Strawberry wine recipe

Based on the Wild Wine recipe at Gardening in a Gale; makes about 5L / 1 gallon.

Ingredients

• 1.2kg strawberries - ones that are about 2-3cm across, sweet, and about to go mushy are perfect. Eat the best berries!
• 1kg sugar (sucrose will make it a wetter wine)
• Wine yeast (champagne is a good choice)
• Yeast nutrient
• 1 teaspoon pectolase
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• Half a cup of tea or a bit of wine tannin (optional)
• Citric acid / 80ml lemon juice (optional)

No acid really added, as many strawberries are pretty acidic to start off with.

Instructions

Put the sugar in your bucket. Wash and chop the fruit, and weigh it. You needn't be too precise. Transfer the fruit into a muslin straining bag, on top of a clean plastic surface. Place the fruit bag on top of the sugar in the bucket, and cover it while you boil up just over 5L of water (to make up for the solid volumes which will be later thrown out). Stir it all vigourously to make sure the sugar's dissolved, then secure the top to keep out bacteria, and wait until it's cooled to room temperature. Once you're there, add cream of tartar, pectolase, yeast and yeast nutrient, plus tea / acid if you like.

If you'd like to measure OG, revise this part as follows: add pectolase, then wait 2-3 days. Wring out the bag thoroughly into the liquid (with sterile hands). Measure OG. Then continue with pitch yeast et al, as above.

After a week to ten days, take the bag, and (with sterile hands) wring it out as hard as you can into the liquid - don't waste a drop! Then transfer the liquid to a demijohn and keep it in a warm place to continue fermentation. It should be ready to rack after a few weeks.

Leave to mature - ready for drinking after racked; if I have patience, I may one day find out which month it peaks at! Should come out to a beautifully warm bright red.