Nothing says summer quite like a bowl of fresh, juicy strawberries that are in season.
If you’re a big fan of strawberries and are partial to a summer wine, then you’ll love this strawberry wine recipe that you can make at home.
While you’ll need to plan a year in advance, you can’t beat homemade wine. With its sweet flavor and aromatic flavor, strawberry wine is the perfect summer tipple.
In this article, I will give you a step-by-step guide on how to make delicious strawberry wine from the comfort of your home.
Keep reading to find out more.
Planning ahead is key
When making this easy recipe for homemade strawberry wine, you need to plan well in advance as this wine needs to age for a minimum of one year.
While this might sound like a long time, the waiting is arguably the easy part when you compare it to the steps of mashing, straining, and bottling your strawberry wine.
You’ll need to be patient to allow the wine to ferment. As a result, it’s best to make a batch when your strawberries are in season and wait until the following year to drink the wine!
Although you can theoretically drink it sooner, you’ll achieve a better result overall if you let the wine age properly.
A guide on how to make strawberry wine
Ingredients
- 7 pounds whole strawberries
- 5 pounds sugar
- 2 gallons boiling water
- 2 teaspoons wine yeast
- 1 lemon, juiced
Equipment you’ll need
- A large bowl
- Potato masher (to mash strawberries)
- A crock
- 2 x 1 gallon wine bottles
- A few cheesecloths
- A clean linen cloth
Instructions
- To begin, you’ll need to gather your ingredients before filling a kettle with water and put it on to boil. Alternatively, boil a large pan of water.
- Next, wash and hull the strawberries, removing the stems and any bits of leaf.
- Once you have hulled the strawberries, grab a large earthenware crock. Place the strawberries in and begin to mash the strawberries. You might find it easier to do this gradually – a handful at a time – to ensure that the strawberries are equally mashed.
- Once you have mashed all of the strawberries, cover them with boiling water.
- Add the lemon juice and quickly stir for about 2 minutes.
- Add the wine yeast, mixing it into the strawberry mash once it has cooled to 85° F.
- Next, you’ll need to take a clean linen cloth and cover the crock. Place the crock in a cool, dark place and let it rest to do its magic.
- Make sure that you check on the mixture each day, giving it a stir each day for one week.
- After one week, strain the mixture through a double-layer of cheesecloth into a large, clean bowl. Make sure to discard the strawberry pulp.
- Once you’ve strained the mixture out of the crock, it’s time to clean the crock thoroughly.
- In the large bowl, combine the strawberry liquid with the sugar, stirring it to dissolve the sugar.
- Pour the liquid into the clean crock and let it stand another week, stirring it daily.
- After the second week has passed, pour the strawberry liquid into 1-gallon glass wine bottles and cork them loosely. If you have fermentation locks, you can use those instead as opposed to a loose cork.
- Let the bottles rest in a cool, dark place for three months.
- When the wine is clear and no longer fermenting (bubbling), pour it into individual bottles.
Tips for making strawberry wine
- While you can use any strawberries of your choice for this recipe, the best flavor nuances will come from garden strawberries or wild strawberries. Alternatively, visit the farmer’s market in season (early summer in most regions) if you don’t grow your own strawberries.
- You’ll need to clear a space for the crock and the bottles in a dark, cool room for your strawberry wine to age.
- When it comes to bottling up your delicious wine, make sure that you label the bottles with the date. As the wine tastes better the longer you leave it, labeling the bottles ensures that you know when it’s time to enjoy the wine.
What does strawberry wine taste like?
Strawberry is a delectable flavor, and strawberry wine is no exception. Perfect for a summer evening, strawberry wine is light, sweet, and perfumey. Some people would even describe a well-made strawberry wine as sophisticated due to its aroma.
The strawberry flavor works in harmony with the wine to enhance its complexity. Strawberry wine is a great choice to make as a beginner, as it has the ability to taste delicious even when it’s completely dry.
This isn’t common for the majority of fruit wines, as they usually need to be sweetened a little to retain their fruity flavor.
Can I use bread yeast for making strawberry wine?
Some people choose to use regular baker’s bread yeast for making wine if it’s all they have, but I wouldn’t recommend it. When you’re going to the effort of making your own wine, you’ll want the result to be as delicious as possible.
The strains of yeast in wine yeast will create a much tastier final result. So, I’d recommend getting your hands on some wine yeast before you make the wine. You’ll thank me in the long run! You don’t want to wait a whole year to drink your wine for the bread yeast to ruin the taste.
Can you use fruit juice to make wine instead of the whole fruit?
Yes, you can use fruit juice to make wine. A lot of people save some time and skip the mashing and straining steps by choosing to use strawberry juice as an alternative.
However, you can’t beat the natural flavor of using the whole fruit. For the most authentic flavor, I recommend it for first-timers looking to create a delicious first batch of strawberry wine.
