Easy Strawberry Wine Recipe – Perfect for Beginners
This is our first year making strawberry wine, so I'm not sure exactly what our final product will be like, but the initial stages of the ferment smell wonderful and are packing quite a kick. Due to reader requests, I'm sharing the easy strawberry wine recipe we used.
It doesn't get much more straightforward than this unless you go wild – berries, sugar, yeast, acid, nutrient and water.
Make sure you use good quality berries. There are no tricks or other flavors to cover bad fruit here. Previously frozen berries should work as well as fresh, as long as they are nice and ripe. (Use them as soon as possible after thawing for best color.)
Easy Strawberry Wine Recipe
Adapted from Jack Keller's Winemaking page. Jack says about this wine, “The first is the simplest strawberry wine recipe I know of. Use only the sweetest, freshest berries and you'll be rewarded with an exquisite, delicate wine.”
Ingredients
- 3 pounds fresh strawberries
- 2 pounds granulated cane sugar
- 2 teaspoons citric acid or wine acid blend
- 5 pints clean water (non-chlorinated)
- 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
- 1 package of wine yeast
Directions
For a single batch, place strawberries, sugar and citric acid in a 2 gallon crock. (The berry mix will bubble in the early stages of fermentation and may rise out of a one gallon crock.)
Crush fruit with a potato masher or pastry blender. Cover berry/sugar mix with 5 pints boiling water.
Stir wine must with wooden spoon to dissolve sugar and simultaneously mash the strawberries.
When cooled to 85°F (29°C), add yeast and yeast nutrient. Cover and stir daily for seven days.
One the 7th day, strain through cheesecloth or a flour sack towel. Transfer to secondary fermentation vessel with airlock. (I used one gallon glass jugs. A carboy would also work.)
Add sterilized water to top up to one gallon of liquid and seal with a fermentation cap. (A fermentation cap is an airlock that allows carbon dioxide to escape but keeps oxygen out.)
Store out of direct sunlight for 30 days. Rack into a clean fermentation vessel. Store for 30 days more, rack again. Allow to settle 3-5 days and bottle when clear.
Age for at least 6 months. Flavor improves up to a year. From Jack's description, this looks like a wine that will not improve with much longer storage, so it's okay to enjoy it young.
Ingredients and Equipment List
To recap, you will need:
- Strawberries and sugar
- 2 gallon crock
- acid blend
- wine yeast
- yeast nutrient
- flour sack towel
- wooden spoon
- secondary fermentation vessel (gallon jar with airlock)
- wine siphon or siphon hose for racking
- empty wine bottles
- wine corks
- wine corker
A Note on Finding the Best Strawberries
The 2016 strawberry season was a bountiful one at our favorite local u-pick farm, Red Grouse Farm. Becky and her family spend long hours out in the berry patch, tending everything by hand so I don't have to. 😉
They don't use any herbicides or pesticides, and use holistic farming practices that build the soil instead of mining it like conventional farming.
Becky (the owner) and I had a great conversation about some of our favorite soil and permaculture gurus as she helped us fill our strawberry baskets for this wine.
I've had a number of readers ask why we don't grow our own strawberries. We have land, but strawberries are labor intensive, and since I have a source I trust close by, I support their efforts.
Meanwhile, we're focusing on crops I can't find elsewhere, and/or those that are more expensive, like blueberries, raspberries, gooseberries, aronia berries, bush cherries, seaberries, hardy kiwis and others.
Watch out for “Dirty” Berries
If at all possible, get your berries from someone you trust, and ask them what, if anything, they spray.
Conventional strawberries are on the Dirty Dozen list. The Environmental Working Group found 17 different pesticides on a single strawberry sample. There's no way I want to turn that into wine.
Organic strawberries may not be much better.
Recently, a neighbor of mine shared her own concerns about organic strawberries.
She used to buy a large carton of organic strawberries for her family at a local bulk foods club. One of the kids would clean and slice them when they were brought home, and they'd get eaten in a day or two.
This batch was different. No one in the family liked the taste, and eventually they were tossed to the chickens. The chickens refused to eat the organic strawberries.
It's no lab test, but it did me wonder what the heck was on those berries.
What's your favorite way to enjoy strawberries?
My youngest is a huge strawberry fan, so while they're in season we keep a big bowl in the fridge for fresh eating.
