
Bottles and stoppers (I will be saving empty white wine bottles and corks for when the time comes).
Instructions
Clean and dry the fermenting bucket.
Wash and remove the green tops and overly seeded bottoms from the strawberries. Slice larger berries in half.
Put the berries in the strainer bag and put the bag in the bucket. Add the sugar on top of the berries. Put the lid on the bucket and let the berries sit for two to four hours to extract the juice.
In a small bowl or cup, mix the acid blend, yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme, and crushed Campden tablet in some warm water. Pour over the berries, and then top with about 14 cups of lukewarm water. Shake the strainer bag to combine the ingredients. Put the top on the fermenter bucket and put the airlock in the hole. Let the berries rest for 24 hours.
Open the bucket and sprinkle the yeast over everything. Stir gently. Replace the lid.
Let the mixture ferment for about two weeks. Open and stir gently for just a minute or so every few days to keep the juice in contact with the fruit.
Remove the strainer bag of fruit from the bucket, gently pressing off any juice but being careful not to introduce solids. Put the juice into the clean glass carboy and cap with an airlock. Let the juice ferment this way for six weeks.
Siphon the clear wine off the sediment at the bottom of the carboy into clean wine bottles. Securely cork the bottles. Put the bottles in a cool, dark place and give the wine three to six months before drinking.
Congratulations, you’re a winemaker. And you’ll have the flavor of June to enjoy as the days shorten into winter. Cheers! •