For many years I have wanted to make home made wine. There is something awesome about the simple process. I love the idea of taking something natural and fermenting it into something else.
This past summer I finally got a chance. I picked several pounds of wild blackberries on our homestead in Missouri, and made a liter and a half of blackberry wine. It turned out thick and creamy, and made Stacie D (
Maybe it is my love for self reliance, or my need to learn every fun craft that I can. Along with wine I also would like to learn how to make mead.
Today I want to talk about strawberry wine. I did not research anything, and I am just going on instinct. There is some information I picked up over the years, but nothing exact.
For this I used the following:
5 lbs Strawberry
water
sugar
Tools:
Large pot
strainers
measuring cup
funnel
blender
cleaned / used bottles
large balloon
I started by removing the stems from the strawberries and putting them in the blender.
When the blender was full I blended it to a liquid. I then poured the liquid into the large pot. I heated the liquid on low and added water. I add enough water to make the mixture rather liquidy. Not like water, but creamy. Once I got it to the consistancy I wanted, I added sugar. This again was not an exact measurement. I sweetened to taste. Meaning it was sour, and I made it sweet enough, and then alittle extra for the yeast to chew on.
I had premeasured the amount of liquid that I would need for each bottle. One was 2 1/2 cups and the other was 3 1/4. I poured the strawberry mix into the measuring cup and then added yeast. I added one full packet for the larger bottle, and 3/4 pack for the smaller.
I funneled the sweet mixture into each bottle. I added a large balloon to the top of each bottle. As the gases form the balloon will fill. As the fermenting is down the balloon will deflate.
They are just resting now. I will check them in a week when the balloon goes down. I will check for sweetness and taste. I will probably rack them and bottle them. There are plenty of tools to help to check alcohol levels, but this is a perfectly imperfect process. This is just what I have done, and I look forward to seeing how it goes.
I would love to hear about your creations.
Be well.
~The Yeti