To enjoy them year round, I use the recipe in the post 12 Ways to Preserve Strawberries – Plus Tips to Keep Berries Fresh Longer.
We also enjoy:
What's your favorite way to enjoy strawberries? Leave me a comment and let me know!
PrintEasy Strawberry Wine
Add a little kick to your strawberry season! This homemade strawberry wine recipe comes together in minutes and is ready to enjoy in just a few months.
Ingredients
- 3 pounds fresh strawberries
- 2 pounds granulated cane sugar
- 2 teaspoons citric acid or wine acid blend
- 5 pints clean water (non-chlorinated)
- 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
- 1 package of wine yeast
Instructions
- For a single batch, place strawberries, sugar and citric acid in a 2 gallon crock. (The berry mix will bubble in the early stages of fermentation and may rise out of a one gallon crock.)
- Crush fruit with a potato masher or pastry blender. Cover berry/sugar mix with 5 pints boiling water.
- Stir wine must with wooden spoon to dissolve sugar and simultaneously mash the strawberries.
- When cooled to 85°F (29°C), add yeast and yeast nutrient. Cover and stir daily for seven days.
- One the 7th day, strain through cheesecloth or a flour sack towel. Transfer to secondary fermentation vessel with airlock.
- Add sterilized water to top up to one gallon of liquid and seal with a fermentation cap. (A fermentation cap is an airlock that allows carbon dioxide to escape but keeps oxygen out.)
- Store out of direct sunlight for 30 days. Rack into a clean fermentation vessel. Store for 30 days more, rack again. Allow to settle 3-5 days and bottle when clear.
- Age for at least 6 months. Flavor improves up to a year.
Notes
The option to double or triple the recipe will automatically double or triple the amount of yeast. This in not required. One package of yeast is enough to make up to five gallons of wine.
do you think frozen strawberries would work for this recipe?? I made one batch and it came out so good I would really like to do another… of course strawberry season is over in NY this time of year.
Sure, I don’t see why not. The color might not be as bright, but the flavor should be fine.
I did end up doing this and you were right! The color was more of a Rose wine but still came out delicious!!
Oh good! I’m so glad it worked out, and thanks for stopping back to let me know.
Hi!! Super excited to try this!! Im currently getting everything together I will need… I just want to clarify.. I see that I do not need to double the yeast when doubling the recipe but do I double the yeast nutrient?
You can if you want to, but it’s mainly to give the yeast a jump start, not strictly necessary.
Our store was out of wine yeast so I’m waiting for it to come in the mail (I do have the yeast nutrient and acid blend) but I’m worried my fresh picked strawberries won’t last that long. Can I add everything together and then in 2-3 days add the wine yeast to the fermenting strawberries? Or will that damage it in some way?? And sorry if I posted twice, I couldn’t find my original comment when I looked back for it
Hi Erica.
Comments are head for moderation until I have time to answer them to prevent spammers (and jackwagons) from trashing the site.
The risk with delaying adding the yeast is that you’ll get spoilage instead of fermenting. Sometimes wild yeast cooperates, sometimes not. By chance do you have some raisins on hand? If so, you can mix 10-12 raisins in at the same time you add the yeast nutrient. Raisins tend to be a reliable source of wild yeast that will ferment fruit.
The strawberries themselves should also have some wild yeast. To use the strawberry yeast, reserve a few clean berries. Do not wash them. Mash and add at the same time as you add the yeast nutrient. (Do not subject them to the boiling water or you kill the yeast.)
Wild yeasts tend to be less vigorous than commercial yeasts, and they have a higher risk of accidentally turning your brew into vinegar, but if you like what you see with using wild yeast only, you can skip the commercial yeast. I normally use the commercial yeast because it gives more consistent results.
Fresh picked berries should last a couple of days if refrigerated, but may start to turn more quickly if conditions are hot and humid.
This first time ever making wine where do I find the wine yeast?
If there is a home brewing store near you, they should carry items like wine yeast and yeast nutrient. If not, you can follow the links in the post to order online.
Lalvin wine yeast link
Thank you for answering my questions. Last one if you have time.. do you think 30 days is a good amount of time to leave in the gallon jugs before transferring back into the wine bottles? Sorry to be a bother.
If you add sugar or juice, 60 days may be safer.
Wonderful! I’ll move the wine from the bottles back to gallon jugs that I used. Since I’ve lost 2 bottles of wine, should I top off the wine with sterilized water/sugar water to fill that gap or is it too late? I know the 8 bottles of wine wont fit into one gallon jug.
Thank you in advance
There are three options.
If you are just a little short, you can add some water.
Otherwise, add sugar water or juice with complementary or neutral flavor, like white grape juice.
Hi there! I began making this recipe on October 5th and currently have the wine in the gallon jugs for the first time. I made a double batch and when I transferred the liquid to the 2- gallon jugs, there was a little space where I added the sterilized water to top off the jug. Since they’ve been sitting for a few days, I can see when I rack them after 30 days there’s going to be more dead space in the jug when I leave all the sediment at the bottom. Do I add more sterilized water to the gallon jug like before? I hope this makes sense..
Thanks in advance!
Hi Karen. You have a few different options. If you think the wine is strong enough, you can add a little more sterilized water. If you think the brew could use a boost, boil some sugar water, let it cool, and top off with that. Option #3 is clear juice, such as strawberry juice (no pulp) or white grape juice.
HI Laurie, thank you so much for answering my first question. Now I have another one… lol. I bottled my wine on December 19, 2019 and I was pretty confident that I’d followed all the directions correctly. Now I’m thinking that’s not the case. On December 25th one of the bottles blew, kind of like a rocket. I was hoping that would be the only one. Nope.. it happened again the night before last. Now I’m down to 8 bottles and I’m slightly afraid of them! Should I put uncork all the wine an put it back in the fermentation vessel with airlock for another 30 days? Will this hurt the wine?
Please help!!
Thank you
Karen
If they are still that active, yes, retreat back to the fermenter with airlock. Better safe than exploding. Try to use fermentation vessels that don’t have too much head space above the level of the wine. You want that space above the wine to fill with CO2 as the wine outgasses.
For instance, it’s best to avoid a gallon jug that’s only half full.
Did you take gravity readings? I’m wondering what your final gravity was?
I probably should make time to learn to take readings, but I go by taste and share with friends who are happy to sample everything.
Thinking about doing something like this. Do you think mason quarts with fermenting lids would work for the secondary container in this recipe? We use them for kimchi. Ours are the eden farmhouse essentials lids.
Maybe. Last season I had too much wine to fit in a gallon carboy and tried using to mason jars for the overflow (one dandelion wine, one pear). The dandelion turned out okay, but the pear spoiled and I don’t know why, as the air lock stayed intact.
I currently have a batch fermenting on the second stage and it smelt good during the first. I was wondering though can you use this same recipe for blackberries. Would like to try that next.
I’m sure you could, but if you’re interested in experimenting more with simple country wines, I’d highly recommend the book Wild Wine Making. He has recipes for blackberry, blackberry-peach and blackberry-rhubarb. The blackberry wine uses 3 pounds blackberries, 1 gallon water, 3 pounds sugar and 1 packet of wine yeast.
I made this last night. I tripled the recipe and used 3 packages of yeast. I now notice on the back of the yeast pack it states that one pack will make 5 gallons. Have I used to much yeast?
Yep. It’ll likely be okay, but be prepared for vigorous fermentation.
It is still the same amount of yeast per gallon per the recipe. In your expert opinion should I do anything different now or continue to follow the recipe?
Thank you love your web page.
Sorry about the mix up. The software I use to make the recipes printable had an update since I first posted the recipe, and it automatically doubles or triples all ingredients and I can’t adjust the settings. I did add a note about the yeast.
I’d continue with the recipe as normal. I don’t expect anything odd other than extra vigorous fermentation. You have yeast, you have sugar, the yeasts eat the sugar and make booze. The wine can only reach a certain alcohol level, and then the yeasts die off.
If you think you’d like to experiment more with homemade wines and want an extremely easy to follow book with the most straightforward explanations of fermenting that I have found to date, I highly recommend Richard Bender’s Wild Winemaking. He breaks the process down and makes it easy to understand. His recipes are fun. He covers the basics, plus lots of interesting twists. The paperback version is on sale right now. Richard really is an expert. Me? I’m a casual wine maker as opportunities present themselves. I let the yeast, sugar and fruit do the work. As long as you follow a few simple rules, you can make wine out of almost anything – even quackgrass roots. (That one tasted sort of like Japanese plum wine.)